Elian Wiener, Managing Director of Epic Communications, which provides strategic communications services to a range of South African organisations, says that although much of the public attention has focused on companies that have spent millions of rands on external World Cup marketing campaigns, businesses that utilised the opportunity to engage with their employees may realise the greatest benefits, in the form of a more motivated workforce.
"I am really encouraged to have seen so many of our clients take the time and effort to celebrate the event with their most important stakeholders - their staff."
One of these is Old Mutual, which aimed to unite employees of the group through football for a good cause. It hosted a football tournament in Cape Town for participating employees of the Old Mutual Group during the World Cup in a bid to raise funds for the Umthombo Street Children project.
A total of 12 teams, comprising some of the group's employees from Old Mutual, Nedbank and Mutual & Federal, participated in the event. On the day of the final games, a range of fun activities were arranged to keep staff and their families entertained, such as foosball, kiddies rides and face painting. Funds raised will help launch 'Kick-Start', a partnership programme between Old Mutual and Umthombo, which will set up and train a team of former street children to become specialised football coaches.
Kuseni Dlamini, CEO of Old Mutual SA and Emerging Markets, says the initiative aimed to enhance working relationships between employees whilst contributing to a worthy cause to kick-start a better life for street children.
Wiener says another company which made use of the occasion to create team spirit amongst both management and employees was CIB Insurance Solutions. Frans Nel, marketing manager of CIB, says that the company made a huge effort to bring the soccer buzz into the workplace. "Both internally and externally, our head office was transformed into a celebration of the tournament. Because we are based so close to OR Tambo International Airport, we made use of our prime location along the N12/R24 highway to greet all of South Africa's international visitors as well as our staff in the form of huge banners on the outside of our building."
ooba, South Africa's leading bond originator group, used the World Cup atmosphere to create a sense of team spirit within and between its various departments. Megan Taylor, marketing manager of ooba, says one of its initiatives was to implement a competition whereby each department was given the opportunity to choose a nation to support. "With most departments taking their chosen nations to heart, it sometimes looked as if we had our own little United Nations at ooba. The friendly rivalry has supported team morale immensely and brought the departments closer together."
The University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB) boosted the morale of its employees by letting staff work half-days when Bafana Bafana played matches during the group stages. "The biggest fan park with a roof, providing shelter from the rain on cold and wet days, is situated across the road from the USB at the Bellville Velodrome, and attracts over 6 000 people on match days," says Marietjie Wepener, Marketing Director of USB. "This really got us into the spirit and we always participated in the blowing of vuvuzelas in support of Bafana Bafana every day at noon."
PPS, the leading specialist financial services provider to the graduate professional market, enthusiastically embraced the soccer fever by cheering for Bafana Bafana with each department adding to the festivities by celebrating everything soccer related, from flags, to soccer balls to vuvuzelas of all shapes and sizes. Blanka Sulentic, Head of Marketing at PPS says "you can feel the spirit of the World Cup in the air, which has made this soccer spectacular one truly memorable experience for all employees."
"Many of these clients have had a fantastic response from their employees as a result of these internal efforts and a lot has been learned about the benefits of building team morale internally," says Wiener. "The challenge will now be to draw on these lessons to ensure a sustained positive and productive atmosphere in the workplace."
