Abstract

If you’re a sports fan–or even if you’re not–there’s something powerful in watching a team of people work together for a common goal. Each member has their role to play, sometimes out in the spotlight and sometimes on the side-lines, but regardless of their position, they are pushing one another forward, towards their collective definition of success.

The same can be easily related to the corporate world where all the employees work as a team to achieve the common goal of the organisation. Some employees are very outspoken who take due credit of their contribution and some work silently to just see the fruitful result.

Sports can be used to develop the team-spirit among the employees and to weed out any element of negative competition so that the organisation goals are achieved along with contentment among employees of the corporation.

Keywords

Sports & HR, Team-spirit, Organisation Goal, Healthy Workplace

Main Content

Sports should be promoted at workplace at all levels. Sports can inculcate number of good qualities in an individual which will emerge as an organisational strength in long run. Promotion of sports at workplace must not be limited to creating a recreation room at workplaces, it must be made part of the organisation culture starting from induction of an employee till superannuation. Some of the suggestions for the purpose is as detailed further.

• Talent Acquisition: Every organisation has an induction module for the new joiners in the organisation where they are given an overview of the organisational goals and vision along with some inputs about area of work etc. This is the most effective time to introduce sports as part of the organisation culture. Team sports activities like football, volleyball etc. should be mandatory during the induction module on similar lines to the army camps. Efforts should be to develop a sport as hobby of the employee and development of team spirit and leadership qualities among themselves.

• Happy Workplace: Indoor and outdoor games must be part of the office schedule where junior and senior level employees get a chance to team-up leaving behind all the hierarchical hesitations. This will help create an atmosphere of exposure in the organisation. Seniors will get to know the strengths and weaknesses of the juniors. Also, juniors will get the confidence to share their views to their seniors. This will result into lots of new ideas being discussed and implemented in the organisation and this will help organisation in deploying right person for the right job.

• Performance management: We all know the amount of attention that professional sports put on performance. There are diagnostic tools, analyses, and sports analysts dissecting the player as well as the game down to the micro level. Your performance management system should be no different. Like professional athletes have an area of specialty, so too do your employees. Maximize their strengths and work on the gaps as it relates to their role and the team’s overall success. Leaders, like coaches and team managers, must know the strengths of their employees and make time to help them develop as professionals. Annual tournaments and competitions could be held in the organisation and employee’s performance should be rated and included in the annual performance appraisal system of the organisation.

Declaration

The content is original and unpublished/ or not under consideration for publication with other journals.