Help Your Employees Find that Work/Life Balance
Work-life balance is the ability to experience a sense of control and to stay productive and competitive at work while maintaining a happy, healthy home life with sufficient leisure. It’s attaining focus and awareness, despite seemingly endless tasks and activities competing for your time and attention. While employers are not responsible for providing work/life balance, but they can assist them in maintaining their own personal balance.
Here are some ideas an employer can implement to help their employees:
• Offer a flexible work schedule. Some examples include flexible start/end times, a 4-day work week or telecommuting.
• Sponsor employee events and activities that encourage team building relationships (Charitable volunteer work, sporting events, picnics and more). Include family members in some of these events too!
• Allow for job sharing or part-time work. It’s effective for employees who want to start or raise families in particular.
• Create paid time off (PTO) instead of sick, personal or vacation leave. There’s no need to account for what the time off is for; allow employees to make decisions about how and why to use their time off.
• Model work/life balance at the senior management level. Encourage managers to take time off too and not to respond to emails or phone calls, unless there’s a real emergency. This sends a message to staff that time off is not really time off.
• Allow only limited carry over of PTO into the next calendar year to encourage employees to take time off. Rejuvenation of employees is vital to your organization’s success!
• Encourage hobbies and recreation. Everyone should have interests outside of work.
• Set up corporate wellness programs with onsite workshops.
• Work with a local fitness club to provide discount memberships for employees.
• Offer childcare and eldercare assistance.
• Schedule on-site and off-site professional development opportunities for all staff.