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Work-life Balance
Reduce stress in the workplace introduce a policy on work-life
balance
Definition of Work-life Balance:
Working practices that acknowledge and aim to support the needs
of staff inachieving a balance between their home and working
lives
HEBS 2002
Each year stress costs UK businesses an estimated 3.7 billion
and the loss of around
80 million working days. Stress can be caused by both work
related factors and home
or family related factors and many employees experience
difficulties juggling their
work responsibilities with their home responsibilities.
By implementing a work-life balance strategy employers can help
to reduce stress in
their employees. This can lead to a more motivated and loyal
workforce, increasedproductivity, reduced absenteeism and it is
also good for PR.
A work-life balance strategy should include family friendly
policies but it is important
to remember that work-life balance is not just for employees
with dependent children.
Other examples include:
Employees at the end of their careers balancing their work with
leisure
opportunities
Employees with dependent elderly relatives
Employees balancing their work with further education
The introduction of work-life balance policies should be
equitable for all employees
and it is important that employees without young children do not
feel discriminated
against.
Factors Influencing Work-life Balance
Over the past generation there have been considerable
demographic changes which
have influenced our working practices, examples of this
include:
Increased number of women working 70% in 2000 compared to 47%
in
1959
Majority of women with dependent children working 65% compared
to
90% of men
Majority of women return to paid employment after childbirth
Increased incidence of one parent families (1 in 4)
Increased life expectancy is resulting in an ageing
population
Elderly relative responsibilities are on the increase 6 million
adults have
care responsibilities for another adult
Trend for starting family later will result in some employees
having both
childcare and eldercare responsibilities
Average age for first baby is 29 and birth rate is 1.7 children
per woman
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Retention and recruitment issues are also relevant to work-life
balance as more and
more employers are recognising that their staff are their most
valuable resource and
the key to business success. Employers will increasingly have to
make themselves
attractive to current and potential employees due to the falling
number of available
workers. Between 1999 and 2010 it is estimated that there will
be 2 million new jobs
in the service industry, it is expected that women will fill two
thirds of these. Asurvey by the CIPD in 2001 showed that two thirds
of respondents had difficulty
recruiting the right calibre of staff. As well as impacting on
productivity these
difficulties have financial costs, it has been estimated that
the cost of recruiting one
employee is at least 5000. A separate survey found this to be 4
times the annual
salary of the post. These costs include lost productivity,
recruitment, advertising and
training.
Another consideration for work-life balance is legislation,
notably the Employment
Act, the Working Time Regulations and the Part-time Workers
Regulations. The
Employment Act has recently been updated and from April 2003
will include more
benefits for staff including increased maternity and paternity
leave.
Practices Supporting Work-life Balance
Work-life balance policies can be made up the following policies
and working
practices:
Policies allowing flexible and innovative working practices, for
example,
flexi-time, annualised hours, staggered hours, job sharing,
working from
home, term-time hours, compressed hours and part-time
working
Leave provision, for example, special leave for emergencies
Employee support services, for example, employee counselling
service orcrche facilities
Employee training and development, for example, objectives and
appraisals to
take into account work-life balance
How to Implement a Work-life Balance Strategy
Before embarking on a work-life balance strategy it is essential
to identify the core
needs of the business, for example, some services like a help
desk may require a staff
presence between certain hours. It is important and useful to
consult with staff at this
stage in order to get their views. Remember that it is often the
staff doing certain jobs
that can come up with the most innovative ideas for improvement.
From this point it
will be necessary to review existing policies and develop a
draft work-life balancestrategy. This should be put out to
consultation to staff and staff groups if appropriate
and it may also be worthwhile running a pilot of the policy.
After a final review the
strategy can be formally launched to all staff. Remember to
include a section in the
strategy for review and evaluation in order that the uptake and
effectiveness can be
reviewed over time.
Sources of information
There is a vast range of information available on work-life
balance. As a first port of
call contact the Health at Work team who can help to review your
individual
workplace situation. For more information see:
www.dti.gov.uk
