THREE PRINCIPLES FOR WORK-LIFE BALANCE
Work-life balance is one of today’s hot topics! People are now focusing on their quality of life both at home as well as at work. They are also placing just as much value on their time at home as they do at work. In the past, especially true for men, they were expected to spend a majority of their time and energy at work. Today, men are also wanting more time at home. The majority of women that work outside of the home are also requiring more flexibility with their employers. A few examples of flexibility in the workplace include, but not limited to: part time schedules, shorter hours, job-shares, later starting times, earlier ending times to their days, day care centers at work, more flexibility when children have doctor appointments or when children are ill, more vacation time and time-off in general.
In order to remain competitive in the marketplace, many corporations now have created programs that help their employees balance the two sides of their lives! If handled properly, this can be accomplished with little or no cost to either the company or the employee.
The following are three principles that help accomplish a “win-win” situation for a work-life balance:
1. Make sure that employees understand priorities and encourage them to be equally clear about their personal priorities. The work of the organization must get done, and the work-life balance cannot be an excuse for letting it slide. On the other side, work cannot be an excuse for letting important personal matters slide. Employees must be clear on their company goals and performance expectations as well as their goals as a family member and an individual. What a corporation needs to do is to give their employees specific goals but also great autonomy over how to achieve those goals!
2. Recognize and support employees as “whole people” with important roles outside the workplace. Managers can only deal with work-life conflict if they understand and show some interest in the nonworking lives of their employees. Showing a sincere interest in your employees creates a bond and, with it comes trust. Trust between your managers and your employees is invaluable!
3. Continually experiment with how work gets done. Intelligent managers know that work processes must be periodically rethought and redesigned for greater efficiency and effectiveness. Work-life balance provides opportunities to experiment with these processes. In describing managers who have successfully adopted work-life balance, researchers have concluded that “conflicts between work and personal priorities can actually be catalysts for identifying work inefficiencies that might otherwise have remained hidden.”
In a dynamic environment, the best way of doing things is by always changing! Flexibility is one way of the ways we adapt to change and survive! Managed correctly, work-life balance can actually improve morale, increase productivity, and help you hire and retain the best employees!
Nancy J. Phillips, CPC
