Project Objective
In an organisation, employees work for a common goal of organisation and individual goal. It is often seen that the employees are guided and directed for doing their normal course of business so that they achieve what is expected out them. The normal course of routines makes the work dull and non-encouraging and it can also have negative impact on the performance of the employees.
The research is focussed on investigating the impact of extracurricular activities and the aspects of job satisfaction, service quality and customer satisfaction will be covered. Extracurricular activities are the activities which fall outside the realm of the normal course of duties in the job. It can be sports, art or craft activities, games, quizzes and more. This research would focus on the impact of these activities on the overall performance of the employees.
The primary objective of this research is to conduct a study which fulfils following objectives:
- To study the meaning and purpose of extracurricular activities at the workplace
- To investigate the impact of extracurricular activities on the performance of employees
- To analyse the impact of the extracurricular activities on the overall satisfaction of the customers of the business
The scope of the project is wide as employee motivation is the term which is gaining much importance nowadays and has a prime role to play in the success of the organisation. A satisfied and motivated employee feel good working for the organisation which ultimately improves the customer satisfaction and reputation of the business in the market. The research will be conducted by taking into considering many secondary sources like books, journals, news articles and online sources.
Literature review
Extracurricular activities are the form of workplace recreational activities which are taken place with a purpose of improving the satisfaction level of the employees. It is rightly said that better the employees, better will be the customer service. So, ultimately the customer will be served right if the employees will be treated right by their employers. According to Mokaya and Gitari (2012), the main objective of human resource is to give its contribution to achieve high levels of employee satisfaction and performance of the organisation. Human capital is the most important asset of the organisation. These are no doubt, the best but intangible assets of any organisation which acts as a source of strength to the business. Therefore, organisations need to act in a way which maximises the potential of the workforce. An individual is able to perform when he is motivated, is able and seeks opportunity to grow with the growth of an organisation (Wiese, Kuykendall and Tay, 2018).
To add up to this, Kouliavtsev (2013) said that the organisations nowadays are appreciating the workers who are not only good at work but also in other activities. They are planning for recreation of employees so that the employees can take out some time for their leisure in the normal course of business which recharges them for the next challenge at work. It helps in building up the psychological and emotional state of an employee. To promote the physical and mental health of employees, organisations are putting their best efforts.
The demand for the efficient workforce is much more than it was few decades back and there are nay organisations which are providing the facilities of entertainment and sports clubs so that the employees can use them for refreshing them. This effort from the side of the employees absolutely reduce absenteeism and raise productivity of the employees. As per Little and Garcia (2016), LinkedIn has given a report in which the top most 40 employers are listed who are best at providing facilities and comfort to their employees. This list is topped by Google whose perks are not even compared to anyone. The employees feels lucky to get selected and work in Google. They include everything on site which can be onsite coding or cooking classes to cycling and massage services. It is also seen that the employees of Google are the most productive and innovative employees who are best in giving new ideas to the company. The companies tries new and innovative ideas in order to engage its employees. For e.g. Salesforce provides dig friendly offices to its employees and it ranks second in the list of LinkedIn. The other companies which are the part of this list are Facebook, Apple, Amazon.com, Uber, Microsoft, Netflix and many more.
Project scope
There is a need for recreational activities for employees especially in the start-ups. This is done in order to maintain the work life balance of the employees in the modern and pressurized workplace world which is much more challenging than it was used to be. The employees are giving more hours at workplace to achieve their targets but they are overburdened with pressure a distress which is reduced by the effort of employers at the workplace only by providing facilities like Gym, swimming pools, libraries, sports arena and bars. According to Chandrashekaran (2016), employment is not about 10-7 job now where employees were restricted to work and give long hours of sitting just sitting at their desks. The modern employers believes that with power comes great responsibility and employee is expected to be fresh, satisfied and mentally & physically fit so that he can give maximum of his abilities to the workplace. In its added by the author that the stress and efficiency are inversely proportional. The extracurricular activities helps in reducing the stress and increases efficiency and performance of the employees. The high pressure of work directly affects the efficiency of the employee. A combination of work and play is adopted by modern organisations and these initiatives taken by the companies have shown numerous benefits like increased employee performance, employee learning nd development and addition of human capital to the business. The author further adds that apart from the advantages, the challenges cannot be left undiscussed. The companies no doubt are benefitted a lot by providing fun at work to the employees but they also have to bear costs for this. Loss of time can be the other disadvantage. Loss of time can lead to the miss of deadlines which ultimately will be the monetary loss to the organisation. But in all, it is sure that the employee engagement is necessary to handle current business pressures. It can be considered as the effort of the business to fulfil the long term vision which improves productivity of the employees (Petrou, Bakker and van den Heuvel, 2017).
As per Agrawal (2016), the employers are always in the dilemma whether they are having best from their employees or not. The companies can plan recreational activities for the employees by planning for it. The company should know about the hobbies of its employees which can be done with the help of a survey or questionnaire. The company should select the recreational activities which could align the hobbies of the workers. Workplace creation is important and it is gaining popularity because it is a strategy which improves the wellbeing and performance of the employees. The recreational activities can range from the mental health programs to the entertainment programs. The companies nowadays believes that happy employees can bring hefty profits to the company (Kuykendall, Boemerman and Zhu, 2018).
The companies can take up recreational activities like:
- Team outings to increase bond between the team members
- Professional development workshop
- Cooking class
- Sports activities
- Yoga or Zumba classes
- Gym
- Celebrating birthdays and occasions
- Fund raise for a good cause together (Iwasaki, 2017).
These are some of the common recreational activities which modern organisations provide. At traditional workplaces, socialising and playing games are not encouraged. According to Hilton (2016), 65% of the Australian spend more than 40 hours in a week at work and that is why, the employers believe that the stress levels should be reduced. These can be referred to the strategic reasons which are termed as recreational activities or extracurricular activities at work. At Google, the employees are given flexible work hours and provides sleep pods to the employees and annual ‘bring your children at work’ day which makes it interesting for them to work for such amazing employer. This is the reason why the candidates are so desperately want to get selected for Google.
Literature review
The social interaction activities and social clubs with other extracurricular activities impact positively the motivational level of the employees. It builds up the motivation of an employee and develop employee engagement. The extracurricular activities supports the emotional and physical wellbeing of the employees. The workplace environment is the key factor of employee satisfaction and retention in the organisation. It is a great appeal for the employees and helps in maintaining the appropriate work life balance. These activities empower people, let them communicate with each other and promote a feeling of one at the workplace. Employers have a duty towards employees to care for them and ensure that the employees are free from the pressure at work. For e.g. music at workplace makes employees feel happier about the organisation and builds up more productivity after all (Kelly, 2009).
Some of the multinational provides such an amazing workplace to the employees that they feel like coming office everyday which reduces absenteeism. For e.g. Cisco Systems offers physical therapy to its employees. It provides a fitness centre and pharmacy which makes employees believe that the company is supporting them in their personal issues and it cares about the health for its employees. The employees of Yahoo gets discounts at amusing parts and ski resorts. 3M helps its employees to quit smoking, lose weight and manage stress levels by providing smoking cessation programs, stress management meditation programs and more (Taube and Stanger, 2014). There is a very interesting perk which McKinsey provides to its workers. It runs ‘Take Time’ program. This program offers workers an extra 5 to 10 weeks every year to pursue their interests and passion. It is definite that this would help in employee retention and satisfaction at the workplace and that is why, the company is able to provide best in its industry. Starbucks provides another unique perk to its employees. The workers who work for more than 20 hours in a week gets access to the special range of benefits like bonuses, discounted stock exchange options and many more. The company also funds and reimburse the college fee each year which is completed through online programs of Arizona State University (Aksoy, Çankaya and Tasmektepligil, 2017).
In the opinion of Mokaya and Gitari (2012), a research resulted that workplace extracurricular activities have a positive effect on the performance of the employees. In USA, workplace physical activities have helped in reducing the absenteeism in the organisations by 32 percent. It reduced the healthcare costs by 20 to 55% and increased productivity by more than 50%. This data was given by the World Health Organisation. The reduction of such costs is extremely important for the company.
The extracurricular activities and Job satisfaction are linked positively. The survey conducted by Mokaya and Gitari (2012), states that 92% of the respondents of the survey accepted that extracurricular activities increases the job satisfaction in the employees which increase employee commitment. It can be seen as an intrinsic reward which provides pleasure and enjoyment to the employees. This creates quality in the services provided by the employees which ultimately leads to the customer satisfaction. Recreation provides an opportunity to the employees to socialise with the customers as well which leads to the higher quality of service. In the words of Müceldili and Erdil (2016), the importance of fun at work is accepted by many practitioners. The companies which are ranked as top 100 companies to work with like IBM, Microsoft, South west airlines and more also agrees that it is the recreation of employees which plays an important role in the high quality service and performance from the employees. It also helps in developing sustainable competitive advantage to the employees’ career and the business (Shujat and Ameer, 2011).
In the opinion of Baldonado (2015), the ultimate objective of the company to adopt this strategy is to take care of its human capital, to let people know about the positives of the company, employee retention, employee motivation, better customer service and increase in the profits of the business. In a lifetime, a person spend around 90 thousand hours on his job which is too much. Integrating fun at work helps in creativity and innovation at the workplace and maintains proper work life balance. It is not necessary that only the extracurricular activities provides a boost to the employee performance but there are many other factors which plays this role. These factors may include the co-workers, growth of company, change of interest, personal reasons and more but the most dominant factor is the extracurricular activities which improves the overall performance of the employee and of the company (Lebbon and Hurley, 2013).
Conclusion
It can be concluded that in today’s competitive environment, originations are much more concerned for their employees that they were used to be and it is a key source of competitive advantage for the company. Adopting and integrating extracurricular activities with the work ensures productive workforce, attracts better and highly qualified applicants and helps in winning the high competition in the market. The report discusses about the role of extracurricular activities on the performance of the employees. The examples of many companies are discussed like Google, McKinsey, Salesforce, etc. which are included in the top companies to work with list given by LinkedIn. It does not only proves that satisfied and engaged employee can leads to the success of the business but also empowers an individual which helps in the personal life too. It is a strategy for the companies which attracts and retain talent but is very helpful on the overall professional nd personal development of an employees.
References
Agrawal, A. J., 2016. How Having Fun Can Boost Employee Productivity. Inc. Accessed from https://www.inc.com/aj-agrawal/how-having-fun-can-boost-employee-productivity.html [Accessed on 30/08/2018].
Aksoy, Y., Çankaya, S. and Tasmektepligil, M.Y., 2017. The Effects of Participating in Recreational Activities on Quality of Life and Job Satisfaction. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 5(6), pp.1051-1058.
Baldonado, A.M., 2015. Workplace fun: learning from Google, Southwest Airlines, and Facebook. International Journal, 15.
Chandrashekaran, M., 2016. Need for recreational activities for employees, especially in the startup sector. Your Story. Accessed from https://yourstory.com/2016/10/recreational-activities-employees-startup/ [Accessed on 01/09/2018].
Government of Western Australia, 2017. Community Perceptions Survey. Accessed from https://www.dsr.wa.gov.au/support-and-advice/research-and-policies/organised-recreational-activity-and-mental-health [Accessed on 31/08/2018].
Hilton, J., 2016. Why recreational activities should be encouraged at work. HRD. Accessed from https://www.hcamag.com/hr-news/why-recreational-activities-should-be-encouraged-at-work-225305.aspx [Accessed on 01/09/2018].
Iwasaki, Y., 2017. Contributions of leisure to “meaning-making” and its implications for leisure studies and services. Annals of Leisure Research, 20(4), pp.416-426.
Kelly, J.R., 2009. Work and leisure: A simplified paradigm. Journal of leisure Research, 41(3), pp.439-451.
Kouliavtsev, M., 2013. THE IMPACT OF EMPLOYMENT AND EXTRACURRICULAR INVOLVEMENT ON UNDERGRADUATES’PERFORMANCE IN A BUSINESS STATISTICS COURSE. Journal of Economics and Economic Education Research, 14(3), p.53.
Kuykendall, L., Boemerman, L. and Zhu, Z., 2018. The importance of leisure for subjective well-being. Handbook of well-being. Salt Lake City, UT: DEF Publishers. DOI: nobascholar. com.
Lebbon, A.R. and Hurley, D.T., 2013. The effects of workplace leisure behavior on work-related behavior. Journal of Behavioral Studies in Business, 6(1), pp.1-18.
Little, K and Garcia, D., 2016. The 40 most attractive employers in America, according to LinkedIn. CNBC. Accessed from https://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/19/the-40-most-attractive-employers-in-america-according-to-linkedin.html [Accessed on 01/09/2018].
Mokaya, S. and Gitari, J.W., 2012. Effects of workplace recreation on employee performance: The case of Kenya Utalii College. International journal of humanities and social science, 2(3), pp.176-183.
Müceldili, B. and Erdil, O., 2016. Finding Fun in Work: The effect of workplace fun on taking charge and job engagement. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 235, pp.304-312.
Petrou, P., Bakker, A.B. and van den Heuvel, M., 2017. Weekly job crafting and leisure crafting: Implications for meaning?making and work engagement. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 90(2), pp.129-152.
Shujat, S. and Ameer, F., 2011. Effects of Recreational and Entertainment Activities on Employees Job Satisfaction: A Case Study. Journal of Management and Social Sciences, 7(1), pp.12-18.
Taube, A and Stanger, M., 2014. 17 Companies With Awesome Perks That Will Make You Jealous. Buiness Insider. . Accessed from https://www.businessinsider.com/company-perks-that-will-make-you-jealous-2014-7?IR=T [Accessed on 31/08/2018].
Wiese, C.W., Kuykendall, L. and Tay, L., 2018. Get active? A meta-analysis of leisure-time physical activity and subjective well-being. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 13(1), pp.57-66.
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