Super Bowl Sunday costs companies almost half a billion dollars in lost productivity. Here's how to keep your team focused before and after the game.

• Super Bowl excitement can have a real impact on office productivity, but there are steps managers can take to keep work both fun and fruitful.
• Setting up structured activities and creating designated time and space to discuss the game lets enthusiasts enjoy themselves and keeps distraction contained.
• Making work a little bit more structured — and having more regular check-ins — can help with the week.
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When Super Bowl Sunday comes around, it leaves more than empty bags of chips and pizza boxes in its wake. The annual event costs companies almost half a billion dollars in lost productivity, according to a 2019 study from Captivate's Office Pulse.

With employees coming to work tired or hungover, showing up late, not showing up at all, or simply being distracted in the days before and after the big game, these losses are an unexpected consequence of an otherwise exciting tradition.

Angelique Rewers, founder and CEO of The Corporate Agent, identified presenteeism as the primary culprit. Presenteeism, she said, is the widespread issue of employees coming to work but not actually working, likely because they're not feeling well — or are distracted by football talk. 

"The Super Bowl is such an important event that it can cause a decrease in productivity in the days surrounding it for businesses all around the world," Billy Boughey, founder and CEO of Elevate Experiences and author of "Culture Reconstructed," said. 

Here's how companies can effectively plan ahead to minimize these productivity issues before and after Super Bowl 2020.

SEE ALSO: The power of saying no: 5 ways to reclaim your time at work

Support the game with company-driven festivities and team building

The Super Bowl is inevitable, as are the distractions that come with it. Companies can remain in control of the buzz around the game — and minimize those distractions — by setting up structured activities to get employees in the spirit of things without straying too far from their work. 

Rewers suggested companies use Super Bowl excitement to drive team building by inviting employees to wear their favorite jersey, organizing a football-themed lunch, or setting up a friendly interdepartmental competition in which departments that don't correctly pick the winner of the game donate to charity. 

"Everyone is already thinking about [the Super Bowl]," she said. "So embrace it, make it fun, and give it a time and place so that it stays contained."

Consider adjusted schedules for Monday

Companies that can offer late starts or adjusted shifts for employees the day after the Super Bowl may find that flexibility preferable to dealing with widespread lateness after the fact. If employees company wide are big football fans, they will likely be more productive — and less wasteful of company time and resources — if given the opportunity to shift their hours so they clock in and out an hour or two later than usual. Employers who rely on shift work may want to ask for volunteers to step up and take Monday morning hours. 

Regardless of how you choose to handle Monday hours post-Super Bowl, Rewers emphasized the importance of setting clear expectations with employees so they'll be prepared to show up ready to be productive.

Be clear about company boundaries around gambling

If Super Bowl pools and other forms of gambling have caused issues in the workplace previously, it's best to over-communicate the company's rules and regulations. Employers should email employees about boundaries ASAP to get ahead of these activities, which can add an extra layer of distraction to Super Bowl week.

Create boundaries for Super Bowl talk time

Football fans and halftime show lovers alike are bound to show up at work Monday with plenty of things to discuss about their Super Bowl viewing experience. These conversations can and should be contained to a specific time and space.

Ask employees to hold off on all Super Bowl talk until lunchtime, or until a designated 30-minute window at the end of the day when everyone who's interested can meet in one area to debrief. Per Rewers, this "helps people mentally shift their focus and stay focused, instead of constantly having interruptions throughout the day." The time it takes to refocus on work after a random break for Super Bowl talk adds up to a lot of lost productivity.

Challenge the team with new goals and performance indicators for the week

Once employees have been given a chance to share their experiences watching the Super Bowl — the snacks they ate, the commercials they loved, their take on the half-time show, their thoughts on the game-winning play — managers should communicate goals for the rest of the week, along with key performance indicators they'll be keeping an eye on.

In fact, Boughey recommended setting more challenging goals than usual in the week after the big game to jumpstart motivation and reemphasize the importance of staying on track with work. 

"You may consider creating a work sprint where teams come together to work on a big project together," he said. "This could be a current project or a non-urgent big project that could get finished with dedicated time and focus."

Build checkpoints into the schedule

Companies that experience higher distraction among employees in the days after the Super Bowl may benefit from a little extra structure in the first week of February. Boughey suggested implementing daily check-ins for people or employees who get particularly caught up in the football excitement.

When these check-ins are collaborative (instead of singling certain individuals out) and balanced with a healthy tolerance for Super Bowl excitement, this will ensure they stay accountable for the expectations set by the company, and give them the opportunity to report in on performance indicators.

"It's important that we treat employees like the adults they are," Rewers said. "Giving some leeway for folks to connect about a shared experience like the Super Bowl isn't necessarily a bad thing, so long as there are boundaries set around it — and then you can get them refocused on work."

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