MGE Papers

Benefits—Tangible and to the Culture of an organization that undertakes the adoption of policies designed to help employees with work-life balance?  What does an organization stand to gain if it can work through the growing pains of implementation?    Employers who choose to adopt some work-life policies may find that the candidate pool of applicants increases since employee are always interested in balancing their work and personal lives.  Clearly, a benefit is being able to attract the best possible candidates.  Absenteeism may decrease if employees are able to better structure their lives because of time, or a day, to be taken may not need to be taken if the employee is able to use a flexible schedule, (Kossek, 2009).  Additionally, those employees who wish to start a family may feel at ease knowing that as circumstances in their life changes, their employer has mechanisms for employee flexibility.  This means that there may be less absenteeism....

What are the benefits—both tangible and to the culture of an organization that undertakes the adoption of policies designed to help employees with work-life balance?    As explained on the  Asure Software webpage,  “A good work/life balance can enable employees to feel more in control of their working life and lead to: Increased productivity Lower absenteeism A happier, less stressed workforce Improvements in employee health and well-being A more positive perception of you as an employer Greater employee loyalty, commitment and motivation” (“How Work-Life Balance Can Benefit Your Organization”, 2017).  Structural work–life support modifies human resource strategies and practices  as well as job structures—in order to enhance flexibility to spread worker control over the location, place an amount of work, or offer additional instrumental properties such as data and direct assistance to facilitate individuals to be able to combine employment with caregiv...

what are the benefits—both tangible and to the culture of an organization that undertakes the adoption of policies designed to help employees with work-life balance?    For an employer to invest in the promotion of work/life balance, the outcomes showcase real possibilities. These include, greater employee retention, improved health, reduced absenteeism, increased productivity and reduce burnout. Miller from the HR Daily Advisor (2016) suggests that employers can achieve the goals fo work-life balance in multiple ways including:- promoting and demonstrating a workplace culture that supports a work-life balance. This can be achieved when management are seen to follow this policy also. Providing childcare benefits. This can reduce the financial stress on parents. allowing employees to work from remote location, this can be on a daily basis to reduce travel time and increase productivity Promote breaks throughout the day. This will encourage employees to have a lunch br...

Work-life balance talks about the idea of splitting one’s time and energy between work and other important aspects of their life which can include, making time family, friends, community participation, spirituality etc. (Heathfield, 2018). Establishing work life balance on employee approach and observation include job satisfaction, employee time saved, organizational commitment, job stress, turnover intention and all these factors in turn affect job performance, direct and indirect absenteeism costs, costs associated with the loss and replacement of valued employees, customer satisfaction and organizational productivity (Yadav & Rani, 2015). Organizations benefit by the implementation of work-life balance policies because they can retain their old employees which in turn reduce or help them avoid the cost of hiring and training new employees for that same position. Studies and research have shown that employees are motivated, and their productivity increases when organizations impl...

Why should Employers consider or establish work/life balance? It is vital that each organization should establish policies to balance work/life for their employees. To assist employees to achieve a good work life balance increases work satisfaction, increases their loyalty to their employer, and helps employers to achieve career longevity and employers will not lose experience employee so often. Also, it will increase productivity, lower absenteeism, and improve employee’s health and wellbeing. There are many options for employers seeking to improve work/life balance for their employees. Whether the goal is to improve retention, avoid employee burnout, improve employee health, reduce absenteeism, or increase productivity. If employers are interested to work on work/life balance for everyone at their organization, there are many ways to improve it. The followings are some ways that can be implemented so to improve work/life balance: Employers should offer the fol...

A few years ago, I attended a PMP (project management professionals) conference. One of the speakers was an entrepreneur and his presentation focused on work-life balance. He had a powerful presentation that culminated in him saying that “there is no such thing as work-life balance because those that are passionate about their jobs will want to do them around the clock”. That is a great statement and idea, but can we truly say that we all are passionate about our jobs to the degree that this is all we want to do? I don’t think so. In my opinion, a lot of people see their jobs as means to an end, to support their family and to make a living so they can focus on their true passion whatever that may be (some may still feel their jobs are all they ever wanted from life, but I cannot believe that is the majority). With that in mind, I think work-life balance policies are important and may save businesses money in the long-run. Let’s suppose that we have a policy that allows employees to wor...

“Many individuals are having an increasingly troublesome time discovering balance in their lives in light of the fact that there have been reductions or cutbacks where they work. They're apprehensive it might transpire, so they're putting in more hours," says therapist Robert Brooks, PhD, co-creator of The Power of Resilience: Achieving Balance, Confidence, and Personal Strength in Your Life (Uscher, n.d). Work-life balance is an idea that depicts the perfect of part one's time and vitality among work and other critical parts of their life (Heathfield, 2018). Accomplishing work-life balance is a day by day challenge. It very well may be difficult to set aside a few minutes for family, companions, network investment, otherworldliness, self-awareness, self-care, and other individual exercises, notwithstanding the requests of the work environment. The advantages of an organization that attempts the implementation of strategies intended to assist the representatives with w...

The tangible and culture-related benefits of an organization that undertakes policies designed to help employees reconcile their professional and private lives are as follows: For employees : Reduce Job stress levels : with reduced stress, employees are more fulfilled, happier. Increased job satisfaction: employees give their best to accomplish their tasks A greater sense of job security: employees do not think about leaving one employee for another. Better physical and mental health: employees are healthy Enhanced control over work-life environment: Employees pay attention around them Customer satisfaction: customers are satisfied, they are well treated. Increase employee performance: The performance of employees is increasing. For the company : Improved productivity and motivation : There is more motivation among employees in their daily tasks. Reduce employment turnover There is no need to hire people to fill the gaps created by those leaving the company. Increased employee retentio...

Organization culture, including work-life balance policies, can directly impact employee stress and health – the healthier and more stress-free employees are the better the organization will perform.  This directly affects “the bottom-line” given that a better performing organization will have greater revenue; it also indirectly affects “the bottom-line” as there will be fewer employee sick days, less reliance on the company’s health benefits plan, and less employee turn-over.  When employee satisfaction increases so too does productivity.  It also increases the public image of the company – all of which has a bearing on the overall performance of the company. (City of Peterborough, 2010; Miller, 2016).  It seems like at the base of this idea is “thinking outside the box” regarding how to structure work days and how to accomplish all of the relevant tasks that need to be completed each day or week.  I also think that there will be a transition period where thing...

Concerns of work-life Policies      There are many concerns when it comes to work-life policies and what are the real benefits versus the risks of not meeting the desired outcomes. To name a few of the concerns YourStory.com (2016) includes the possibility of employees taking advantage of the flexible schedules and missing more time out of work than what was intended to assign. This also adds the issue of lower productivity, lack of ownership because the employee is not even present and who is responsible for the missed time. For employees with the flexibility of working from home, there’s always the risk of network problems, no phone connection which translates to the fact that this type of flexibility is not meant for everyone in the workplace. Benefits of work-life policies      One of the benefits of work-life policies is to achieve employee retention. There are other benefits for both the company and the workforce. Chris (2016), details the benefit of ...

Work - life policies enable employees to balance their work life with their personal life. Work - life policies enable work hours to be flexible, a leave of absence can be arranged, and the training /counseling can be given when there is a need to accomplish the jobs. A good example of a work - life policy would be the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). FMLA enables workers to combine their sick leave and their personal leave. The FMLA allows an employee to take a leave that could be for dependent care, for career development, for educational opportunities, or for domestic partner benefits (Lehman & Mitchell, 2001). There are benefits and challenges for the employees’ work-life policies: -  Benefits The tangible gain . A company’s work-life policies will retain talent. When a flexible work schedule is arranged, part-time employment, job sharing, and telecommuting become possible for employees (Lehman & Mitchell, 2001). Also, employers can promote work-life balance by aski...