Creating Culture in the Hybrid Sports Workplace
How has the shift to remote-first culture impacted the sports and entertainment industry? After 2 years of empty arenas and even emptier offices, our industry is now on the leading edge of the new workplace culture.
Before 2020, remote work was the norm for less than 6% of US employees prior to the pandemic. Now it’s believed that 25% of all US jobs will be remote by the end of 2022.
Now here’s The Breakdown of how to design your workplace culture to unlock new opportunities enabled by remote work, while still capturing that in-person magic that our sports and entertainment are most known for creating.
1/ Create a function-by-function culture
While the remote tools are the same for us all, not all functions within your organization have the same needs.
What functions would benefit from a remote-first mindset?
A good place to start would be to consider roles in which the majority of work is technical or client-specific.
Software Engineering
Sales and Partnerships
Video Editing and Graphics
Recruiting and HR
Finance
Interns may be the ones benefiting the most from the shift to remote positions, clearing the way for them to get paid or earn college credit in the process. Now students who are looking for sports internships are being offered roles that have shifted from always being on-site, to helping organizations from the comfort of their own schools.
What roles would benefit from an in-person focus?
A good place to start would be to consider the roles which require collaboration across departments, including strategic messaging for your organization.
Marketing and communication
Game operations
While remote meetings can create efficiency, the collaboration between team members and the experience of curating an in-stadium experience can be difficult to replicate. As a result, it is valuable to reserve space for these functions to interact and engage in the “contact sport” of creating memorable and lasting experiences.
2/ Invest in Community-Building Technology
- Group video, and general chat room, services have become the norm for meetings. There’s a platform for everyone, whether that’s Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat and Google Meet, Slack, CLEAR, Connecteam, SimpleTexting, Troop Messenger, Beekeeper, Rocket.Chat, Flock, Ring Central, and Wire.
- Speaking of Google, the growth of the search engine has made working from home a true reality. Many organizations have shifted to using Google’s platform of programs, including Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Calendar, Google Photos, Google Slides, and Google Contacts.
- Artificial Intelligence services have also aided sports organizations. There have been AI systems helping referees, working inside scouting departments, computing algorithm predictions for sports betting, assisting ticket offices, and even automating sports stories.
- Text programs like Vozzi and ReplyBuy have specifically linked themselves to the sports world through ticketing. When ticket offices were shut down, services like these could send out mass texts for games, promotions, and data-capture surveys.
- Drone cameras were around before the pandemic, but they are being used on a different scale now for sports organizations. Once used to get the best in-game videos and stills, drones are also being used as Video Assistant Referees, as well as for data collection.
The beauty of these advancements is that while they were most necessary during the pandemic, most are still being relied upon now as some sports-industry workers return to their offices. And considering the employees coming back into the office, have you thought of the best practices to bring them back?
3/ Maintain Flexibility & Resilience
- Embrace hybrid work. The hybrid model may be the best practice moving forward, seeing as some sports job functions do not always need to be handled from an in-person perspective. But remote work can also limit what one can do if parts of the role need to be managed in person.
- Be flexible. Working with employees on respective hybrid schedules is important in giving them a level of freedom being out of the office, but it also ensures that your organization is not solely operating remotely.
- Modify expectations based on function/need. If you have some roles that cannot operate in a remote fashion, make sure staff is being taken care of. For example, rather than only having in-person meetings, maybe those on stadium grounds crews or guest service assistants (who will be in-person for many game-day duties!) can have virtual staff meetings at other times during their workdays.
- Consider the benefits of remote work, not just the drawbacks. Remote work may not always be the best practice, but think about the possibilities it can bring. Commuting alone can sometimes take 1–2 hours a day for your team. Now imagine that they can use that time productively. And while sometimes life gets in the way of work when a team member is remote, technology has progressed so much that it can help connect companies even when people are not available in a physical sense.
Conclusion:
If a role only needs internet access, what’s holding you back from allowing that role to be remote or hybrid? Instead of missing a day of work while stuck traveling back from a conference, being able to work while you may be dealing with a minor illness, or even coming back sooner from maternity/paternity leave, working remotely is not as big of a hindrance as it was perceived to be years ago.
The question is, though, are you willing to adjust with the times? Organizations in the sports world had a shockwave sent their way in 2020, but it’s also brought along a willingness to change the working world as we know it.
There’s no question that some roles in sports need to be in person. But do they all need to be? The numbers would indicate not!
