By Ian J. Cook

In February 2010 Vancouver will play host to the Winter Olympics and Paralympics. The event will be a great celebration of sport. For organizations and HR functions across the province it will bring a host of opportunities and challenges. For example, the Lower Mainland is likely to see an increase of approximately 200,000 people once all the athletes, workforce and visitors are counted. All of these people will be travelling to and from more than 65 event venues spread from Whistler to Richmond.

The different competitions will provide a compelling distraction as Canada goes for gold. At the same time, the city will buzz with excitement and energy, and the increase in visitors will lead to numerous business opportunities. We are seeing many HR practitioners starting to come to grips with these challenges and formulate their policies and responses.

To Close or not to Close – The first big decision is whether or not to maintain your business operation during the Olympics phase. You may experience so many negative impacts that it makes more sense just to shut down and avoid dealing with all of the challenges. Your first question is to determine whether or not the costs of shutting your operation for the four weeks of the games are less than the costs of keeping it running. Clearly, if you stand to gain from the visiting throngs the opportunities outweigh the costs.

How to Keep Operating – If you do chose to keep operations running then how are you going to manage this and support your staff to maintain their contribution during the games. There are a few core issues to consider.

·         Commuting – Irrespective of how your staff gets to work they will be impacted – except maybe those who walk or bike! The Olympic venues are spread throughout the Lower Mainland and each venue is generating its own set of transit challenges. There will also be Olympic-only / priority lanes leading to a reduction in road capacity of between 20 and 50 per cent. All those who commute by road will move onto transit. Transit is being increased for the duration of the games, however, for many this shift may double their commute times. Many organizations are increasing their work from home options or looking to alter their work hours to reduce the negative impacts as much as possible. A key consideration in formulating a policy is support for your staff to ease their commute or ensure they can work to maintain the service levels required.

·         Staff Engagement – This will be very varied. For organizations in the thick of providing for the Olympic visitors life is likely to be frenetic and active. This brings great opportunities to build engagement and celebrate the results of each day. For organizations operating on a national level or who service non-Olympic related businesses, then the games may prove more of a distraction and the challenge will be keeping your groups focused on the required work while not being a party pooper. A key consideration is how to maintain focus and connect to the spirit and energy of the games.

·         Child Care – Certain school districts have chosen to close their schools for the duration of the games. This will leave many parents with unusual child care responsibilities. This may impact your people’s ability to get to work or increase the difficulty of the work/life balance act they manage at work. This impact varies by school district so check in with your school district or your employees. We would love to hear about the creative HR person who finds a way to support employees to solve this child care challenge in a way that also supports their business.

·         Time off – This has the potential to be a big issue and an area where you need to get policies in place quickly, if you have not already. You will need to decide if time off for the Olympics is part of vacation or whether it can be taken as unpaid or part of any “volunteer” day program you have. You will also have to determine the process for deciding how time off is granted. If you need to maintain your operation then you cannot have everyone on vacation at the same time. You may need to consider the typical first come, first served vacation approach given the unique nature of this event.

There is a lot to get your head around with regard to the way your business will experience the Olympics. It is also important to stay positive – HR managers in past Olympic locations report that the events were a great experience all round.

Watch for more ResearchVoice!
As we go through the Fall, ResearchVoice will continue to provide as much advice and guidance as we can to help you formulate the policies that work for your organization. As a first step we will be running a survey of Olympic-related policies in August. Our first piece of advice is to start learning now about how your organization will be impacted. 2010commercecentre.com is a good place to start. 

Ian J. Cook is the director of HR knowledge and research at BC HRMA. Ian is using his global HR consulting experience and business knowledge to grow a function which delivers informative, relevant and timely comment.