A new study by UKG with 8,000 employees across Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Mexico, Netherlands, England and the United States, estimates that the 2026 World Cup could cause damage of at least 17 billion USD due to labor productivity loss, of which 11.7 billion USD is in the United States alone. Following the United States are Germany with 1.34 billion USD, England (912 million USD), France (749 million USD)...
According to UKG's research, one of the deepest insights into the global impact of the World Cup on workplaces to date, shows that frontline employees and managers intend to take leave, go to work in a drunken state, watch matches during working hours and require a level of flexibility that many employers may not be willing to support.
What makes the World Cup so important is that it reflects a challenge that organizations face every day: changing work every hour in organizations with many frontline staff, and rigid planning creating gaps in implementation.
The World Cup is not just a global cultural event that everyone wants to participate in. It is a real test of human resource planning, which can put pressure on performance, productivity, communication and even retaining employees if not managed proactively," said Suresh Vittal, Product Director of UKG.
UKG's survey shows that 37% of workers plan to adjust their work schedules due to the tournament, and 27% are likely to be absent from work due to late arrivals, early departures, or complete leave.
In addition, employers also face other risks such as 11% of employees admitting they will work while drunk and 14% saying they will secretly watch matches and highlights during working hours or 22% of respondents saying they will work in a tired or exhausted state.
When absences and ineffective work occur widely, the impact will be immediate and costly. Productivity decreases, customer experience is affected, and working spirit is reduced when the remaining members of the team have to shoulder the work," Suresh Vittal added.
In addition, 39% of employees said they did not believe that the company would be interested in the World Cup and 19% revealed they would consider finding a new job if the work schedule negatively affected their World Cup experience.
In addition to employees, human resources managers also have a great interest in the 2026 World Cup. The survey shows that 42% of managers are likely to plan a day off and 45% require flexible leave.
The World Cup is a test of the organization's ability to respond when conditions change rapidly. Employers do not need to trade productivity for flexibility. They need discipline to plan ahead, vision to act when changes occur, and execution ability to turn pressure into efficiency, like the world's leading football stars," a UKG representative said.
UKG is the world's leading artificial intelligence (AI) platform for human resource management, wages and labor force, operating in more than 150 countries and territories and about 80,000 trusted organizations.
