Office pool table perk is causing productivity problem

Straight-talking, common sense from the front line of management

Q

We recently got a pool table in the breakout room for our staff to enjoy – the problem is that it’s become such a hit our people are extending their lunch break to play every game to a finish and productivity is suffering as a result. I don’t want to remove the pool table given its popularity, but how do I get everyone back to work on time?

A

I like your story, it demonstrates how enlightened ideas and good intentions are in danger of being quickly quashed by conventional thinking. In a world where management is dominated by governance, regulations and best practice, the prizes should go to entrepreneurs with the courage to do things their way. Your pool table comes into that category.

You will soon discover a way to get your colleagues back to work on time. If a face-to-face chat doesn’t do the trick, buy a big alarm clock that rings loudly at the end of lunchtime and marks the close of the session – the match in progress is declared to be a tie, everyone downs cues and goes back to work. It may help if you supply one of the regular players with a red and yellow card and ask them to take on a timekeeping role.

I hope this episode hasn’t put you off from putting more perks into your workplace – enlightened leaders provide a lot more than a comfortable desk and a water cooler. If your breakout space isn’t big enough to squeeze in a table tennis table and a dartboard, make the room bigger, make it available outside offices hours and pay some of the cost of joining a local league.

Pioneers of colleague support showed inspirational vision over 100 years ago. John Spedan Lewis, Lord Leverhulme and George Cadbury all had the foresight to provide extra benefits to their employees. My grandfather built a sports ground next to our shoe factory in Kettering with tennis courts, a bowling green and a cricket pitch (my father kept wicket for the Timpson XI in the 1930s). But we never had a problem at lunchtime – colleagues played after hours and at weekends – use during weekdays was restricted to pensioners.

In the 1960s I was impressed by the way M&S offered its staff medical services, including dentistry, chiropodists and subsidised hairdressing. The John Lewis Partnership did much the same as well as acquiring hotels to act as company holiday homes. For many potential work colleagues the extra benefits were a major attraction

These days, some people criticise companies that are seen as being “paternal” (a term that may not be acceptable today) but, in my experience, colleagues love being appreciated in a tangible way. Non-pay elements of the employment package have an important part to play.

But I must admit I thought my son, James, had overstepped the mark 15 years ago when his major office makeover included a gym, complete with swimming pool.

In truth it was a tiny wave pool where you got your exercise by swimming against the current. The pool has been seldom, if ever, used but became a talking point that persuaded lots of colleagues to fit a fitness session into their weekly routine. Lunchtime is seldom a problem because most of our colleagues can set their own timetable, but the gym is most popular before and after work, when the free service of our fitness instructor is available.

The gym only benefits those colleagues who work at our Wythenshawe support centre, that’s just 300 people out of 5,000 (we can’t put a pool table in our pods on supermarket car parks). But there are plenty of other perks that can help to convince colleagues that they are an important part of the family.

James sprang another surprise in 2016 when he organised a fiveday holiday in Malta. We were joined by 150 excellent front-line colleagues to celebrate the company’s 150th birthday – not cheap, especially when you pay tax on the benefit in kind, but hugely worthwhile. The trip was such a success three years later we took 180 colleagues to Iceland – they are still talking about it.

In the last decade there has been a massive increase in the number of businesses that provide mental health support. But care for mental wellbeing shouldn’t simply be restricted to a counselling service and mental health first aiders. A company gym, running club, chess group, football team and indeed your pool table, all make a contribution to mental wellbeing, but day-to-day managers have the biggest part to play.

Colleagues are more likely to thrive when they work with a boss who manages to use individual respect and kindness to help their team to become the best they can be.