Supporting your staff : work life balance policies
An effective work-life balance strategy is not simply about complying with the law; it’s about finding out about your employees’ needs and priorities, and considering how they can be met in ways that are consistent with the needs of your business. Remember that the work-life balance ethic should also apply to the business owner and its senior managers.
Work-life balance policies are an important way for you as an employer to show your commitment to the quality of life of your employees. By building and protecting your reputation as a good employer you will find it easier to attract and retain productive and talented employees in your organisation.
Work-life balance can be defined as
- being aware of different demands on time and focus
- having the ability to make choices in the allocation of that time and focus
Why employers should be interested in offering flexible working
The world of work is changing. We now live in a 24/7 society and customers increasingly expect services at times that fit around them. You need to be available when your customers want you otherwise they may go elsewhere. If you are open for business when your competitors are not you have a clear advantage over them. Your customers will appreciate being able to deal with you outside of ‘normal office hours’ at a time that is convenient to them. It’s a bit like going to the bank during your lunch break only to find unacceptably long queues because the bank staff have gone for their lunch break! So you can see that it makes sound business sense to have staff available to cover extended hours of the day. The trick is to resource appropriately so you have enough staff to available to cope with the busy times and resource less intensively for the less busy periods. If your business is seasonal that goes for months of the year as well as hours of the day.
Embracing all employees
Much of the discussion around work-life balance focuses on the need for ‘family-friendly’ policies to accommodate the needs of working parents with young children. But this is really too narrow a focus and by taking this approach you could alienate many of your employees. In the UK, several million people already act as carers for elderly or disabled friends or members of their family, and employees with no dependants may have commitments within the community, or they may want time to travel, study or spend more time engaging in leisure activities. Whatever the pressures on their time your employees will appreciate the opportunity to make the relevant choices and decisions that enable them to reach an acceptable balance in their lives.
Another common misconception is that work-life balance is just for women. Many men stand to benefit from work-life balance policies in their roles as fathers, partners or dependants and equally may want to make choices on how they wish to balance how they spend their time.
Business benefits of offering work life balance options
Your business is likely to benefit from implementing policies to underpin work-life balance choices by:
- higher productivity and commitment from your employees
- increased competitiveness to your business
- increased flexibility in hours of operation
- improved customer service
- reduced absenteeism
- improved recruitment and retention of a diverse workforce
- becoming an ‘employer of choice’
- meeting legal requirements
The biggest obstacle to implementing good practice is in many cases the difficulty of persuading individual line managers to accept more flexible working arrangements. This resistance is often based on assumptions about the likely problems that flexibility will cause and a needing to adopt a different approach to scheduling and managing their teams.
Flexible working options
There is no 'one size fits all' pattern of work-life balance practices. It is important that as an employer you offer practices that appeal to all your employees. Here are some examples of ways you could provide some options to your staff:
- Offering more flexible work patterns such as
- part-time working
- variable working hours
- job sharing
- working from home
- term-time-only working
Offering extended leave and other time off arrangements
Although periods of extended leave, whether paid or unpaid, are neither appropriate for nor sought by large numbers of employees, they can be beneficial in particular circumstances.
Other forms of leave
- career breaks
- sabbaticals
- study leave
- secondments, typically within a career development programme but also as a community support activity.
As well as flexible working practices and additional leave, employers can offer extra support through:
- employee assistance programmes
- financial services eg subsidised insurance or loans
- loans or allowances to help pay for childcare
- workplace facilities such as crèches or medical centres
- encouraging ‘wellness’ to improve health
Supporting your staff : work life balance policies
An effective work-life balance strategy is not simply about complying with the law; it’s about finding out about your employees’ needs and priorities, and considering how they can be met in ways that are consistent with the needs of your business. Remember that the work-life balance ethic should also apply to the business owner and its senior managers.
Work-life balance policies are an important way for you as an employer to show your commitment to the quality of life of your employees. By building and protecting your reputation as a good employer you will find it easier to attract and retain productive and talented employees in your organisation.
Work-life balance can be defined as
- being aware of different demands on time and focus
- having the ability to make choices in the allocation of that time and focus
Why employers should be interested in offering flexible working
The world of work is changing. We now live in a 24/7 society and customers increasingly expect services at times that fit around them. You need to be available when your customers want you otherwise they may go elsewhere. If you are open for business when your competitors are not you have a clear advantage over them. Your customers will appreciate being able to deal with you outside of ‘normal office hours’ at a time that is convenient to them. It’s a bit like going to the bank during your lunch break only to find unacceptably long queues because the bank staff have gone for their lunch break! So you can see that it makes sound business sense to have staff available to cover extended hours of the day. The trick is to resource appropriately so you have enough staff to available to cope with the busy times and resource less intensively for the less busy periods. If your business is seasonal that goes for months of the year as well as hours of the day.
Embracing all employees
Much of the discussion around work-life balance focuses on the need for ‘family-friendly’ policies to accommodate the needs of working parents with young children. But this is really too narrow a focus and by taking this approach you could alienate many of your employees. In the UK, several million people already act as carers for elderly or disabled friends or members of their family, and employees with no dependants may have commitments within the community, or they may want time to travel, study or spend more time engaging in leisure activities. Whatever the pressures on their time your employees will appreciate the opportunity to make the relevant choices and decisions that enable them to reach an acceptable balance in their lives.
Another common misconception is that work-life balance is just for women. Many men stand to benefit from work-life balance policies in their roles as fathers, partners or dependants and equally may want to make choices on how they wish to balance how they spend their time.
Business benefits of offering work life balance options
Your business is likely to benefit from implementing policies to underpin work-life balance choices by:
- higher productivity and commitment from your employees
- increased competitiveness to your business
- increased flexibility in hours of operation
- improved customer service
- reduced absenteeism
- improved recruitment and retention of a diverse workforce
- becoming an ‘employer of choice’
- meeting legal requirements
The biggest obstacle to implementing good practice is in many cases the difficulty of persuading individual line managers to accept more flexible working arrangements. This resistance is often based on assumptions about the likely problems that flexibility will cause and a needing to adopt a different approach to scheduling and managing their teams.
Flexible working options
There is no 'one size fits all' pattern of work-life balance practices. It is important that as an employer you offer practices that appeal to all your employees. Here are some examples of ways you could provide some options to your staff:
- Offering more flexible work patterns such as
- part-time working
- variable working hours
- job sharing
- working from home
- term-time-only working
Offering extended leave and other time off arrangements
Although periods of extended leave, whether paid or unpaid, are neither appropriate for nor sought by large numbers of employees, they can be beneficial in particular circumstances.
Other forms of leave
- career breaks
- sabbaticals
- study leave
- secondments, typically within a career development programme but also as a community support activity.
As well as flexible working practices and additional leave, employers can offer extra support through:
- employee assistance programmes
- financial services eg subsidised insurance or loans
- loans or allowances to help pay for childcare
- workplace facilities such as crèches or medical centres
- encouraging ‘wellness’ to improve health