Study: March Madness to Negatively Affect American Productivity

Online-meetings software provider TeamViewer has released the findings of its survey undertaken to determine the affects of March Madness basketball on the behavior of office workers. The survey found that 73 percent Americans will attempt to keep track of the games during office hours. The most popular means of keeping updated was determined to be online sports news sites (52 percent), followed by updates via a mobile device (37 percent), online streaming clips and news (32 percent), a television on at work (21 percent), and online streaming of full-length games (19 percent).

The study discovered that 45 percent of workers will spend at least one hour each work day tracking game progression and 8 percent expect to spend at least five hours following the games. Additionally, 42 percent of respondents reported that the tournament will affect their productivity. The proposed solution by the majority of employees? Get companies to sponsor related activities and bracket challenges. Some of the benefits of such activities listed by respondents included:

• Perceiving their company as a more pleasant workplace (57 percent);

• Feeling more like part of a team (56 percent);

• Increased loyalty (46 percent); and

• Reduced absenteeism (44 percent).

Holger Felgner, General Manager at TeamViewer said, “The study clearly shows that March Madness will have a big impact on the workplace, and it’s interesting to see how a company can benefit by participating in, rather than getting in the way of, the events.”