Every year, near the end of summer, as Football season approaches, people start to get really amped up about the Football season. More specifically, people get excited about their fantasy football leagues.

As business owners and operators, the idea of a company-sponsored Fantasy Football league might be cringe-worthy, but maybe it’s not as bad and scary and it seems. Sure, a study came out last year from Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. that had employers absolutely terrified that Fantasy Football was costing BILLIONS! Headlines read “Study Shows Fantasy Football costing $13 Billion Annually” or “Employers Paying Billion Dollar Price for Fantasy Football”. As an owner or operator, I would read that headline and panic… What the headlines conveniently left out was the study’s full title. The second half of the title – “Should you care?”

The study did its best to quantify losses to employers through dips in productivity and time lost by employees spent poring over injury reports, planning for the draft, and team management throughout the week. The reality is, however, workers have more distractions at work than ever before. If we’re honest with ourselves, few (if any) of us could claim we have never checked our Facebook, responded to a text message, or hopped on Amazon.com for non-work related reasons during working hours.

So let’s focus on what Fantasy Football can bring to your organization by embracing a company league. Think about your office or workplace for a moment:

Does your Tech department ever interact with Sales? Does the kitchen staff say much to the serving staff? What about the Receptionist, does the rest of the office intermingle with him/her very often? Fantasy Football engages all kinds of people (male and female) and it could bring people from different departments together that otherwise would not interact. Could this be that team-building exercise you’ve been looking for?

MORALE-Booster! This is like hitting the “kick start button” on camaraderie. When people look forward to coming to work to talk to their buddy about the crazy game Denver’s Defense had or the impressive numbers Calvin Johnson put up this weekend, engagement levels increase. The case for increased engagement is undeniable. According to Talent Culture, increased engagement leads to increased productivity, higher service levels, and lower turnover. In fact, according to a 2006 Ipsos survey, one in five respondents reported that their involvement in Fantasy Sports enabled them to make a valuable business contact.

So sure, the first 15-20 minutes on a Monday morning may be lost to discussions of the developments over the weekend, but if the result is increased engagement – I’d say that loss is pretty much a wash! If you have previously banned fantasy football in the workplace, you may want to reconsider your position next season!