September 8, 2011 12:00:00 am

Fantasy football boosts employee morale, but could cost businesses big bucks

By Eric Kidd

With the kick-off of the 2011 NFL season just hours away, it’s important to remember what football season is all about – eating massive amounts of buffalo wings, hats that dispense your favorite beverage, and yes, of course, fantasy football.

The semi-annual Challenger, Gray & Christmas publicity stunt, er, survey (they also do a similar survey for the NCAA basketball tournament in March) has been released, detailing exactly how much employee’s time spent on researching and adjusting their fantasy football lineups affects the businesses that they work for, and the numbers aren’t pretty.

Fantasy sports players have increased by 60 percent over the past four years to more than 32 million, couple that with the fact that the Fantasy Sports Trade Association has documented that 19 percent of U.S. full-time workers have played fantasy sports in the last year, and you can approximate about 21,235,000 employees playing fantasy sports. Fantasy football is by far the most popular of the fantasy sports, with over 80 percent of fantasy sports participants playing each year.

Upward of nine hours per week can be spent planning and plotting team strategies. With many of these fantasy sports players playing in multiple leagues (averaging 2.5 per participant), one can readily identify why employers are concerned about the overall effects on the workplace.
But employers need not worry, according to the survey. In a 2006 Ipsos survey, 40 percent of respondents said fantasy sports participation was a positive influence in the workplace, while another 40 percent said it increased camaraderie among employees. One in five said their involvement in fantasy sports actually facilitated in making a valuable business contact.

“Companies that not only allow workers to indulge in fantasy football, but actually encourage it by organizing company leagues are likely to see significant benefits in morale as well as productivity,´ said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “In the long run, this may lead to increased employee retention.”

Given the boost to morale and the negligible disruptions in the workplace, more managers may soon be asking, “Should we start a fantasy football league for the office?”

And that, my friends, is a beautiful thing.