There are many factors
that interfere with work-life balance where some of them are mentioned below.
- Stringent rules
- Excessive workload
- Hostile work environment
- Time pressure
- Lack of job security
Some attribute the
concept to Lillian Gilbreth, an industrial engineer and efficiency guru who is
the matriarch of the household in the book Cheaper by the Dozen has mentioned
the balance between professional career or paid activities and personal life is
referred to as work-life balance. It refers to the amount of time an employee
spend on his job vs the amount of time he spend with his family and doing
things he enjoy.
An unbalanced work-life
balance can lead to burnout, stress, and health issues, as well as straining
marital and family relationships. Because these difficulties can have a
substantial impact on employee productivity and output, many progressive firms
have made work-life balance a primary priority and implemented policies and
processes to encourage employees to attain it. Having proper work-life culture
is beneficial not only for the employee but also for the employers too.
Benefits of the Employees
- Increased productivity within the employees
- Lower absenteeism
- Recruiting the best candidates with low costs
- Retaining talented employees
- Developing greater commitment to corporate goals and objectives
Fostering a work-life balance
culture is critical for attracting and maintaining good employees since a
growing number of people are preferring the flexibility and low-stress nature
of such an atmosphere to the rigidity and stress of a more traditional
workplace even though working long hours is the norm for professionals in any
industry. Companies and employers can offer incentives in a variety of ways to
make employment more appealing.
Most of the biggest
and finest organizations encourage work-life balance in order to retain their
talented people within the company because they are a vital aspect of the
company growth plan. Many smaller companies do as well. For example,
Glassdoor.com publishes an annual ranking of the best firms for work-life
balance based on employee feedback. So, people can do a pre search on which
companies offer the best work-life balance.
Benefits to the Employees
and their families
- Recognition and Rewards for being valued by the company
- Increased parental involvement
- More time to spend with family
Employees seem to see
being valued by the company as one of the most important benefits. As for an
example one of Canada's leading banks - TD Bank Group (TD) has garnered various
awards and recognition for its culture. They have provided a number of flexible
work options to its employees. These include the opportunity to modify start
and end times, reduce the workweek, change the number of days worked while
maintaining the number of hours, job sharing with another employee and ability
to work from home for a specific number of days each week.
There is an old saying
– ‘'Work smart, not hard’ therefore, people should use technology to make life
simpler, not more difficult. People are so engrossed in smartphones these days
that it is all too easy to check business email after hours. This is when
technology, rather than simplifying life, makes things more complicated. If
people can't stop themselves from checking their work email, one of the best
solutions to adopt is obtaining separate phones for personal and work stuff. Employees
should train their minds to disconnect from work after working hours and focus
on their personal lives in order to achieve best work-life balance in their
lives.
Employee capacity
during work hours is largely determined by the time management of the employee.
If the time management is good and the employee perform the most tasks during
the working hours, then that leads to productivity. As for an example,
utilizing Google Docs for online collaboration helps on storing in real time on
the cloud can be taken. It is effective than saving numerous versions of a
document owing to modifications made by various parties.
The findings of a 2015
Pew Research highlighted the extent to which working adults struggle to balance
work and family life. Six out of ten working mothers and 52 percent of working
men said balancing these obligations was very challenging and half of the
fathers stated they did not spend enough time with their children. However
there are strategies that both an employer and an employee can work toward
achieving work-life balance and some are mentioned below.
- Adopt to prioritize the work-life balance with more focus on personal priorities
- Govern how employees spend their time and energy at work
- Providing Work-hour flexibility
- Prioritizing employers and businesses with healthy work-life balanced environments
- Improve the knowledge and use of technology
- Support on drawing clear lines between work and personal lives
- Designing flexible work schedules
- Granting required vacations and elective sabbaticals
- Providing facilities for teleworking or work from home
- Providing facilities for child care
- Establishing workplace amenities like gyms and subsidized cafeterias
While it's encouraging
to see organizations embrace work cultures that promote a healthier work-life
balance, it's also critical for employees to take the lead in changing their
work habits. Though it used to be the norm for some professionals to work long
hours and late nights on a daily basis, there is currently a gradual but
obvious trend in many sector toward a healthier work culture.
EEE Spectrum (2021). Learn Who We Have to Thank for the Term Work-Life Balance. Available at: https://spectrum.ieee.org/learn-who-we-have-to-thank-for-the-term-worklife-balance. Accessed on 19 December 2021
Pew Research Centre. Raising Kids and Running a Household: How Working Parents Share the Load. Available at: https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2015/11/04/raising-kids-and-running-a-household-how-working-parents-share-the-load/#striking-a-work-family-balance-is-hard-most-parents-say. Accessed on 19 December 2021
you touched on lower absenteeism. would you say this is due to work life balance or more around the morale of employees?
ReplyDeleteI think it’s the both Akila, as Morale is high with organizations where work life balance is there. According to some researches and surveys, most popular reasons for short term absence are minor illnesses and home responsibilities whereas longer absences are typically caused by recurring health problems, accidents outside of work and mental ill health. On the other hand it is clear that unscheduled absences appear to be lower at organizations that rate morale as high. This is mostly because those organizations look after their employees and their families well by providing a work culture with better work life balance. Hope you got a answer.
ReplyDeleteI think working beyond standard working hours, unhealthy work life causes employees to feel irritable, anxious, depressed and poor morale. This causes employee burnout, poor productivity and high turnover. By balancing work life, it makes the employees stressless which helps to increase productivity, improving physical and mental health of the employees and reduce turn over. Having more productive staff and positive presence causes organization’s future more beneficial.
ReplyDeleteYes Malaka. I agree with you. I even discussed this in my article Managing Employee Wellbeing at Workplace.
DeleteGood article Piumi, it is simply essential rationale, when most of the employees have encountered a pessimistic impact on their own life, including absence of self-awareness, physical and emotional well-being issues, and helpless connections and helpless home life they won't feel empowered or cheerful enough in their own lives to give 100% in work. By permitting employees to advance their work life balance, the organization will see a more prominent reaction which will have a massively beneficial outcome on the organization.
ReplyDeleteThank you Oshadi. Yes your point is totally agreeable.
DeleteImpressive article Piumi. good work-life balance means we have harmony between the different aspects of our life. The benefits gained from each area are able to support and strengthen the others. Many people are learning to blend their work and personal lives successfully .
ReplyDeleteThank you Chathurika.
DeleteAchieving work life balance is crucial in today's fast-paced world. This comprehensive exploration highlights the challenges, benefits, and strategies for both employers and employees, emphasizing the importance of fostering supportive work environments and leveraging technology effectively.
ReplyDeleteThank you Neha.
Delete