Employers who adhere to industry best practice rules regarding work life balance experience better productivity results, reduced absenteeism and their employees have a greater job satisfaction. This fact alone makes it worthwhile for workplaces to implement the measures that will achieve balanced work life outcomes.
Workplace flexibility requires participation from the employees as much as it needs a good will approach by the employers. This flexibility will in turn allow employers to achieve their business goals and at the same time allow workers to manage their lifestyle and family obligations. By establishing family friendly policies and practices, employers can help staff achieve their personal as well as professional goals in a controlled manner.
Seven strategies that will help toward more equal and family friendly workplace are listed below:
1. Arrange training and development seminars and courses during normal work hours. Cutting into people’s personal time is one way of depriving employees from having a normal work life balance in their lives and can contribute to their dissatisfaction.
2. Keep absent employees up to date with what is going on at work and any changes since they had gone on leave. This includes employees on workers compensation, maternity, paternity or adoption leave.
3. Allow flexible hours that suit both the employer and the staff. Employees should be accommodated to have flexible hours if they need to pick their children up from school or look after their elderly family member as an example.
4. Employers should provide certain periods of paid paternal leave and also unpaid leave during school holiday periods. This will accommodate parenting and career needs at the same time.
5. Make sure that as many staff meetings are organized when most workers can attend. Avoid organizing workplace meetings be it the professional or more fun gatherings, at times when most people are away, around school or public holidays for example.
6. Create meaningful part-time employment opportunities for workers who have small children or need to take care of their elderly family members. This may include arrangements such as working from home few days per week to accommodate personal needs.
7. There is no use of having good work life balance policies if the employees are not informed about them. Ensure that workers and potential job applicants are aware of the measures that the company has put in place in terms of benefits and to support staff’s family and lifestyle friendly workplace.
The benefits of creating family and work life balance friendly policies and putting them into practice include:
– staff retention and attracting new employees; making the company a desirable workplace in the industry to become an employer of choice
– improved staff morale that will lead to a larger workforce engagement and reduced absenteeism
– turnover reduction that will result in decreased cost of recruiting and training
As our society, our lives and subsequently our workplace changes, both employees and businesses need to be mindful of the need for work life balance in the workplace. This means that employees need to adjust to the general business climate and the companies need to constantly review their policies and provisions ensuring they are not outdated of irrelevant to their business.