Top Strategies to Enjoy March Madness with Your Colleagues

The season has come around once more. Easter treats have taken over the Valentine’s discount aisle, the groundhog has forecast six more winter weeks, and references to online brackets and “selection Sunday” are surfacing everywhere. You suspected correctly—March Madness is here.

Each spring, the NCAA Division 1 men’s basketball championship, popularly called March Madness, takes place. This exciting single-elimination tournament features 68 college basketball teams from across the nation. An estimated 70 million individuals attempt to predict the winning team by filling out a bracket annually. It’s clear why this could be a migraine-inducing dilemma for supervisors striving to maintain something akin to efficiency, especially exacerbated in the post-Covid rise of remote work (don’t pretend you wouldn’t also be in pajama bottoms supporting your teams during work hours if you had the chance).

Roughly 2.5 million workers view online coverage of the NCAA basketball tournament yearly. Additionally, they dedicate about 90 minutes a day to consuming championship-related content.

March Madness at Work: Embrace It or Ignore It?

No matter if you choose to recognize it or not, your team will be watching the matches and verifying their brackets, even if they must do it discreetly. This presents you with a decision: do you elevate your stress levels by trying to continuously eradicate all sports-related disturbances? Or could this serve as a yearly occasion to strengthen your team’s camaraderie? We believe the decision is clear (high stress levels = unfavorable), and here’s the reasoning:

The Benefits of Celebrating March Madness

• Employee Retention

Nationwide labor shortages emphasize the importance of maintaining your current staff for the prosperity of your enterprise. Adopting workplace engagement tactics such as celebrating March Madness assists in keeping your workforce enthusiastic and involved. March Madness yields endorphins, which foster happiness—contented employees aren’t prone to leave their jobs.

• Boost Employee Spirits 

There’s no magic solution for enhancing worker morale, yet numerous minor initiatives can make a difference. Putting morale at risk can undeniably lead to disengagement and a spike in employee turnover. Seize the chance to nurture a company where people are keen to be employed!

• Practice What You Preach 

We often hear how organizations value their employees and their mental well-being, but witnessing these claims in action is a different matter. Demonstrate through actions, not just dialogue, that you prioritize a balanced work-life harmony. Your staffers aren’t machines—acknowledge that you realize this. 

• Highlight Company Values

To instill a sense of community among your workforce, they must comprehend what they are part of. The company’s culture provides insight into a business’s values and priorities (for instance, celebrating events dear to employees), and can stimulate motivation and greater job satisfaction. 

• A Perpetual Gift 

By seizing opportunities that unite your team, you’ll discover they naturally relish coming to work more. This positively impacts productivity and involvement, lingering well past the few weeks of collegiate basketball. 

10 Strategies to Celebrate March Madness with Colleagues

If you’ve determined that a temporary lapse in productivity is worthwhile for what your company gains in return, continue reading! To assist you in getting started (pun intended), We’ve assembled a list of 10 excellent ways to celebrate March Madness with your colleagues:

1. Organize a Cashless Office Pool

Completing a bracket is among the most anticipated moments in the context of March Madness. Once selection Sunday occurs and the NCAA bracket is disclosed, everyone rushes to outline their forecasts. Whether you’re well-versed in college basketball or choosing teams randomly, the universal excitement remains identical. Office brackets are a tradition that many eagerly await each year. Encourage your team members, whether in-office or remote, to fill out a bracket (download a complimentary 2023 one here) and then form an office pool, observing how everyone’s predictions unfold amidst some lighthearted rivalry. Instead of inviting legal issues with betting, provide cashless rewards for the winning bracket like gift vouchers, leave, or event tickets. 

Bonus: Extend the challenge to family members! Witness Jessica’s young daughter outsmart the most knowledgeable basketball enthusiast in your office simply by choosing teams based on her preferred colors. 

2. Fully Commit

If you’re doing it, why not go all out? Gather your tape and ruler to create a large temporary bracket on your workplace wall, visible to all. Select various March Madness-inspired themes for tape and decorations to emphasize the bracket in the workplace. Beyond listing all the team names, print photos of each colleague, updating their rank regularly based on their bracket success. Many workers claim they don’t follow the tournament, but 60% admit to joining at least one office pool, so it’s crucial to find ways to make it engaging. The setup might be labor-intensive, but word about your remarkable DIY bracket will likely spread swiftly. Be cautious, though, as this could become your defining legacy, with annual pleas for its creation.

3. Inkspired Gifts Recognition 

Prepare a personalized congratulatory Inkspired Gifts

solely devoted to the tournament champion as a March Madness reward. Exchange your typical “congrats!” (mundane) for something more captivating. Encourage everyone in the workplace to add to the board by composing an “ode to the champion” style poem or haiku, and then narrate it aloud to the team during your upcoming gathering. You might also have it printed into a poster to display somewhere in the office as the “current victor” until the next March Madness arrives.

4. Amusement & Recreation

Let’s face it, the months following Christmas can seriously dampen our spirits. These few weeks of basketball in March provide an excellent opportunity to revitalize your zombie-like staff by organizing entertaining team-building exercises and challenges. Even those who don’t find basketball thrilling will be captivated by them:

• Share daily trivia (sports-related or otherwise) that can earn extra points toward bracket standings

• Develop a bingo card of things to look out for during the tournament and have smaller rewards set aside just for bingo victors.

• Enhance your tape abilities from the wall bracket to a homemade free throw line on the ground. Each day, draw an employee’s name from a bag to take a shot into a basket or trash can to earn snacks or a complimentary lunch.

• Involve remote workers by organizing a daily bonus period where everyone can log on and play trivia virtually.

5. Leading the Line

Recalling elementary school, when your teacher designated a student to be the line leader each day? Close your eyes and let that feeling of MVP-like significance wash over you momentarily. You can rekindle that nostalgia in your March Madness festivities with a similar concept. Given that your employees’ bracket standings will fluctuate daily, the employee at the top spot by a set time (say lunchtime, for example) receives an extra hour for lunch or is granted Spotify access to play their music of choice for the afternoon.

6. Virtual Social Hour

Happy hour has been a tradition among colleagues for quite some time—and rightly so. Building friendships with team members is a major way to enhance morale and achievement in your organization. When the pandemic lockdowns disrupted that activity, many turned to something that remote workers had already embraced: virtual social hour. It serves as an excellent way to utilize the tournament activities to fortify your remote-working teams even when you’re not meeting in person.

7. Workspace Viewing Areas

Depending on the layout of your office, try setting up a viewing area where individuals can come to watch the matches. About 2.5 million employees dedicate over an hour watching the games during March Madness, so finding ways to manage it on your own terms is a clever tactic. Your staff is accustomed to decorating the office for a birthday, but witnessing decorations for a viewing party is a fresh approach to getting them excited and involved. Even if only for brief moments between meetings and calls, it still creates a sense of community within the group and allows for enjoyable discussions to foster friendships.

8. Style Show

Even if you aren’t keen on making March Madness a grand event in your office, temporarily altering the dress code is a straightforward way to still enjoy some of the benefits we mentioned earlier. How we dress is an integral aspect of our lives, which means you can truly let your employee’s personalities shine by making this part of your festivities. Encourage people to don their preferred team colors or jerseys, dress as their anticipated winner, highlight their team’s mascot in their ensemble, or even just permit a day to dress down in something comfy and relaxed.

9. Engage Your Customers

If your business entertains customers or clients in your office, involve them to make them feel part of your work culture. Consider options such as hosting a separate bracket pool exclusively for customers, providing a certain discount on products during the tournament weeks, or a bingo sheet they can take home and return once completed. Coloring competitions are another wonderful way to involve children!

10. Have Your Cake and Enjoy It

Literally! Organize a “March Madness” themed cake competition or plan a potluck featuring everyone’s snacks and appetizers. You could have a local eatery cater lunch or choose a classic pizza party option. As the teams narrow down to the final four, have your own contest where 4 dishes go head to head with only one claiming victory. Whatever you decide, just ensure there’s food involved! While this is an excellent standalone option, we highly recommend combining it with any of the other suggestions on this list for an infinitely better experience for all involved.

Summary

Deciding to embrace the chaos this season can be challenging and often leads to temporarily lower productivity levels. However, the benefits your business gains, especially in the long term, can outweigh any financial objectives. Try one or more of these ideas and see if diving into the madness this March turns out to be one of your best decisions yet.

Common Queries About March Madness

How does March Madness function?

The term “March Madness” refers to the NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Tournament held in the United States in March. This single-elimination tournament invites 68 college teams nationwide to compete for the NCAA Men’s Basketball title. It starts on “Selection Sunday,” announcing all 68 teams, and the tournament is divided into four regions. Each region has 16 teams ranked based on their standings. Throughout each round, teams face off and are progressively eliminated, with victors advancing to the next round. Once the last two teams remain, they compete in the Championship Game, where one earns the title.

Are March Madness pools lawful?

This answer varies depending on the type of pools being held and their location. Office pools among family and friends without monetary transactions are generally not illegal. When money is exchanged, or significant prizes are given, it can fall under “gambling” in some regions and might be deemed unlawful. Check the local laws before forming office pools to avoid legal consequences.

What are some March Madness workplace contest ideas?

• Bracket competitions
• Predicting the final four or winners (for workplaces where completing full brackets is challenging)
• Best costume awards
• DIY group commercials featuring team mascots
• Luck draws where entries are awarded for achieving specific work goals

What kinds of March Madness activities are suitable for seniors?

• Viewing gatherings with delectable food and beverages
• Create team jerseys
• Various bracket challenges
• Seated basketball games
• College basketball trivia