It's almost that time of year again. A three week period where offices and workplaces around the nation will be abuzz with the latest news and information concerning the Men's NCAA basketball tournament, more commonly known as "March Madness." While business analysts cringe at the thought of March Madness and give fallible reports of how this tournament will cost U.S. businesses over 2 Billion dollars in lost productivity, some savvy business leaders are choosing to use March Madness as an opportunity to boost employee morale and strengthen their business.  So before you send out a scorching email warning of the repercussions for using company time to get in on the March Madness fever, take a minute and examine the possible upside to welcoming the tournament into your office.

While letting employees keep an eye on games and participate in office pools may seem counter-intuitive to improving your business, the excitement and chatter may encourage camaraderie and boost employee morale in your organization. And given the correlation between employee morale/satisfaction and levels of production, customer satisfaction, and company revenue...embracing March Madness and sponsoring an event within your organization could be a great team building opportunity. This approach to dealing with the inevitable distractions of March Madness can bring a number of benefits for your organization.

First of all, formally sponsoring a March Madness event allows business owners and managers to have a little control over how much time employees will spend watching  and discussing the tournament during work hours. Though it will be virtually impossible to stop employees from streaming the games this year, after Turner Sports and CBS announced that they will allow free streaming of the tournament to anyone with an Apple device. There will be eyes all over the nation glued to iPhones and iPads. But showing the games in your lobby or break room gives your employees the freedom to watch the games in segments, reducing the temptation to watch entire games on computers or mobile devices.

Another benefit to showing the tournament games in your office is building camaraderie and lowering the level of employee turnover. It has often been said that people leave people, not jobs. When workers feel a strong connection with their team, they are far less likely to feel discontent with their job and will be encouraged to stick around longer. Any loss in productivity because of March Madness could easily be countered by the effects that this newfound camaraderie can have on the efforts to retain employees.

A few more simple ways to incorporate March Madness in your organization without killing levels of production are to designate a day where team members are encouraged to dress casual, and have lunch is catered in while they get to watch the games. You could also host a company bracket, with a prize for the winner.  These are relatively inexpensive ways to show employees that you care about building team unity, and to boost employee morale.

We all know that happier employees stay in their jobs longer, deliver more production, and are passionate about driving revenue growth. Having your company participate in a friendly (non-gambling) March Madness pool or showing the tournament in your office is an easy way to promote the idea that "work can be fun," and to show employees that you care. You could even reward the winner with a free lunch to a restaurant of their choice.

Some companies will inevitably read reports about lost productivity during the tournament, and attempt to enforce strict policies for the 11 business day of March Madness. There will probably be warning emails sent employees with the repercussions for using company time to watch games, check scores, or to organize brackets. While doing that may yield a short-term fix to keep people focused and productive, could you leverage March Madness to strengthen your business long-term?