Remember the perfect moment when the “L” of the word “London” rolled off the tongue of International Olympics Committee chief Jacques Rogge as the host for the 2012 Games was revealed? Six years have now passed. That time skips by so quickly should prompt us to start planning our HR strategy for the Games next summer.

The Games are potentially a huge benefit for organisations. Some businesses will gain directly through increased revenue. Many more organisations will see a boost in team morale, born of the collective experience of watching a feast of world-class sport or through enhanced national pride.

But the arrival of the Games does pose several HR questions.

Game for compromise?

First, many managers will find themselves with requests for time off from staff who want to volunteer at the Games. Those successful in winning volunteer roles will find out before April 2012. They must volunteer for at least 10 days – or 20 if they want to cover the Paralympic Games too. Add in three days’ training and the candidate selection day and employers could be facing requests for the best part of five weeks’ leave from top volunteers.

Volunteering is generally good for team development and should, in principle, be encouraged. Yet remember that the Olympics fall in the school holidays – already a very popular time for employees to take annual leave – so you need a strategy.

While employees have the right to unpaid leave for roles such as school governorships, they have no legal right to leave for volunteering at sports events. Indeed, no matter how worthy they consider the cause, many employers will be unable to offer time off for volunteers. Those that can offer time off should have a policy to limit the amount of days workers can take and the notice required for leave requests. The policy should be applied consistently to all employees, with a possible exception for those still in their probationary period.

Morale support

So, where should the leave come from? It is usually unpaid, but employers who wish to encourage volunteering may offer special paid leave for the Games. Consider leave-matching – let employees take, say, five days of special paid or unpaid leave as long as they match it with five days from their holiday allowance.

Beyond those staff who may apply for volunteering leave, tens of thousands more will want to watch showpiece events, which can clash with working hours. The key thing here is for managers to be accommodating and sensible. I heard of one City firm that, during the last FIFA World Cup, warned staff that no time off would be granted to watch the England game that took place during working hours and that anyone caught watching it on their computer screen or smartphone would be disciplined. The result of such a harsh approach is very likely to be mass disobedience, a counterproductive round of disciplinary action and a suppression of team morale – especially if the same workers put in unpaid extra time anyway.

Better, if you can, to offer flexibility to staff – let them trade shorter lunch breaks or earlier starts for pockets of downtime when they can watch key events. Communicate clear rules as to what is, and what is not, allowed. To avoid confusion, keep a record of when staff are varying their hours.

Finally, many of your staff may not be sports fans and will have no interest in the Games. Indeed, non-sports fans may be invaluable in holding the fort during showpiece events. So, to be fair, can you offer them flexibilities at another time in recompense?

However you play it, managing Olympic staffing is, like the Games themselves, all about giving everyone a fair run.

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