Work Life Balance

Gaining a competitive edge by balancing the demands of employees’

work and home lives

Finding innovative ways to organize our working lives is

vital:

• For a healthy, successful and balanced future, as– Individuals– Elderly and Child Carers– Companies– Communities

Innovative ways of working:

• To help stay ahead in a competitive world

• To attract a wide range of employees

• To demonstrate social responsibilities to stakeholders and the wider communities in which we operate

Why

• Work Life Strategies are an increasingly competitive tool in a globalized economy. Necessary because of trends in:– Demographics– Technology– Social and educational structures– Stakeholder concept– Legislation– Stress and health

Changing families:

• Demise of male breadwinner

• Rise in single parent families

• Many employees perform essential caring roles at home. This part of the workforce is growing tremendously

Target group encompasses more:

• Work Life balance is important for EVERYONE, not just those with caring responsibilities

• Respect for life outside working hours is a BASIC RIGHT that every employee deserves from their employer at different ages and stages of life

Family• Family friendly policies are most successful

in organizations that have a clear understanding of the BUSINESS RATIONALE and who respect the importance of Work Life Balance for ALL EMPLOYEES

• Different ways of working to meet the needs of the modern workforce and modern organization

Business rationale:W/L policies -

• Build employee morale and commitment

• Increase retention and cut staff turnover and its associated costs of recruitment, training and productivity

• Make W/L policies part of you RETENTION and CHANGE strategy

Measure the difference:

• Many costs associated with Work Life Balance policies can readily be measured such as: – better recruitment figures – higher retention – lower levels of absenteeism– Higher productivity– Reduced retraining costs

Measure the difference

What does it cost to do

NOTHING?!

Not as easy to measure, but just as valid:

• Increased employee loyalty and commitment

• Enhanced company image with customers and investors

Work Life Balance:

High returns for relatively little

investment!

Work /Life Policies

• Innovative work organization

• Employee development

• Leave provision

• Employee back-up support

Innovative work organization

• flexitime

• Compressed working week

• Part-time or voluntary reduced hours

• Job sharing

• Annualized hours

• Home/ teleworking

• Term-time working

Employee Development

• Personal development plans and appraisals provide you with an opportunity to review work/life balance

• Also, 360 degree appraisals and employee satisfaction surveys can be used to measure progress

Leave provision

• Maternity / new parental and familyleave

• Career break for carers

• Study leave

• Additional holiday leave in lieu of other employee benefits

• Emergency leave

Employee back-up support

• Information on local back-up service providors

• sponsorships of care schemes

• Payment of allowances such as childcare vouchers

• On-site child care

Critical Success Factors

• Core strategy and objectives

• Organizational culture and attitudes

• Policies and resources

• Employee communications

• Management support and buy-in

• Work re-organization