World Cup fever: Increased absences & disrupted schedules for HR?

The FIFA World Cup 2026 is in full swing and for the world of HR, it’s raised some workforce challenges to keep an eye on. The potential for increased absences among employees, as well as disrupted schedules, are two of those challenges.

HR experts are warning organisations about workplace disruption during the World Cup tournament taking place this summer, as employees in the UK enjoy the football fever – not least of all the games involving England and Scotland.

Given the location of the World Cup – the USA, Canada, and Mexico – many matches are kicking off in the evenings and early mornings UK time, including at 11pm, 2am and 5am. England’s match against Croatia kicked off at a reasonable 9pm with peak viewing figures reaching 15.4 million, but the celebrations afterwards may well have had ripple effects for people attending work the next day.

Sickness absence, lateness, and disrupted working hours can cause headaches for HR, people managers and the wider business – as people’s enjoyment of the World Cup impacts their work.

It’s a difficult mix for employers, particularly around productivity, customer service, shift worker availability, and team members having to cover extra work for their absent colleagues.

Following the statutory sick pay changes that came into force in April 2026, which now entitles employees to receive sick pay from day one of absence (rather than from day four), more workers may be incentivised to call in sick following a late night in front of the football. For workers not previously able to receive SSP until day four, it might have served as something of a deterrent for missing work unless absolutely necessary.

Some organisations are even offering employees more flexibility to work around the early morning and late evening football matches, abandoning the typical 9-5 routine during the tournament.

How can organisations respond to increased absence and workforce disruption during the World Cup?

Though challenging, there are number of approaches and processes that HR and people managers can have in place to manage an increase in absences and/or disruption during the tournament.

Firstly, it’s important to continue treating each instance of sickness absence as genuine, even if the timing of it (such as the day after a crucial match) might appear suspicious.

Failure to treat every absence this way may risk claims for discrimination, so it’s important to be consistent as you would with any sickness absence regardless of the day of the week or time of year it occurs.

Evidence that an absence in non-genuine might come to light (such as an employee’s activity on social media revealing their whereabouts during a football match) which can prompt an employer to ask questions to gather more information. Organisations need to be extremely careful around this however, as delving into an individual’s online profiles can raise privacy concerns or even complaints.

It’s wise to communicate clearly with your workforce around your workplace expectations during the tournament. Whilst encouraging enjoyment of the football, it’s also worth reminding employees of your absence management policy and procedures, and ensuring that these continue to be followed by your people managers.

If you aren’t already, it’s best practice to conduct return-to-work conversations once an employee comes back from sick leave.

This is an opportunity for the employer to ensure that the employee is indeed ready to come back to work, to make a record of the reason for the absence, and to determine whether the employee needs any follow-up appointments, treatment, time off, or reasonable adjustments made to help them carry out their work upon returning.

Flexibility, where operational needs allow, will be a great tool for employers to use during the tournament. Games are kicking off between 5pm and 5am, so allowing employees to finish early or start later and make up their hours at a later time will help to minimise disruption for the organisation.

Finally, the FIFA World Cup 2026 can be used by employers to boost staff morale. To get in the spirit, you may want to consider office or on-site decorations or friendly Fantasy Football competitions, or even screen some of the games where practical and possible.

Whilst we are likely to see some disruption and increased absences over the summer period – some small adjustments to workplace practices, and continued vigilance and consistency when it comes to absence management, will set organisations up for a period where employees can enjoy the global sporting event without negatively impacting their work.