Keep your team on the field — and at work

Keep your team on the field and at work: How sports injuries impact business productivity — and what employers can do to help

Did you know New Zealand businesses lost more than 20 million working days to injury last year? Most injuries that cause people to take time off work, around two thirds of them, happen outside of work. They happen in people's own homes or while they're playing sports, like spraining an ankle during a game on a Saturday morning.

Across the five leading national winter sports in 2025 (rugby union, rugby league, football, basketball and netball), ACC accepted over 160,000 injury claims.

Businesses are busy, and injuries like these can take a toll on productivity as people and work are moved around to fill the gaps and cater for the time lost.  

A simple way to help reduce downtime

With so many New Zealanders taking part in the busy winter sports season, ACC has created some easy to use ‘Have a Hmmm’ winter sports injury prevention tips and resources encouraging people to stop and think before they play.  

The resources include posters, digital tiles, and videos that businesses can use in their workplaces and share across staffrooms, emails, intranet and all the places you are talking to your teams.

You can request to receive the posters and digital tiles here: ACC’s Resource Portal 

You can also view and share the videos from ACC’s YouTube Channel here: Have a hmmm winter sports - YouTube

ACC’s top tips created in partnership with NZ Rugby, NZ Rugby League, Football NZ, Netball NZ and Basketball NZ are:

• Warm up before training and games.
• Gradually increase your training intensity and contact training.
• Spend time working on your core strength and balance.
• Practice sport-specific movements you will need to use in the game.
• Take enough time to rest and recover.