Kavaliro Offers Advice on Making March Madness a Team Builder

ORLANDO, FL--(Marketwire - Mar 15, 2012) - A month of lost workplace productivity officially begins this week with the start of March Madness. Predictions estimate that workers distracted by the basketball frenzy could cost employers as much as $1.8 billion in unproductive wages. National staffing firm Kavaliro says it doesn't have to be that way.

Through Facebook, smartphones and the Internet, all 67 tournament games can be viewed live from anywhere, even your cubical. With about half of the first two days of the tournament being played during business hours, employers may want to let their staff know where they stand on their view toward monitoring sporting events at work.

"Some businesses may want to curb the distraction by only allowing employees to check scores and watch games in the break room at lunchtime," Mark Moore, president of Kavaliro, says. "But here at Kavaliro, rather than trying to quash employee access to scores and games, we make the interest in the tournament work to our advantage."

Kavaliro has a companywide pool that allows employees to fill out the brackets for fun -- with all cash prizes going to the company's charity. It builds camaraderie and provides competition and conversation among employees who may not have time or projects that permit them to bond.

According to statistics released shortly after last year's NCAA men's basketball tournament, the tournament drew an average of 2.4 million daily unique visitors on broadband and 702,000 average daily unique users through mobile apps during the second and third round of 2011 games. Each of these users spent an average of 92.9 minutes per day streaming live video.

"There is no use in trying to squash March Madness," Moore says. "It may be best to just let this one slide. It may be best to take the distraction head on and intertwine it to your corporate culture."