Learn the definition of work-life balance. Understand what work-life balance in the workplace is. See a few work-life balance practices used in today's world.
Work-Life Balance | Definition & Examples
Table of Contents
- Work-Life Balance: Definition
- Examples of Work-Life Balance Practices
- Harmful Impact of an Unbalanced Work-Life
- Lesson Summary
Frequently Asked Questions
What is considered a good work-life balance?
A good-work life balance incorporates a healthy work life and a healthy personal life. Work life should not negatively impact someone's personal life and vice versa.
What are the ways of balancing work and life?
Employer-based work-life balance practices can include offering programs that promote healthier lifestyles, flexible vacation times, and paid training. Employees, or people, can leave "work at work and home at home" so that either sphere does not bleed into the other.
What is work/life balance and why is it important?
Work-life balance is a concept that balances the personal lives of employees and their work schedule. It is important so that employees can completely focus their energy at work to be efficient and focus on their private lives to lead a healthier life.
Table of Contents
- Work-Life Balance: Definition
- Examples of Work-Life Balance Practices
- Harmful Impact of an Unbalanced Work-Life
- Lesson Summary
Work-life balance is the trade-off between time spent at work and time spent on other non-work activities. This term pertains to the conflicting schedules of work time and personal time. Many parts of work can have huge effects on someone's personal life, and many aspects of a person's personal life can affect his or her work as well. In the modern world of fast technology, it is very difficult for employees to find a healthy relationship between work and personal life. Employees can be connected to their work, not just at the workplace, but at home, on vacation, while traveling, and at other personal or non-work locations.
Good work-life balances in the workplace offer a healthy and productive place to work where employees do not feel mentally or physically drained. Good work-life balance can be displayed in an employee's mood or efficiency at work. This balance also carries over into the person's personal life. When the work stays at the workplace, a person can focus on the personal parts of her or her life at home. In order to have a good work-life balance, employees' personal lives should not affect their work. A bad work-life balance can occur when the personal life negatively influences the workplace, and this negative effect can impact working relationships or performance. Bad work-life balance can also see employees struggling at work, bleeding into their personal lives causing them to make poor personal decisions or live an unhappy life.
What is Work-Life Balance in the Workplace?
Work-life balance in the workplace is essential for greater output and healthy living in the workplace. Work-life balance is an organization concept that empowers employees to split time and energy successfully between work and other important areas of their life.
In order to reduce turnover rates, many organizations that embrace a positive and healthy work-life balance policy for their employees seek certain strategies to obtain this goal. Many organizations aim to "do more for less" at the workplace. This means that employers promote productivity over time spent at the job. If employees can get their work done efficiently by doing the job a different way and in a shorter time than expected, that would be considered a positive work-life balance attribute that the organization can promote and instill in other employees throughout the company.
Lafarge, a building materials company based in the Midwest United States, has been able to increase their productivity and profit levels while at the same time increasing employee work-life balance. The company decided to outsource to a work-life balance specialist program in order to achieve their work-life balance goals. First, the third party came into the company to train and prepare leadership for the changes needed in the organization. Next, the third party company hosted webinars and workshops during the workday for the rest of the rank-and-file employees at Lafarge to better educate them on work-life balance practices. The results of this case study were very positive and greatly improved the current work-life status at Lafarge.
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There are many traditional and innovative work-life balance practices used in today's world. Practices like flexible work arrangements, providing care for dependent family members, employee-friendly absence or vacation policy, imparting education or training, promoting fitness and healthy living, and creating fun committees are some of the more common work-life balance examples today.
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Flexible work arrangements
Some companies might offer their employees flexible work arrangements that allow them to work office hours other than a traditional nine-to-five work work. This flexibility might allow an employee the opportunity to work from home some days rather than come into the office every day of the week.
Providing care for dependent family members
Child care can be very difficult for families to find and even more difficult to finance. Organizations can offer childcare for their employees to help alleviate that issue.
Employee-friendly absence or vacation policy
Some organizations offer "unlimited time off" where employees can take time off for personal reasons or vacation. This works as long as the relationship between the employee and leadership is healthy, and everyone communicates clearly about the responsibilities that need to be covered when the employee is gone.
Imparting education and training
Companies may want to promote training or pay for education to make their employees more productive. In the Lafarge case study mentioned in the above section, the company's focus to increase work-life balance was to offer time-management training and workshops to every employee.
Promoting fitness and healthy living
A few companies today will pay for gym memberships for their employees and their families, or a company might offer healthy snacks at the workplace to promote nutrition.
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Creating fun committees
Organizations can create committees to come up with events or public outings. This practice can help build camaraderie and leadership skills among co-workers.
When work-life is not balanced, it can have a harmful effect on both the personal and workplace spheres. Some of the more harmful impacts are unhealthy relationships, feeling off, unable gather energy to focus on work, thinking about work at home, and thinking about home at work.
- Unhealthy relationships - People under a lot of stress at home or at work can be damaged emotionally and mentally. This can cause a breakdown in relationships because the person is not thinking clearly. Unhealthy relationships cause more stress and tension and can further escalate the negative impact on someone.
- Feeling off - Employees who are bringing in personal "baggage" from home are usually off at work. They cannot focus and are not efficient in the workplace. Employees who feel like they have been overlooked, mistreated, or unfulfilled may show signs of "feeling off."
- Unable to gather energy to focus on work - If someone is not living a healthy lifestyle, they may not have enough energy to work efficiently, or, if work is causing them too much stress and draining their energy, they are not completely rested and recharged from work when they get home.
- Thinking about work at home - Especially today, employees are challenged to continue to work at home because of the constant connectivity that technological advancements have created. Some people bring their work into their homes, affecting their personal lives. This can also have a reverse effect because people who are experiencing difficult home or private lives may be preoccupied when they are at work.
Work-life balance is an organization concept that empowers employees to split time and energy between work and other important areas of their life successfully. A good work-life relationship balances the productivity needed at a job and the personal time needed for a happy private or family life. A bad work-life relationship does not balance personal life and work life aspects. Bad work-life balances see a decrease in productivity or inefficiency at work as well as unhealthy private lives. Some businesses offer work-life balance programs in order to increase efficiency. Some examples of common work-life balance programs are flexible leave policies, providing care for dependent family members, employee-friendly absence or vacation policy, imparting education or training, promoting fitness and healthy living, and creating fun committees. If an employee's work life and personal life are not balanced, that imbalance can result in these harmful effects: unhealthy relationships, "feeling off," unable gather energy to focus on work, thinking about work at home, and thinking about home at work.
Video Transcript
The Work-Life Balance
The overall trend in organizations to keep employee turnover rates down is to offer significant programs that provide a work-life balance. A work-life balance is an organizational concept that empowers employees to split time and energy between work and other important areas of their life successfully. Companies can implement specific work-life practices within their organization to increase morale, productivity and profits.
The starting point for any organization trying to establish work-life practices for their employees is to conduct a survey to gather what important factors are important to improve employees' overall work. Restful Sleep Hotel chain has finished an extensive survey with all of their employees on work-life practices. They are announcing the new practices at the weekly conference. Let's take a look at some examples of how a company can adopt beneficial work-life practices.
Dependent Care
Many employees have concerns about childcare while they are working. In addition, more employees are also having the need to care for aging parents as well. Restful Sleep Hotel found that a dependent care program was the most popular request from their employees. This type of program is when a company provides a benefit that gives employees caregiving services with pretax dollars, onsite dependent care or time off to care for family members. Employees can utilize services for children, older adults, or people with physical disabilities.
John and Joan Smith are married, and both work for the hotel. They have two children who require daycare and are spending close to $1,000 a month. Restful Sleep Hotel announced at the conference that they have decided to offer onsite daycare in a newly-refurbished section of the corporate office. The cost will be free to all employees.
The Smiths are ecstatic with the new daycare option. They also will become more productive since they will be happy knowing that their children are located only one floor down from their offices. The Smiths even have lunch with their children, leading to a big increase in their morale. The Smiths will benefit from the next work-life practice that the hotel is adopting.
Flexible Work Arrangement
The second most requested benefit on the survey to improve work-life balance was in regards to offering a flexible work arrangement, where employees are able to work flexible hours or days instead of a traditional nine-to-five workday. Restful Sleep Hotel recognized the importance of offering this option to improve work-life balance. Many of the employees wanted to work earlier when their kids were in school and be at home in the early afternoon. The hotel announced that employees were able to work one day a week from home and could work flexible hours the other four days.
For example, accountant Dave likes to get to the office by 7 A.M. and be home by 3 P.M. to coach his son's baseball team. As long as employees work eight hours a day, they have the flexibility of choosing their start and finish time. The next benefit that the hotel will offer impacts vacation and personal time.
Leave of Absence/Vacation
Most companies follow the basic state guidelines for vacation or leave time. In order to improve work-life balance, the hotel is improving their absence and vacation policy. Every employee's vacation is increased to three weeks in length, and in addition, there are other opportunities for extended leave. The hotel will continue health benefits and allow employees to take a leave for community service, education or bereavement situations. They also now offer six months paid parental leave.
The additional leave and vacation time allows the employees to spend extra time with their families or pursue additional education or community goals. Human resource manager David was thrilled to learn that he will receive paternal leave to spend time with his new baby and wife this year!
Onsite Education/Training
Employees also want to be able to continue to grow and improve their overall individual worth.
Restful Sleep Hotel also realized that employees needed assistance in lowering work-life stress. The hotel decided that they will offer onsite education and training to benefit employees. The hotel will offer employees free seminars and training sessions on organization, communication and stress relief to help with their work-life balance. The first few sessions will cover:
- Stress-reducing techniques, with all employees receiving chair massages.
- Corporate office training certification on customer service techniques to help employees continue to grow and learn.
Fitness and Healthy Living
Studies have shown that one way to reduce absenteeism is to promote programs that improve the health and fitness of employees. These types of programs can range from health clinics to additional health benefits and gym memberships. The company plans to build a corporate gym that all employees will be able to use for free. In addition, the company will offer free health clinics such as fall flu shots and blood pressure screenings. Lastly, the company has ordered furniture to benefit employees' posture and comfort.
Remote Work and Hybrid Work
The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a new means of working remotely, meaning working from home and conducting meetings online. Eventually, companies implemented a hybrid scenario where workers sometimes worked at home but were required to work in the office a certain number of days. Recently, some companies have been or are soon requiring employees to return full time in the office, but the response from employees surveyed is not positive. These companies made the incorrect assumption that remote work causes people to feel disconnected and isolated, while the truth is several studies found that people are happier working from home. For one thing, one study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that American daily commute time is 60 million hours, which, having been eliminated, provides extra time for childcare and other at-home responsibilities that a two-to-three hour commute would not allow, not to mention the savings in transportation costs.
Companies who wish to implement remote and hybrid work options need to have clear policies in place regarding scheduling, communication, virtual meeting expectations, and documentation. For example, 8 A.M. meetings should require employees to be present with their cameras turned on and ready to work, versus eating breakfast in pajamas. For hybrid work, scheduling needs to be clearly communicated as to whether the employer determines what days an employee is present in the office or if a flexible schedule will be offered with the employee choosing in-office days. Communicating clear expectations and accountability policies can ensure employers are providing their employees with options without compromising work ethics and production.
Lesson Summary
A work-life balance is an organizational concept that empowers employees to split time and energy between work and other important areas of their life successfully. Companies can implement specific work-life practices within their organization to increase morale, productivity and profits. Some of the programs that companies can create are:
- dependent care
- flexible work arrangements
- flexible work hours
- leave of absence/vacation
- healthy living
- stress reduction and onsite training and education
- remote and hybrid work
It is important for companies to survey their employees to see what exact programs will help reduce overall stress and increase productivity.
Learning Outcomes
After you finish this lesson, you should be able to do the following:
- Identify and explain the programs that promote work-life balance concepts in companies
- Restate the types of outcomes that organizations may enjoy due to these implementations
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