How bringing staff to gather to compete in office Olympics is great for staff morale

For the second time in four years the administration centre on the corner of Young and Victoria Streets and Peoplecare Eyes and Teeth in Market Street, Wollongong and Memorial Drive, Shellharbour are staging an Office Olympics.

Departments go into a draw to represent one of six nations and then dress up and compete for those countries.

There is an event in the office most days as well as an opening and closing ceremony at the beginning and end.

The Illawarra Mercury spoke to staff about it live to camera this week. (See below)

The initiative is driven and overseen by innovative head of people and culture Maree Morgan-Monk won the HR Manager of the Year award in 2013 at the Australian HR Awards.

Mrs Morgan-Monk said daily activities and the effort staff had put into dressing up their work stations was creative, inspiring and fun.

She said the idea worked so well last time four years ago they didn’t hesitate to do it again. But this time with a lot more people.

“Four years ago we had about 43 people we now have about 130 with our growth in that time,” Mrs Morgan Monk said.

“They have absolutely gone nuts this year in terms of their decorations, the competitiveness and their spirit. We have had our board judging their decorations and their costumes. And we even had the lighting of the flame. There has also been Olympic trivia. We have had heaps of events such as table tennis, sailing, handball, rythmic gymnastics, office chair rowing, seated hockey and target shooting. We are doing them at different times so different people can participate and we can build a total team spirit.”

Peoplecare chief executive Michael Bassinghwaighte believed any business could benefit from such an activity.

“Everyone has just got totally engaged. It is an opportunity to create more teamwork and camararderie among different groups has just been amazing and fantastic.”