The Multidimensional Benefits of an Employee Recreation Program

Abstract

Employee Recreation represents a unique departmentally sponsored program designed to improve recruitment, retention, enjoyment, enthusiasm and commitment among student employees. It is popular and fun for employees but also has personal management advantages, strong marketing implications, and administrative benefits. The rationale for the program centers upon its effectiveness as a medium to positively impact programs and personnel. The opportunity to separately assemble employees in a setting which combines sports/ recreation with social ingredients has the potential to stimulate some exceptional staff dynamics. When blended properly, these components can increase excitement, motivation, and personal investment in the department as an employee while also improving camaraderie, teamwork, and morale. Positive word-of-mouth through one-on-one interaction between student staff and peers is extremely pertinent to recruitment and retention of staff but has even greater worth for promoting the program to participants. It also affords a strategic opportunity to expose, educate, and energize this group concerning activities which may be chosen. Administratively, employee recreation establishes a forum for empowering student personnel to exercise organizational and planning skills while also supplying a laboratory environment to field test various activities and gather evaluative feedback to assist in their refinement.

The format and structuring of the program should contain a number of fundamental components and address several important issues. After goals, objectives, and outcomes have been determined, a committee of student employees should be assembled to advise, recommend, select, plan, organize, promote, and administer the events. Commitment is another major factor necessary for success and includes allocating staff time, providing marketing support, and establishing a scheduling system which is convenient and does not adversely conflict with normal staffing times for activities and lor facilities. Financing options include departmental sponsorship and subsidy, support by the employees themselves, or by generating money through the formation of a campus organization.

Ultimately it is the actual selection and composition of the activity calendar which will make or break the program. Events should be chosen because their appeal, affordability, appropriateness, potential for return benefit, contribution to diversification, and ease of administration. Employee recreation is an exceptional innovation which captures many of the values and principles integral to the essence of recreational sports, represents a wise investment in the most important resource of the program-the student staff, and establishes a win-win environment for everyone involved.