When a company attends to the work-life balance
of its employees, the results are easier recruitment, better retention,
and higher productivity. Work-Life balance is the way people divide
their time and energy between work and their personal life. The
right balance varies for different people depending on their age,
stage of life, roles in life, and roles at work, dependent care
responsibilities or special interests. What happens at work affects
life and the cycle of life impacts work and productivity.
Work-Life is the practice of providing initiatives designed to
create a more flexible, supportive work environment, enabling
employees to focus on work tasks while at work.
A highly demanding work environment as well as demanding life
situation can have negative impact on employee productivity. Unable
to manage both, employees may also change jobs in their search
for better balance. This has great financial impact on a company,
and plays havoc with both the flow of work and on internal teams.
Employers can assist employees by making
the culture more supportive, adding programs to meet life
event needs, ensuring that policies give employees as
much control as possible over their lives and using flexible
work practices as a strategy to meet the dual agenda –
the needs of both business and employees.
Global workforce, changing demographics of workforce,
pending workforce demands vs. workforce shortages, new
generations’ preferred work characteristics, increase
in number of women joining conventional/ unconventional
jobs, limited quality child-care options and the quest
for awards and recognition of best practices make a work-life
strategy a crucial business imperative.
Advantages of work-life programs
Research has proved that work-life balance policies bring
in significant benefits to businesses such as:
(Source: 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce,
Families and Work Institute)
Types and Examples of Work-Life
Initiatives
Direct Services such as on site/
near site child care centre, emergency back up care,
transportation.
Alternative Work schedules such as
flexitime, job sharing, part-time work, telework.
Financial Assistance such as voucher
system, discounts, , baby bonuses, and subsidies for
child care expenses related to travel or overtime.
Education and Information Services
such as child care, elder care, and wellness information
and /or resource and referral, seminars and workshops,
resource fairs, supervisor training.
Community Investments such as technical
assistance for child care staff training, scholarship
money for children of low income families, development
of partnerships to solve problems such as elder care
or after-school care.
This article has been written by consultants from ICF
International, a professional services firm that supports
clients with Work-Life Initiatives. Authors can be reached
at msher@icfi.com or vgupta@icfi.com
