Yes. A healthy work-life balance is very important.

 

"Work-life balance, can be defined as an individual's ability to meet their work and family commitments, as well as other non-work responsibilities and activities." (Thomas, 2021)

Work-life balance has always been an issue when employees began to work out of the home. Increased responsibilities at work, having to work for longer hours and having more responsibility at home may lead to a poor work-life balance. Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is important for health and relationships as well as it helps to improve employee productivity and overall performance. In addition to the relationship between work and family activities, WLB involves relaxation, vacation, sports and personal development.

 

Flexible work arrangements and work-life balance

Most companies are facilitating flexible work arrangements for their workers and that holistically impacts WLB of the employees. When there is a flexible working arrangement employees can change their working hours and place of work shift according to their preference. The following things can be pointed out as the components of a flexible working arrangement.

      01.   Flexi-time working -An employee can decide them in and out of time. Most software companies practice this method.

      02.   Part-time working - Employees work for less number of hours rather than work for standard hours. (In Sri Lanka standard working hours is 45 hours per week)

      03.   Compressed working hours - An employee can work 04 days per week rather than work for 05 days. But he or she should be completed the agreed working time.

      04.   Job sharing - Two employees in the same position can share the job and they can work on a part-time basis.

      05.   Telecommuting - Rather than being physically present management allows an employee to use ICT technologies to work. (MS teams, zoom applications for meetings)

      06.   Childcare option - This is very important for female workers. Some companies placing a camera on baby and allow the mother to see their child while she is working)

Benefits of work-life balance

A Healthy work-life balance will be given benefits to both employees and employers.

For employee

The main benefit is employees have time to spend with their loved ones. Flexi times will facilitate looking after his or her activities without taking leaves from work. Compressed working hours will give additional free time for the employee for their leisure activities and spiritual development. If practicing telecommuting techniques, allows employees to work from home and that helps them to look after their families. And that also helps an employee to save traveling time as well as cost and allows flexibility in the working hours. When employees are stressed and overworked it affects both their physical and mental health. If the organization allows flexible work arrangements employees may have time to look after themselves and their health. As a result of these job satisfaction may increase.

For employer

If the company facilitates WLB it is easy to attract and recruit high-skill workers. On the other hand, that will lead to increase productivity, increase profitability and reduce employee absenteeism rates. Because of the dynamic environment, it is very difficult to retain skilled workers within the company. The results of research conducted by Too and Kwasira (2017, 43-53), has shown that WLG has a positive effect on employee retention. Garg (2016, 105-108) also stated that work-life balance has a positive effect on employee retention. By helping an employee to balance between work and home, an organization can increase their engagement level also. On the other hand, since they are free from stress and working pressure their creative level also increases and they will try to think innovatively.

 

Challenge areas for work-life balance

      01.   Unrealistic demands

This is eating personal time. Demands of personal life add pressure to work and on the other hand demands of work-life add pressure to personal life. Most of the time this happens in work as a result of poor leadership.  Poor leaders assign a task to do that involves knowledge and skills outside of the employee’s capabilities and do not give reasonable time to complete that task. Some of the superiors arrange meetings, field visits or customer visits and training programs on days off. 

      02.   Lack of control

This also creates pressure on employees’ minds. Most of the time this happens when the employee has to deal with an uncontrollable workload. 

      03.   Unsupportive relationships

If the employee feels isolated in his working environment or not getting credits for his completed jobs that also affect his mind. On the other hand, family members also should support him to do work with a peaceful mind without creating unwanted pressure. 

      04.   Lack of resources

If the employee doesn’t have a peer group with enough competencies and skills he won’t able to complete the allocated task. As a result of this, he will have to sacrifice his own time and effort to do the job. 

      05.   Unhelpful attitude

An employee should have the capacity to recover quickly from work or family related difficulties and problems. Otherwise, it leads to a poor work-life balance. Here employees can use some methods or techniques to keep their attitude calm and relaxed. (meditations, yoga) 

      06.   Lack of skills

If the superior appoints some task beyond the employee's capacity (not mentioned in JD) that also leads to creating pressure in the employee’s mind. With the competitive business environment most of the time this is happen within the organization. 

07.   High stress level

Jobs with high pay have more stress. But being busy and feeling stressed are two different things. You can be very busy without feeling stressed. An employee can practice stress management techniques to manage work related stress.

 

Conclusion

Not as other resources, “Men resource” are human beings and they have emotions and feelings. On the other hand, they can’t work continually and they need a break in between to hand out with their loved ones and for their leisure work. A healthy work-life balance protects and improves employees’ both mental and physical health. So every organization should create a flexible working arrangement to protect employee’s work-life balance.

 

To get a further understanding of work-life balance watch this video.

 

                                                                                                              (The Happiness Index, 2022)

 

Reference

Garg, P. & Yajurvedi, N. (2016). Impact of work-life balance practices on employees retention and organizational performance-a study on it industry. Indian Journal of Applied Research, 6(8) 105-108.

The Happiness Index (2022) The Importance of Work-Life Balance - TIPS FOR IMPROVEMENT [online video] Available at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Igtu698JN9o&t=11s [Accessed 26.03.2023]

Thomas, L. (2021) Importance of a Work-Life Balance. [online] Available at :https://www.news-medical.net/health/Importance-of-a-Work-Life-Balance.aspx#:~:text=With%20a%20satisfactory%20work%2Dlife,benefit%20from%20achieving%20this%20balance. [Accessed 26.03.2023]

Too, R. & Kwasira, D. J. (2017). Evaluation of employee retention practices to generation Y at cooperative bank in the country of Nairobi, Kenya. European Journal of Business and Management, 9(11) 43-53.