Employee Engagement: Sports, A Mainstream Trend for Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is the affection and spirit that employees have to give their best to the organization to serve the customers (Cook, 2008).

In other words, it is about how employees feel passionate about their work and are committed to the success of the organization. Sports, such as teamwork and team-building push employees away from their comfort zone, without work-related stress, which comes with a field but has a fun aspect.

This blog discusses how organizations use sports to keep their employees engaged.

Sports are excellent for both socializing and competition. It can be used to motivate your employees to work engagement. Organizations invest heavily in employee benefits and are constantly looking for new ways.

Here are some reasons to introduce an office sports day,

1. It allows your team to get to know each other better

2. It promotes healthy competition among the employees

3. It enhances productivity and concentration levels

4. It is an opportunity to identify new skills 

5. It helps inject a boost of fun into your workplace 

6. It takes all authorities to one place

Employee Engagement through Sports in Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, most organizations work on how to engage their employees in effective ways. 

When it comes to the Banking sector, employees will get quite a good remuneration package, which has included high salary, overtime payments, and at least two bonus payments annually, and incentive payments. These all facilities give to satisfy their employees and as an employee engagement method.

Employee involvement does not mean employee satisfaction. A satisfied employee can work daily 9-to-5 without complaint. But that "satisfied" employee may not be working hard enough, and he'll probably take the headhunter's call luring her away with a 10% bump in pay. Satisfying isn't enough (Kevin, 2012).

Banking is a daily routine job and a more stressful job, each and every bank try to break this trend. so many banks have started ensuring sports as a part of their annual schedule event list. They pay more special attention to their outdoor and indoor sports activities to generate a sense of sportsmanship and team spirit, which further enhances engagement within the organization. as well as it gives real success for the organizations to build unity and employee engagement towards work and contributes to employee retention and loyalty towards the company.

“We always think outside the box when it comes to employee involvement. As a technology company, we have gone beyond the cricket tournament and included an additional social aspect utilizing our internal social network Yammer that really engaged our employees” (Dharmaratne, 2017).

Bottom line

Employee engagement is an organizational effort that requires a long-term perspective on the context of a business plan if it is to improve productivity and retention rates.

Organizations have to identify what their company needs and develop the right strategy. Only then should you focus on how to measure employee engagement and what tasks you should perform.

References 

Cook, S., (2008). The Essential Guide to Employee Engagement, Better Business Performance through Staff satisfaction,1st ed. London: Kogan Page Limited.

Dharmaratne, C., (2017, November 1). Daily news, home page, Retrieved September 21, 2019, from Daily news. http://www.dailynews.lk/2017/11/01/business/133080/driving-positive-employee-engagement-through-sports (Accessed on  28/07/2021).

Kevin,  K., (2012).  How to Motivate Your Team for High Performance.

Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rAO4o4mm5CU