Sport plays an important function in modern society. As well as providing us with entertainment, it provides an outlet for physical exercise, for community-building, and for getting outdoors.
Not everyone who takes up a sport is destined to become an elite-level athlete. You might not be the next Mohammed Salah, but you can still do yourself a great deal of good while wearing his replica shirt.
Why should business get involved in sport?
In the world of business, sport can play a particular role in team-building. Research indicates that around 50% of men and 40% of women reckon that employees could encourage staff to watch and participate in sport together as a means of team building.
Around half of those polled believed that sport carried important lessons that could be applied more broadly. The value of teamwork, the analysis of what makes for a good player in a team sport, and the importance of collective responsibility and individual application.
What about an office sports day?
When we leave school, many of us tend to leave behind competitive sports. Some people, it is assumed, are not quite as ‘sporty’ as others. This is a shame, since many of those at the bottom of this perceived ‘ladder of fitness’ are the ones that can benefit the most from trying to maintain it.
Team-based sports in the office will help everyone to get to know one another, and provide a context for cooperation that extends outside the workplace. If you’re used to interacting with a colleague only in a specific (often negative) context, then it might be easy to react to them in a certain way.
You might think of a manager in another department who only ever emails you when something has gone wrong. If you enjoy a social relationship with this person, then your negative feelings toward them might dissipate. Team sports can help to accomplish this.
Productivity benefits
When workers participate in team sports together, they might find themselves picking up skills that can be transferred to work. More than that, physical exercise confers mental health benefits, too. A workout produces a rush of endorphins that can stave off depression, and boost concentration in the long-term. If you’re committed to team sports at a given time, in a given place, every week, then you’ll have a social incentive to stick with the habit – which means that you’re more likely to persist than if you were just going to the gym.
Employers have an opportunity to support the physical health of their workers through sport – and, often, it’s an opportunity that’s easily taken!
