Study of Work-Life Balance Issues within Cognizant Technology Solutions

‘’Don’t confuse having a career with having a life” – Hillary Clinton

By

Sayanto Tripathy

Gayathri Easwaran Ayakkad

Khizar

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Contents

1 INTRODUCTION 6

2 WORK-LIFE BALANCE 7

3 SURVEYS 9

3.1 Social-Demographic Profile 9

4 EMPLOYEES’ CHALLENGES 12

5 PROBLEM SOLVING TECHNIQUES 14

5.1 How Cognizant Resolved it 14

5.1.1 HR Point of View 19

5.2 How Employees can Resolve it 21

6 EMPLOYERS' PROBLEMS AND OVERCOMES 22

6.1 Problems 22

6.2 Overcomes 24

6.2.1 Employees acceptance to new Policies 24

6.2.2 What Do Company Gain Out Of Work-Life

Balance 24

7 CONCLUSION 27

8 REFERENCES

28

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Executive Summary

Working in Multinational Companies has become increasingly popular and a matter of prestige. Employees while seeking employment in those MNC seek both job satisfaction and work-life balance. As we slowly progress through our report we discover that people who are well placed in big giants like Cognizant to seek work-life balance and job satisfaction are actually disappointed with the organizational process.

It seeks an answer whether both men and women within Cognizant and other IT companies can balance out their work and life efficiently. At the same time we also try to figure out if companies actually benefit from the policies that they create for the better work-life balance.Women have entered the labor force ad families in the 21st century rely on dual bread earner. This has led many women to face the conflict between their work and personal life and they seek flexibility in the work-place. There are various measure or ways that are adopted by top IT companies like Cognizant that focus on allowing both men and women to make productive contribution to their organization as well as attend their families and other responsibilities.

Our report focuses on

➢ The aspects of our work that interfere with our personal life.

➢ Social Demographic Surveys

➢ Identifying the factors causing the stress within Women in IT industry and why they can't

have it all

➢ Policies , practices that are performed/adopted by Cognizant with reference to work life

balance

In the first section we see a brief overview about Cognizant and also understand the factors that affect the work-life balance of the employees. As we show the surveys, we slowly progress into the Second Section where we understand the challenges faced by employees particularly women during the professional careers and the hardship they undergo. As we need to find solutions to each and every problem, we progress into the Third Section where we understand the policies adopted by Cognizant to resolve the work-life conflicts and how employees can contribute to it. Gradually we move into Fourth Section where we find out through survey how Work-Life conflict costs employee and the policy adopted by organization cost the organization. We gradually find the benefits that employers may find by resolving the conflicts and we conclude our report with the discussion of benefits that organization enjoys by resolving the conflicts.

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Literature Review

In recent years there had been plenty of Debates discussed regarding work life issues with different prospective. Many literatures gave a wide range of outcomes as conflicts between the two issues.

The imbalance not only affected the employees/individuals but also on the overall performance of the Organization. Researcher Murphy and Doherty explain the above statement in a better way. They revealed that – “it is not possible to measure work-life balance in an absolute way as there are personal circumstances which influence the way that is perceived but establishing a harmony that reflects an individual‘s priorities whereas employees must draw a firm line between their home and work lives and be confident that the line is in the right place.”

Reviews of certain researches were taken into consideration in order to accurately define the problem, its objectives and capturing the required methodologies of research under the light of researches already undertaken. One such research that supports our survey and methodology is, Hyman and Summers (2004) classified seven major problems which are associated with current practices over work-life balance these are unevenness of adoption across different sectors and organizations, lack of formalization of policies at organizational level, restricted employee voice over the introduction and implementation of policies , policies are primarily to meet business needs rather than those of employees, there is no evidence of reduction in working hours, tangible and intangible work intrusions into domestic life , domestic responsibilities are still conducted primarily by women irrespective of their employment status.

In addition, to have a better justification to the review of the literature the following studies have been taken into consideration.

1. Factors and health outcomes related to work life conflicts.

2. Individual and work related variables work life conflicts.

3. Issues of how women perceive work life conflicts over men.

4. Individuals’ strategies for work life balance.

5. Company’s strategies for work life balance.

6. Company’s efforts and policy change in order for work life balance.

Furthermore Researchers seem to have used different measure and approaches to define Work-Life Conflicts. Kalliath and Borough during the press release by European Association for People Management identified six different definitions of Work-Life balance :-

1. Work-life balance reflects an individual’s orientation across different life roles,

2. The extent to which an individual is engaged in – and equally satisfied with – his or her work role and family role,

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3. Achieving satisfying experiences in all life domains and to do so requires personal resources such as energy, time and commitment to be well distributed across domains,

4. The extent to which an individual’s effectiveness and satisfaction in work and family roles are compatible with the individuals‟ life role priorities at a given point in time,

5. Low levels of inter-role conflict and high levels of inter-role facilitation contribute to higher levels of perceived work-family balance, and

6. Work-life balance is about people having a measure of control over when, where and how they work.

Cognizant Technology Solutions:-

Headquartered in Teaneck. New Jersey (US), Cognizant combines passion for client satisfaction, deep innovation in technology, traditional business expertise model and a global multicultural workforce. It is estimated to have more than 50 delivery centers worldwide with more than 171000 employees as per 31st December 2013. Cognizant is a proud member of NASDAQ-100, THE FORBES GLOBAL 2000 and FORTUNE 500. It was ranked in 2013 among the top fortune 500 company lists.

Cognizant thrives to make their current operation efficient, cost effective thereby enabling global enterprises. It does invest in millions in innovation to unleash new potential and opportunities within the organization. It started serving external clients in 1996 and thereafter it never looked to stop growing. Cognizant’s IPO was first launched in 1998. It grew fast in 2000s and within the span of 4 years from starting it became a fortune 500 company in 2011. It was thereafter named as the third most admired IT Company after Accenture and IBM.

Cognizant provides information technology, consulting and BPO services which includes system integration , application development , IT infrastructure , data warehousing , CRM and the list goes on till supply chain management. The organization has a large number of offshore development centers and onsite development centers within US and Europe. Cognizant is one of the top 10 companies that get H1B visas to bring immigrant workers into US.

Cognizant is organized into vertical and horizontal units. The vertical units focus on Banking, Healthcare, Retail, and Technology. The horizontal units focus on analytics, mobile computing, BPO and testing.

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1 INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this article is to analyze the vision and mission of Cognizant Technology Solution and how it affects the employer’s work-life balance. The study does focus majorly on the issues faced within Cognizant Technology Solution but at the same time it also emphasizes on the work life balance issue that are being faced by many similar IT organization.

As Cognizant moves quite positively towards technological achievements, the increasing work demand has intruded the family and social life and this has a disturbing effect on the employers during their work hours.

Cognizant believes in transforming business by globalization, virtualization, a new generation of millennial workers and technology innovations. As per believes go, Cognizant believes in:-

● Rethink their business models to change the ways they interact with their customers, employees and partners. We help them reshape their operations and processes to increase productivity and gain competitive advantage.

● Reinvent their workforces to reflect the millennial mindset and its flexible, open and inclusive approach to work. We can help companies adopt new tools to enable knowledge sharing and drive productivity and innovation.

● Rewire their operations that are being transformed by social networks, mobile devices, "big data" analytics, and cloud computing. We can help clients use these technologies to find new ways to increase operational flexibility, lower costs and decrease time to market.

Cognizant Approach:-

The widely know Cognizant approach which becomes too itchy at times is:-

➢ Client First Mindset: - At cognizant clients come first. At the stake of employers satisfaction?

➢ Two in Box Relation: - At cognizant, all the projects have onsite team leader and offshore team members to ensure seamless coordination between clients requirements.

➢ Web 2.0 based platform: - Cognizant 2.0 knowledge based management and seamless sharing of work.

➢ Talented Teams: - Strive to employ the best and brightest in a number of 500-1000 from each university who can think strategically about client’s need.

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2 WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Work Life Balance can be perceived by different people at different levels in an entirely different way. To me if I want to make sure I want to watch Football World Cup matches every day, I need to find organization where time is flexible. As told in Glass door Press Release by Rusty Rueff “Companies that make sincere efforts to recognize employees’ lives outside of the office will often see the pay off when it comes to recruiting and retaining top talent.” This clearly points towards one direction stating work-life balance looks to be virtually impossible in today’s highly connected world. IT industries like Cognizant, Tata Consulting Service, IBM, and Infosys has been a flourishing and a dynamic one contributing to country like India’s GDP. Cognizant is often seem to be characterized by “low employee commitment level”, “stressful nature of job”

The term work-life balance describes rightfully the balance between an individual’s work and personal life. High work-life balance tends towards better job satisfaction, better job involvement and last but not the least – A healthy relation in HOME. As per the research conducted by Asian Journal of Multidimensional Research, the whole concept of Work-Life Balance was restricted to employers that constituted majority of males and less females. But as Women Empowerment became a global slogan and families are no more dependent into male breadwinners but have shifted to Dual earner couples, the concept of work-life balance has become more broad and complex.

Indians who are highly susceptible to demanding careers are left with little time to spend with their family. The Nielsen Global conducted an online consumer survey in April 2008 which included 28,253 users from 511 countries across Europe, Asia Pacific, North America and West Asia. The financial problems and slowdown seems to be a worry globally but to Indians working in IT company it’s the Work-Life balance that make them worried more .

Bio Med Central had conducted a survey that was restricted to 4000 employees of Cognizant worldwide aged from 24 to 55 years. It was seen that every 8th person was susceptible to the work-life conflict concept. It was also observed that the conflict was arousing within the employees who are highly qualified and/or in managerial positions. While to men, the managerial position was biggest factor they thought for work-life conflict; to women it was the employment along with work schedule that was dominating factor towards work-life conflicts. The diagram below (Fig 1) shows the factors that were taken into consideration for this survey.

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Fig 1: factors and health outcomes that are expected to be associated with work-life conflict.

Two different types of work life discussed are:-

1. Time Based Work Life conflict: How much an employee works one day plus the extra part time which has to be done due to the demand by the business?

2. Strain Based Work Life conflict: An amount of stress and strain an employee faces between work and other family stressors like health, life distress etc.

In short, men reported (15.6%) high or very high Work-Life Conflict compared to women (12%). In another scenario, when men and women shared the common job status and level of employment, women in managerial positions (22.2%) and full time jobs (16%) showed higher Work-life conflict than their male co-workers in same positions (20.6%) and jobs (14%)

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3 SURVEYS

3.1 Social - Demographic Profile:

The report uses survey data collection process that was done during the year or 2011-2012. The sample consists of around 600 employees from Cognizant Technological Solutions from almost all the branches within INDIA.

The samples to be specific were collected from a set of 305 IT executives who are at mid positions, 219 junior levels or are at fresher level and 76 from senior level. The samples includes equal number of males , females, undergraduates , postgraduates and almost 49% of single status and 51% of married.

Factors Relating to Work Life Conflict Average Employees Agreeing

Checking mail from home and responding them on urgent basis.

231

Taking part in other projects to show the skills apart from their normal project.

213

Tight deadline that leads to work during weekends.

180

Follow up with office on urgent issues while being on vacation

237

Working from home till late night 241

Attend work related conference and sacrifice personal family time

235

Coming office early during scheduled client meetings

170

9

Checking M

ail fr

om home

Takin

g part

in other

projec

t

Tight D

eadlin

es

Follo

w up during V

acations

Worki

ng fro

m home

Attend W

ork Confer

ence

Coming Office

Early

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

The data observed above has been refined further based on the individual gender and marital status.

❏ GENDER :-

Work Related Factor Affecting Personal Life

Always Often Rarely Never

MALE 55 79 52 11

FEMALE 93 46 22 5

10

Male Female0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

AlwaysOftenrarelyNever

❏ MARITAL STATUS :-

Work Related Factor Affecting Personal Life

Always Often Rarely Never

MARRIED 89 79 24 20

SINGLE 73 52 56 18

0

10

2030

4050

60

7080

90100

AlwaysOftenRarelyNever

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Apart from this raw sample we have analyzed some of the reviews posted online and taken them into consideration.

The sample questions that were asked to understand the work-life conflicts are:-

❏ Checking mail from home and responding to them on urgent basis.❏ Taking part in other projects to show the skills apart from their normal project.❏ Tight deadline that leads to work during weekends.❏ Follow up with office on some urgent issues while being on vacation❏ Working from home till late night.❏ Attend work related conferences and events sacrificing personal family time.❏ Coming to office early during the schedule client meetings.

Let’s discuss few of the work-life conflicts faced by women and men individually in Cognizant Technology Solutions.

4 EMPLOYEES’ CHALLENGES Women Competing with Men:-

An important factor of work-life is the amount of hours an employee spends at work. Evidences suggest that higher working hours will impair more personal health issues. Today’s women have equal ambitious careers to look forward as men, but do they carry the same level of work life balance?

Work life conflict happens when we are unable to do our different roles within the required time and energy. Hence resulting of accomplishing one role makes it increasingly difficult to accomplish the other.

Although women have become career oriented and working professionals, the traditional concept of women as homemaker has not been washed out from people’s mind. So they are striving hard for work-life balance. Almost all women are involved in the 8 hours per day and 5 days a week work where they need to cope up with work targets, tight meeting schedules and responsibilities of life and home. When a woman achieves a perfect work-life balance, she has job satisfaction and becomes more involved and productive in her career. On the other side when she is incapable in balancing her work-life and unable to set her priorities she withdraws from her work.

As per the survey conducted within Cognizant, the findings were quite disturbing and startling .It was found that for many women who focus on high ambitious career and try to manage their work-life balance by symmetrizing male-female relation have to throw out the possibilities of bearing a child .As per the Harvard Review Survey, it was found that work-life conflicts had resulted in 49% of working women worldwide as childless. Many women have

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left their organization to attain a peaceful-stable life thereby sacrificing their ambitious achievements that they had dreamt of.

Men in almost all the IT companies always face an unequal opportunity regarding work-life as they are expected to be the financial supporters of the family. The lines between work and home are increasing blurring as anytime the phone vibrates and demands a responsiveness to work. Career flexibility is not provided for men. They work long hours which tend to skip meals, social events and time spent with families so that they can reach the top of the ladder.

A famous example explains what happens if you miss out time with your health, family, friends and integrity and focus only in work.

It’s known as five balls of life. Consider each of them as balls. The rubber ball i.e. work will keep bouncing in life and the others made of glass once dropped will be irrevocably scuffed or even shattered.

Let’s Hear from our Cognizant Women:-

● Career oriented women who are at managerial position have stated that marriage is a biggest challenge in front of them when they have other challenges from the organization. Their professional life which is too intense and leave them no personal space make their conditions tougher. When we tried to refer some scholarly articles to support this issue, we found that Harvard Review states only 45% of highly professional women are married at their older age. Chitra Swami, 45, currently director of one of the project in Cognizant when asked about her opinion stated she has no room to think about having a family. When asked about the reasons, she honestly stated that it was her long project hours and frequent travel that kept her away from social life and it seems to haunt her these days. It was interesting to hear from Pratibha Patil, 37, who is currently a Team lead to state that men are least interested to escort ambitious women and choose them as their life partners.

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Harvard findings state that 9/10 women who are in high position within their organization marry men who are self employed or the ones who earn 1000000$ per year.

● Adding to this Marriage issue comes Time Crunch issue. Cognizant policy states employee should work for 40 hours per week. But when we asked feedback from women at good position, we were startled to find out that 34% of the women surveyed had to work for more than 50 hours a week .To refine the survey, most of the Cognizant Director who are women had to be on the business trips almost at an average 5 times a day in each month .Jerry Jacobs, a sociologist researcher, confirmed in his findings that large number of women work for more than 50 hours a week in Cognizant USA. 50 hours a week work means a minimum of 10-11 hrs work per day which leaves them with no space for personal lives.

● Earlier days it was said that work that belongs to women should be left to them and men cannot excel in those .This theory costs women a lot as per the sayings of Cognizant Women. They believe that men have not taken any significant share of house works and this leaves them with a great burden of managing household and office works. When we surveyed women to know how much less burden do they feel when they are dealing with household works , we just had a laugh within our self. It is found that only 9% of men help women in food preparation and this drop to 5% when it comes to cleaning .Hardly 9% take leave when their child is sick and 2% help their children with home works. Harvard supports our finding by stating that 43% of high achieving women feel that men create more household work for them rather than helping them to solve it.

While it seems completely unfair for women to sacrifice their motherhood and focus more on their career, it might seem pretty risky for the business when awareness is being raised on these issues.

5 PROBLEM SOLVING TECHNIQUES

5.1 How Cognizant resolved it:-

The very first and foremost task for the employees to solve work-life conflicts would be crafting more meaningful work-life policies. This can be challenging but saying that nothing is impossible. Every employee needs fixed and stringent work timings which should be the first step Cognizant can leap into. When it comes to women the timings are crucial.

While we surveyed many men and women in Cognizant, Devikala, 37, said: - 3-4 years back she enjoyed working a lot and had given her best to the company. She found the company policies great and it encourages her to deliver the best. Until today when she has a children, her main worry now is the work timings that extend to 45-46 hours a week and this affects her personal life leaving her with almost no time to spare with her child .She now asks the company to follow a stringent schedule.

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While surveying not only Cognizant but other IT companies too within India , we found that employers have recognized the work-life conflict issue and are redefining their policies .While some offer paid parenting leave , many offer job sharing opportunities and almost half of the company prefer work at home schemes. Let’s have a look at few of the effective policies that have been adopted and have paid off to resolve the conflicts within Cognizant Technology Solutions:-

● Flexible Work Time: - refers to individuals working outside the boundary of 9-5 working hours. It lets the employees to do their work between a set numbers of time intervals while completing the agreed number of working hours in a work week. Employees are given greater freedom to schedule their time according to the needs of their job description and position. There are many situations in a company when business requires flexibility from their employees. This could lead to change in working hours or arrangement of shifts to meet the business or customer demands. It could be due to completion of an important project within tough deadline. Flexible work schedules create more willingness, job involvement and retention in employees.

● Telecommuting: - Telecommuting refers to the practice for employees working at a site other than their primary work location; this could be their home or a remote location. Under this facility, employee maintains contact with his colleagues, team members and supervisors via internet, email or telephone. New technologies had made a noticeable change in the way an employee can communicate with his peers and clients. It has been recognized as an arrangement which benefits both employers and workers mutually. But this at the same time has been criticized by Cognizant employees too. Also, sometimes workplace is very distant from the employee residence and it takes plenty of time to reach office while getting stuck in the traffic. Employees who telecommute usually save considerable time which can be allocated to family or any productive activity. Cognizant Director - Mr. Ram, 54, feels that employers are benefited with the valued employee’s retention, less need for office space and increased productivity from employees. There is a perception among the workers practicing telecommuting that they are less exposed to increased career opportunities and advancements. People may face less recognition for their work through performance reviews. Sometimes, position requires monitoring, supervising and managing roles which could lead other team members to avail those who are often found in at the workplace. As, telecommuters have less face to face contact with the management, special planning needs to be placed to such type of workers to get the work done.

● Job sharing: - Job sharing involves splitting a full-time job between two employees who share the job responsibility, compensation and benefits. Usually people who require to take care of their children, sometimes infants and also to look after aging parents find this policy highly beneficial. Cognizant encourages its employees to usually adopt to share job on daily basis or weekly basis. Daily basis may comprises of morning and evening shifts where most of the time industry is customer facing or manufacturing, where longer working hours required. Sometimes people work around 50-60 hours a week which can lead

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to stress and job dissatisfaction. Job sharing enables employees to spend more time into non-office related activities reducing the chances of stress and early burnout. Studies have shown that job sharing has increased the productivity of employees as the workload is being shared and working hours are reduced giving an employee the chance to perform at his best because for longer hours the energy level gradually goes down as the clock ticks. On the contrary, financial consideration should also be taken into account as an employee, while sharing the workload and working hours, salary and benefits are also shared among the people. Also, pension plans are not much appealing for such cases. But in the end, this is all related to priorities of a person, whether the priority is money, job satisfaction or the time devoted for family and other activities.

● Compressed Workweeks: - An Interesting policy that has been adopted by an Cognizant Technology Solutions is Compressed Workweeks. Some employees prefer to work for long hours but less days in a week, that means they work for 10 hours a day to get an extra day off from the work week. This could give them some extra time to spend with family and friends or they may involve themselves into some rejuvenating activity which helps them to reduce the work stress and charge their batteries upon return to work. Tata consultancy Service on the other hand seems to be too reluctant to adopt this policy as TCS-HR, Aditi Rao, 37, feels that various Cognizant Projects need daily client meeting and adopting such policy can hamper Client Relation.

● Career Break or Sabbatical Leave: - A sabbatical is a leave from work for a period of time. Usually this type of leave is unpaid and employee avail these leaves for their coursework, training, rest or travel. This is unlike taking vacations which is for a short period of time ranging from couple of weeks to a month. It helps the workers to de –stress, rest and return back to work with full pace and charge. Employee often take this opportunity to learn new course, develop skills or training purposes, this may or may not relate to employee responsibilities at work. It is observed that it helps to improve the relationship with spouse and family and employee returns with more focus and replenished energy. As these leaves are normally unpaid, there is a risk of financial instability while at leave, so this needs to be taken after proper planning and budgeting. Also, health insurance might not be covered for the same period of absence at work. Sabbaticals should be taken with taking the reporting line into confidence and discussing the importance and need of the leave to reduce or diminish the impact on service-related benefits, restriction for promotion and performance evaluation and job guarantee upon return. Cognizant Technology and many IT companies encourage sabbatical leave as they believe employee take rest from the work and at the same time they come with more skills.

● Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) :- An employee assistance program is a set of service that Cognizant offers to its employee and immediate family members to cope up with everyday issues. The aim is to help employees with preventive and proactive measures for identification and resolution of personal and work related problems. With this

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program, usually employees have access to counselors who are available by telephone or can be accessed in person, if required.

● Personal Development and Growth: - Employees are very much concerned about the personal development and career growth. Cognizant and many IT companies offer mentoring programs and trainings which are paid by the company and usually these training are given by the industry experts who help employees to gain knowledge and perform better in their current roles or move them up to a higher level where they can take more responsibility and higher compensation. Some employers also offer tuition reimbursement program, it is usually offered to the persons who want to obtain specialized training, degree or certifications. This is usually useful for the employees who couldn’t complete their education for any reason and want to resume or complete it, or the personnel whose job role require some specific training or qualification to maintain the job role or to progress in the career. This program creates a highly positive image for the company, keeping the employees satisfied and contented. It develops an impression in employee that company cares for them and seeks company’s growth along with their personal growth.

● Arrangement of Family events and activities: - Cognizant and Tata Consulting Service follow a very strong culture of social gatherings among employees and their families. Employers arrange picnics, family dinners, and outdoor events to involve employee and their families with the company. This also creates bonding between the employee families and builds an impression that everybody working in a company is like a family to the employer. It also helps to reduce the gap between the Bosses and employees, as they equally take participation in such activities and their families mix with each other and spend time together.

● Employee Recognition and Awards :- Employee are more willing to stay in the company where they are treated nicely and equally rewarded, sometimes this reward could be in terms of bonus, salary raise or company wise recognition. Usually in service industry and fast food chains, employees are being awarded with the “employee of the month” award. Sense of achievement is a high driving force for employees and a big cause for employee retention in a company. It boosts the overall productivity and performance of the employee and the awarded employee becomes a role model for his peers and other also strive to work hard, perform better in order to get the title and recognition. Cognizant strictly believes in this policy and every quarter it carries out award ceremony. It also encourages the team to carry out weekly “Hats-Off” Awards.

● Discount on company products or services: - Some companies give a percentage discounts on the company products or services for their employees. This helps employees to stay with the company in the long run as these discounts are ultimately helping them financially or reducing their costs. Several multinational companies and airlines give discounts on their product and services to facilitate employees and their families. Cognizant gives its employee discount on huge brands of restaurants and movie theaters thereby

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encouraging the employees to check in to more recreational areas as a stress buster from the weekly work activities.

● Staff Parking: - Finding a parking space at your work location is sometimes tedious for employees. Crowded streets and high rush hours sometimes make it impossible for the staff to get their vehicle parked and enter into office on time. To reduce this stress at the beginning of the day, Cognizant often provide staff parking permits for the allotted space or parking areas for the convenience of the employees and to prevent them from frustration and stress earlier in the day. Cognizant believes many of their employees have to come early to the work to avoid stress full parking and this policy will reduce the stress and give them ample time to start from their house.

● Working Part time: - Cognizant and Infosys make regular use of part time employees. Part time employees normally work less than full-time employees. Usually the working hours are 35 hours a week or may be less than that. It gives a great ease to the workers involved in studies, training or having some family obligations. Because they are not working full-time they can attend school, volunteer themselves for a healthy cause, give time to family and children. Workers often have choice to work in mornings, afternoons or evenings at a workplace. Also, during busy days or seasonal periods they could be engaged for longer working hours having increased earnings. Companies usually hire part time workers to lower their costs, as there are often no benefits for the part time employees as compared to the full time employees such as health insurance, paid leaves and other fringe benefits. The goal of this policy is to reduce the burden of regular employees thereby preventing the work-load and overtime stay.

● Wellness Programs and Gym Subsidies: - Wellness programs are usually advisory and motivating method for employee to maintain healthy lifestyle, to exercise and take proper diet. Many IT companies including Cognizant believe that a healthy employee contributes productive environment and less stress at work. These programs offers fitness awareness, healthy diet information to workers, giving subsidies on healthy lunches and a company gym. Employee engaged in company wellness programs have more positive attitude towards work and they have high team-oriented approach. It also helps an individual to recover from a stress or trauma or any kind of addiction. It creates a sense of friendship and trust among the employees and involves them in healthy activities which are not specific to work. Employee gets motivated and being supported by the peers after seeing other’s positive results. Although, this requires an initial investment and administration for a company but it consequently brings the higher productivity and efficiency of the employees. Also, it may help the company to reduce the absenteeism and earn valued employees involvement and trust.

5.1.1 HR Point of View:

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We tried to find out from the Cognizant HR who redesigned their policies to know if there are any risks associated with the policies that they have adopted. The risk associated included factors like huge initial investment, Withdrawals of employees, Lack of communications, huge cash outflows. The below table is as per the reviews from 5-6 Cognizant HR and 10 Directors of different project within the organization.

Work-Life Balance Programs Risk Associated

Flexible Work Time 43%

Telecommuting 60%

Job Sharing 30%

Compressed Workweeks 15%

Career Break or Sabbatical Leave 85%

Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) 2%

Personal Development and Growth 12%

Arrangement of Family events and activities

45%

Employee Recognition and Awards 78%

Discount on company products or services

67%

Staff Parking 10%

Working Part time 49%

Wellness Programs and Gym Subsidies

85%

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Flexib

le W

ork Tim

e

Telec

ommuting

Job Shari

ng

Compressed

WorkW

eeks

Sabbati

cal Le

ave

EAP

Personal

Growth

Arrange

ment o

f family

even

ts

Employe

e reco

gnition

Discounts

Staff Park

ing

Part Ti

me

Well

ness Pro

grams

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

Risk factors

Sales

It’s quite interesting to see that HR of cognizant feels Career break is a highly risky program even though sometimes it’s unpaid. To clear out the confusion, we tried to understand the same and the reason was quite simple:-

❏ The employee is still a part of the organization and sometimes the amidst the career break the employee withdraw from the organization without giving any prior notice or informations.This is mostly seen with Millennial who either find a better opportunity or a breakthrough in their career thereby costing the organization who had invested in the corresponding employee. At the same as the employee is out of business for a certain period of time it makes the life of other employees tougher.

❏ Employee recognition and award which seems to boost employees appear to be highly risky for the employers. Cognizant HR, Madhumita Roy, says that as the employee are awarded with awards or recognition, it sometimes motivate the employee to search for more better opportunities within top 10 Forbes Company and settle with that which cost the employers to an extent . Part-time workers also come with a lot of risk. As the person slowly understands the work and becomes quite a qualified professional, the requirements and the needs of the person increases and an full time employment and benefits becomes the topmost priority.

While reviewing the risk factors, one thing that may have caught your eyes will be Employee Assistance Programs. Monetarily it doesn't seem to be a risk factor, but when it comes to the wellbeing of employees, it’s definitely. The HR of Cognizant says that this program though

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initiated for the well being of employees, is hardly used by them and they prefer to discuss the issue with their colleagues during the break hours. The employees don't find it so easy to reveal their mental stress to the Cognizant Counsel and Madhumita Roy (Cognizant-HR) admits that this policy needs a lot of homework. The stringent and tiring work also makes the wellness programs tougher to work as employees hardly find the time to carry them out.

Cognizant HR policies when reviewed show some flaws definitely. Programs like staff parking and interest loans (being planned and constructed) which are monetary satisfaction are used as a Lure Programs by the cognizant to make employees think that their burdens are being taken care of. Interest Loan is policy that Cognizant is keen on implementing from 2016 where by Cognizant employee working in India will face less interest rates on their loan. Cognizant feels this will reduce their burden to some extent.

5.2 How can employees resolve it:-

Employees, specially the younger generations who are facing long working hours, 24/7 connections with the company and increased pressure of globalization are now demanding changes from their employees. Even elderly people who are currently employed in long working hours are demanding changes that will fit their lifestyles and needs. As per the article published by Kenji Hashumoto from Public Library of Science (PLOS); solving work-life conflict is not the sole responsibility of an employer. It mentions some steps that employee must take in order to find a balance between work and life.

● It would be easy for a person to say “I will live a balanced life and leave no space for stress” rather than “I have a stressed life”.

● Prioritize and Plan your goals.

● Avoid interruptions - In simple words, when you are at office do not think of house & the vice versa.

● Structuring organization is not only enough for an employee or employers. Structuring at home also will solve many work-life conflicts.

● Practice a good time management - set your goals and do the right thing in a right way at the right time.

● Be passionate and enthusiastic - See the opportunity and not the obstacle. Mix with positive people. Chant “You can do it” instead of “You can’t do it”.

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● Enjoying the job that you do at each step and progress which in return will increase your control and achieve a better balance. If you don’t design your life someone else will design it for you which ultimately you won’t like it.

Saying that, it might look easy to overcome work-life conflict. Then why can't employees simply follow the above mentioned thumb rules and look positive towards their work and avoid the conflict. Well everything doesn't come this easy.

Yamini Tendon from Gallup Business Journal mentions some of the key personalities that and individual must carry with himself or herself to skillfully apply the steps to overcome their work-life conflict.

● Communication

● Negotiation

● Knowing yourself

● Problem solving

● Resolving conflict

6 EMPLOYERS’ PROBLEMS AND OVERCOMES

6.1 Problems

Work-Life conflict can even incur a ‘COST’:

While we see so many issues, policy. Employees’ expectation, employers concern, why Work-Life Conflict has become a serious issue? Stress, Physical Illness, depression, mental problem is key problems that one may find out related to the conflict between work and life. Some may see it a cost to individuals but when it costs an individual, it’s definitely a cost to the business too. The poorly maintained work-life balance results in absenteeism, poor work performance, lack of motivation, low job engagement. In a nutshell it hampers both the organization’s and individual’s productivity and financial performance.

The survey of 600 initial Cognizant employees shows the frequent problems they face in the in their day to day life due to the work-life conflicts:-

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Problems Number of respondents facing

Extreme Fatigue and Tiredness 410

No time with their family 268

Insomnia and poor diet 145

Low productivity 144

Less time for recreational activity 200

Frequently sick and headaches 129

Stressed, depressed 340

None of the above 110

Extre

me Fati

gue

No famity

Time

Insomnia

Low Pro

ductivit

y

No recre

ational

activit

y

Headach

es

Stress

ed

No Effect

s0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

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6.2 Overcomes

6.2.1 Employees acceptance to new Policies:

A survey was done and the employers were asked about how comfortable they felt with the new policies that Cognizant had adopted to overcome the work-life conflict. The samples used for this survey included 600 people at various levels in the organization.

Work-Life Balance Programs Likelihood

Flexible Work Time 450

Telecommuting 340

Job Sharing 180

Compressed Workweeks 50

Career Break or Sabbatical Leave 245

Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) 56

Personal Development and Growth 239

Arrangement of Family events and activities

230

Employee Recognition and Awards 350

Discount on company products or services

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Staff Parking 3

Wellness Programs and Gym Subsidies 20

6.2.2 What Do Company Gain Out Of Work-Life Balance:

While we come close to our conclusion, we figure out that the individual and business shall benefit a lot if they overcome their work-life conflicts. While we saw Cognizant sees some risk in many of its policy to overcome the conflicts, thorough study by Forbes Business Editor- Tara Weiss states that the risk can be overshadowed by looking at the Long-term advantage the organization might gain.

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● Reputation: - Companies who take the employees work-life balance seriously are widely respected worldwide and are many potential and skillful employees have shown their desire to work with them.

● Staff Attraction: - Not only millennial but even the good old matured workers fall for a perfect work-life balance. The values of work-life balance are considered to be highly beneficial than the financial purposes. Companies who design their work-life policies in an efficient way looks at a higher organizational commitment and less withdrawal. In our Cognizant survey we found 42% of the surveyed employee was more eager to search for a better organization in terms of work-life balance.

● Productivity :- Low stress, less overworked , good mental health leads to a better productivity

● Cost Management: - Policies like flexible work timings, telecommuting cuts down a lot of cost which include office machine cost, office space cost, travel cost and many more.

● Flexible and global Business

Be Smart:-

Harvard, Community business and Cognizant and many others have found, researched and adopted many policies to overcome the work-life balance. But policies need to adopted and applied well. Researches need to be understood and improved .There need to be a strategic approach to work-life balance and how to effectively integrate them:-

1. Establish a Business Case2. Be firm and not half hearted 3. Prioritize the needs4. Develop the initiatives5. Make your Staff Smart6. Time for some action7. Don’t let it go haywire-Monitor it8. Walk the Talk

Each organization will have their own policies and benefits and demerits .The organization should be clear on its goal, on the issues the employees are facing the work-life conflict and understand the mental abilities of the employees. Understanding if the employees are dealing with lot of stress, sickness or if the organization is facing a high employee turnover may require a serious brainstorming. Once identified, benchmark the policies with the other

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organization may be within same fields or different fields. This will mark the beginning of establishing a business case. Once the issues are identified and a case is established, the senior management and the HR should be notified about it with some passion. A approach that has no commitments towards resolving the conflict will never resolve the conflict however relevant it may sound. Communication of the policy to the other employees should be firm and motivational making the employees understand the importance of the work-life balance. Prioritize your needs then .Every business has to be run its own way and cannot be a replica of something else. Conducting online surveys, one to one discussions helps to understand the employees and their problems in regards with work-life conflict. Failure to understand the employee at this stage will result in adopting policy that will be of no help to employees and this may cost financially and also in terms of productivity of the organization. Once the needs are known and the inputs from the employees are understood, one should focus on developing the initiatives. The organization may try to understand here the if the flexible timings will suit the business. If the telecommuting reduces their cost and is effective? Various initiatives can be identified at this stage and policies can be adopted accordingly. Many a times in the organization the policies are well constituted. But the employees have failed to take advantage of them or they are unaware of such policies. Employees need to be trained and made aware of their policies. Employees should also be trained on how to react to such policies and adopt it. Some organization who adopts Flextime policies should make their employees know the rules and regulations of the same. Employees should be trained so that the policies are adopted and administered effectively. Once trained, goes the green signal and time to act accordingly to the policies. As the policies are quite new and are slowly being adopted by the employees, it’s quite crucial for the organization to understand how effective these policies are and one should monitor them. This helps to know if any changes in the policies are required and if the employees are administering it effectively. The work-life balance adopted should not just be a policy adopted but the top management level should follow the policy and reduce the power distance, motivate their employees and make their employees feel more committed towards the organization.

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7 CONCLUSION

“Recognition of a problem is the main passing criteria to take any action. “

Our survey was restricted to the work life problems of only a limited group of employees within the Cognizant and other IT companies. If we look into a bigger picture and comparison, there might be other work life problems which might be even more harsh and serious.    

More than the employees, our surveys suggest new ‘Work Policies’ which can reduce the work life conflicts. Work life policies needs to take into consideration a multifaceted policy approach to set the foundation to change not just special consideration for working mothers. If company chooses the right candidate for the right job, that organization will hold a better place in the market for talented works. In order to attain a high quality workplace the decision makers needs to look into the future and understand what needs to be enabled by the employees and themselves to achieve. It’s understood that if the company/organization recognizes the crucial link of increasing the quality work life balance to that of increasing the employer’s performance and profits, they can surely understand the value work-life balance and take into consideration the means to improve them. Organization’s decision makers or employers should be aware of the proper usage of company policies by the employees. This can help the employers be aware of employees’ attitudes and interest towards the Organization.

Lastly, Employees need to be more precise how to manage their work life balance. As per our survey and Business Week article suggests, employees need to follow certain criteria or steps towards the job in order to avoid much conflicts with their job and life, such as, Identify priorities, get to know your employer’s policies, have a good support system, avoid communication gap, opt for telecommute whenever possible, set a time frame, identify a useful mentor and finally speak up and don’t be too much agreeableness.

“When you’re gone would you rather have your gravestone say, ‘He never missed a meeting.’ Or one that said, ‘He was a great father.’” - Steve Blank

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8 REFERENCES

1. Oliver Hammig, Felix Gutzwiller and George Bauer: - Work Like Balance Factors: - BioMed Central Journal Publication

2. Sylvia Ann Hewlet: - Executive Women and the Myth of having it All: - Harvard Business Review

3. Jacqueline Smith:-Employees for Work-Life Balance: - Forbes Business Journal

4. Rusty Rueff:-Top Companies for Work-Life Balance: - Glass Door Press Release

5. Michael White:-Smart Phones on Holiday:-The Guardian

6. David Guest:-2001 ENOP Symposium Press in Paris

7. State of Work-Life Balance: - Community Business Group

8. Health and Well Being at Work published by World Federation and People Management Association

9. Dr.Debashree Banerjee:-Life among Executives: - Asian Journal of Multidimensional Research

10. Work-Life Scales published by New York Times – Business Day

11. Dr.Mervyl McPherson:-Work Life Balance and Employee Engagement: - Equal Employee Opportunity Trust

12. Dr.Micheal Fron:-Work-Family Conflict and Psychological Disorder:-American Psychological Association

13. Creating People Advantage:-Jointly published By European Association for People Management and Boston Consulting Group.

14. Venessa Wong:-Work-Life Balance Leadership Careers:-Bloomberg Business Week

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