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By Don Reisinger on 2011-03-18
Every year, basketball fans become obsessed with the NCAA March Madness tournament, accessing broadcasts and the latest stats via TVs, computers and mobile deices. How can you blame them? The annual event has the top college basketball teams in the country competing to be named the nation's best. Chances are, you're among those who are immersed in the 2011 NCAA right now. But, from a productivity standpoint, March Madness isn't so much fun, especially for CIOs who need to manage demand on corporate networks and appropriate use of corporate devices. Over the next three weeks -- and especially during the next week when games will be played during work hours -- you’ll be spending an inordinate amount of time ensuring employees are doing what they should be doing -- working -- and not what they shouldn’t be doing -- watching the games. In addition to online streaming of games, CBS Sports is also offering free NCAA mobile apps. Some of you may wonder whether trying to stop employees from watching NCAA March Madness at work is really worth the trouble. A recent study from outplacement agency Challenger, Gray, and Christmas, Inc., may well help you decide. The organization finds that productivity takes a big hit during March Madness.
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8.4 million hoursU.S. workers will collectively spend 8.4 million hours watching March Madness games from their offices, according to the Challenger, Gray, and Christmas study.
$192 millionMultiply those 8.4 million hours by the average hourly earnings of $22.87 among private-sector workers, and the financial impact in the private sector exceeds $192 million, according to Challenger, Gray, and Christmas.
$1.8 billionThe Challenger, Gray and Christmas study estimates that $1.8 billion was paid in wages in 2010 to people who didn’t perform their work because they were watching games in the office.
8.3 million streamsYour employees can easily stream NCAA games over the Web. Last year, according to Challenger, Gray and Christmas, 8.3 million people streamed games from the Internet.
11.7 million hoursThose who streamed games over the Web collectively spent a total of 11.7 million hours viewing online in 2010. That averages about 1.4 hours per person, and represents a 36 percent gain over March Madness 2009, according to Challenger, Gray and Christmas.
Mobility's riseWith CBS Sports expanding its reach this year by providing free mobile apps, Challenger estimates that total viewership will increase to 14 million hours in 2011, a 20 percent increase over 2010.
The first four days80 percent of the streaming viewership occurred during the first four days of the tournament.
Keep it in perspectiveOver the three weeks of the tournament, the nation's 108 million workers will have logged more than 11 billion hours of work. The 8.4 million hours lost to March Madness account for less than one-tenth of one percent (about 0.07 percent) of the total hours American workers will put in over the three weeks of the tournament, says Challenger.
Every office is differentFor an office with 50 to 100 workers, five or 10 workers streaming basketball games will definitely have an impact on everyone else’s Internet speed, according to the Challenger report.
What can you do? 1. Start blocking sites that will stream the games.
2. Prohibit the use of NCAA apps on mobile devices.
3. Keep a close eye on employee activity to see if anyone is breaking the rules.
4. Conversely, you can go ahead and let everyone have their fun, with the understanding that it's back-to-business once March Madness ends.
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