Work Life Balance
Today’s recruitment market is the toughest we have seen for a long time.
Pressure has increased significantly for employees to work longer and longer
hours while employees are trying to manage decreasing margins and increasing
costs. One of the areas that is currently “hot” is work-life balance. The
employees seem to benefit, but what are the issues for employers?
As we all know the demand for increased productivity, profitability and of
course earning more money has brought about more stressful working environments
than ever before. There would be few people who would not say that they are
working harder than they were ten years ago – whether by choice or because of
their employer’s demands. In turn, this has increased stress levels and forced
lifestyle changes upon us regarding health, family and general well being.
Also, the economy has been strong for a sustained period and the impact of that
on the recruitment tactics of employers is that they need to work harder to
attract potential staff to work for them – these days purely salary is not
enough. Add to that the fact that turnover in staff reduces profits and damages
morale, employers have been forced to review their employment practices with
this issue in mind.
Like most new management trends, the application of this strategy varies
greatly from company to company. The extremes range from the provision of
in-house child care, time off to attend school functions, financial
counselling, parenting seminars and life work balance training down to an
opportunity to work from home or flexible working hours. The benefits can be
far reaching – reduced staff turnover, increased loyalty and productivity,
lower absenteeism, reduced occupational health and safety claims, far easier to
recruit staff as people WANT to work for you – these are of course key issues
for most businesses but particularly those planning to grow and expand.
How far you go is really up to you – and it is vital is to get total “buy in”
from the senior management of the organisation. If they are not fully behind
this approach it will fail – people are quick to see “lip service” being paid
to this sort of tactic and the benefits will not happen as planned. This is
quite likely to be a cultural change for most companies and a shift in thinking
takes time to permeate throughout the organisation, so commitment needs to be
strong.
Implementing a usable worklife balance plan is simply – set some objectives
and know what you want to achieve. If the skills needed to organise a program
like this do not exist in your organisation and you want to do things on a
significant scale, consider calling in professional help.
There is a Work and Family unit in the Department of Employment, workplace relations and Small Business that offers a guide and resource kit, or websites like
healthworks.com.au to go to for reference. Alternatively if it is manageable,
talk to the key individuals affected and get their input to outline a program.
It doesn’t have to start big, just a few options that consider all parties and
produce the desired effect.
Obviously not all businesses can offer flexible working hours – although we all
saw how well that worked during the Olympics – but there other simple things
that can easily be put together. Have a think about finding a financial
planning expert to come into the office and either conduct a seminar or give
one to one advice – all you need to do is provide the time. You could even
“share” the time with employees – half in their time and half in yours.
Working hours though are definitely a key issue - One of the simplest things to
do is to create the environment where the person working the longest hours is
not necessarily the “winner”. If you don’t recognise and change that then
employees will be reluctant to take up opportunities for fear that they will be
regarded as less dedicated or committed. As mentioned earlier there will often
need to be a shift in the culture of the company whilst this is being
implemented.
The communication of the program – it’s reasons, objectives and
how it will be measured – are critical to ensure that everyone gets the same
message. One issue that has been raised is that non-parents can be
disadvantaged because a lot of measures are geared towards family and parenting
functions so that is worth bearing in mind. Somewhat surprisingly, younger
employees are definitely aware of these issues and are critical in their
evaluation of potential employers and what they offer in this regard.
So in summary there is a lot to be gained longer term by some type of work life
balance program – definitely worthwhile considering as an option if you are an
employer and staff retention and loyalty is important to you.
More Information @ http://www.healthworks.com.au
