Preparing for the Olympics and how TPP can help

Olympic Games: 27 July–12 August 2012
Transition period: 13–28 August 2012
Paralympic Games: 29 August–9 September 2012

The Olympic Delivery Authority has recently released guidelines on preparing your business for the upcoming Olympic games.

With 10.8 million tickets released for the combined games, events planned throughout the UK and plans to broadcast live on large screens in major cities, not for profits are likely to experience a large amount of disruption to the day to day running of their organisation.

Although the games do not start until late July, organisations are already being advised to start preparing for them now.

What you should be doing

There are several factors your organisation needs to consider when preparing for the games:

• There is likely to be an above average number of employees wanting to take time off, both to watch the games and to volunteer for them. How will you manage requests for leave? If you usually operate a first-come, first-served policy, this may have to be adjusted for this period.

• Will you let employees who don’t take time off watch live coverage during office hours? If so, will this be via a communal TV or through the Internet?

• You may also have employees who do not wish to watch the games, and may feel antagonistic through perceived favouritism to those that do. How will you handle these members of staff?

• Many employees are likely to experience severe disruption to their normal commute, and may wish to set up flexible hours or work from home. How will you handle these requests?

• The Olympics will also provide an ideal theme for fundraising or awareness campaigns, particularly those related to sport or public health, but organisations need to beware breaking brand guidelines and to plan for the extra drain on staff time and resources these may incur.

How TPP can help

There are several ways in which TPP Not for Profit can help organisations minimise disruption:

• We offer not for profit organisations the free use of our boardroom and interview rooms. Located in central London, using our offices for meetings or interviews could be an option to avoid difficult commutes. Find out more here or talk to your consultant for more information.

• TPP are experts at supplying specialist temporary staff who can help out with Olympics-related promotions. Our temps can cover call handling, data entry, administration, supporter services and much more to make your campaign run as smoothly as possible.

• We also have a bank of immediately available temps who can provide staff cover for emergencies or for flexible working requests. We will even try to find you local temps who can walk to work, avoiding travel disruptions. Remember, the earlier you book in temps, the more likely we are to be able to find someone local.

• If you are looking for volunteers to help out with a one-off project or event, TPP staff volunteer regularly and may be available to assist. For example, employees from TPP recently helped out at this year's Great Ormond Street Christmas Party. Contact your consultant or email info@tpp.co.uk for more details.

Resources

Olympic Delivery Authority guidelines

Advice from the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service

Online planning tool

Map of affected areas

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