Work-life balance

Work-life balance is a concept including proper prioritizing between Work (Career and ambition) and lifestyle (Health, pleasure, leisure, family and spiritual development/meditation). WLB means spending 50% of your time at work and 50% of your time at home. WLB is synonymous with work-family balance or family support. Having work life balance means getting to do everything you want to do in a given day, week, or month.
Working practices that acknowledge and aim to support the needs of staff in achieving a balance between their home and working lives

Extent to which ones perceived allocation of physical, mental, and emotional resources between the work and non-work domains matches ones expectations. Essentially, then, work-life balance occurs when individuals with a finite amount of mental, physical, and emotional resources allocate those resources in a way that corresponds to their personal and/or professional goals.
Juggling competing demands is tiring if not stressful and brings lower productivity, sickness, and absenteeism, so work/life balance is an issue for all employees and all organizations.

Who needs balance? Women desire more work-life balance than men. All employees will benefit from work-life balance programs. Effective WLB programs prevent your work-life from Spilling over into your non-work life by reducing your work demands.
When an employee has things working at home, then things are going to work at work, said Laurie Iulg

Work-life balance is about the interaction between paid work and other activities, including unpaid work in families and the community, leisure, and personal development. Work-life balance is about creating a productive work culture where the potential for tensions between work and other parts of people's lives is minimised. This means having appropriate employment provisions in place, and organisational systems and supportive management underpinning them.

Work-life balance for any one person is having the 'right' combination of participation in paid work (defined by hours and working conditions), and other aspects of their lives. This combination will not remain fixed, but may change over time.

Benefits of Work-life balance

Benefits for you
Employees in companies already implementing work-life practices enjoy significant benefits such as:

Being able to effectively manage multiple responsibilities at home, work and in the community without guilt or regret. Being able to work in flexible ways so that earning an income and managing family/other commitments become easier. Being part of a supportive workplace that values and trusts staff.

People want to be able to have1: a good quality of life

an enjoyable work life and career progression training and development good health affordable childcare or eldercare further education more money time to travel time with friends and family time to do sports and hobbies time to do voluntary work

When work-life balance programs fail, it is because the organization failed to properly Sell their benefits to the employees

Work-life Balance Reduce stress in the workplace introduce a policy on work-life balance Definition of Work-life Balance: Working practices that acknowledge and aim to support the needs of staff in achieving a balance between their home and working lives HEBS 2002 Each year stress costs UK businesses an estimated 3.7 billion and the loss of around 80 million working days. Stress can be caused by both work related factors and home or family related factors and many employees experience difficulties juggling their work responsibilities with their home responsibilities. By implementing a work-life balance strategy employers can help to reduce stress in their employees. This can lead to a more motivated and loyal workforce, increased productivity, reduced absenteeism and it is also good for PR. A work-life balance strategy should include family friendly policies but it is important to remember that work-life balance is not just for employees with dependent children. Other examples include: Employees at the end of their careers balancing their work with leisure opportunities Employees with dependent elderly relatives Employees balancing their work with further education The introduction of work-life balance policies should be equitable for all employees and it is important that employees without young children do not feel discriminated against. Factors Influencing Work-life Balance Over the past generation there have been considerable demographic changes which have influenced our working practices, examples of this include:

 Increased number of women working 70% in 2000 compared to 47% in 1959 Majority of women with dependent children working 65% compared to 90% of men Majority of women return to paid employment after childbirth Increased incidence of one parent families (1 in 4) Increased life expectancy is resulting in an ageing population Elderly relative responsibilities are on the increase 6 million adults have care responsibilities for another adult Trend for starting family later will result in some employees having both childcare and eldercare responsibilities Average age for first baby is 29 and birth rate is 1.7 children per woman

Retention and recruitment issues are also relevant to work-life balance as more and more employers are recognising that their staff are their most valuable resource and the key to business success. Employers will increasingly have to make themselves attractive to current and potential employees due to the falling number of available workers. Between 1999 and 2010 it is estimated that there will be 2 million new jobs in the service industry, it is expected that women will fill two thirds of these. A survey by the CIPD in 2001 showed that two thirds of respondents had difficulty recruiting the right calibre of staff. As well as impacting on productivity these difficulties have financial costs, it has been estimated that the cost of recruiting one employee is at least 5000. A separate survey found this to be 4 times the annual salary of the post. These costs include lost productivity, recruitment, advertising and training. Another consideration for work-life balance is legislation, notably the Employment Act, the Working Time Regulations and the Part-time Workers Regulations. The Employment Act has recently been updated and from April 2003 will include more benefits for staff including increased maternity and paternity leave.

Practices Supporting Work-life Balance Work-life balance policies can be made up the following policies and working practices: Policies allowing flexible and innovative working practices, for example, flexi -time, annualised hours, staggered hours, job sharing, working from home, term-time hours, compressed hours and part-time working Leave provision, for example, special leave for emergencies Employee support services, for example, employee counselling service or crche facilities Employee training and development, for example, objectives and appraisals to take into account work-life balance

How to Implement a Work-life Balance Strategy Before embarking on a work-life balance strategy it is essential to identify the core needs of the business, for example, some services like a help desk may require a staff presence between certain hours. It is important and useful to consult with staff at this stage in order to get their views. Remember that it is often the staff doing certain jobs that can come up with the most innovative ideas for improvement. From this point it will be necessary to review existing policies and develop a draft work-life balance strategy. This should be put out to consultation to staff and staff groups if appropriate and it may also be worthwhile running a pilot of the policy. After a final review the strategy can be formally launched to all staff. Remember to include a section in the strategy for review and evaluation in order that the uptake and effectiveness can be reviewed over time.

Work-Life Balance and Work-Life Conflict Among Australian Academics

Abstract
Escalating stress and pressures, along with organisational change in universities has led to the increased importance of research in to the impact of perceived job stress, work-life balance and work-life conflict amongst academics. Yet, very few studies have examined academics ability to balance work and persona l life, and overcome work-life conflict. Drawing on Spillover theory (Zedeck, 1992), our study hypothesised that high levels of perceived job pressure stress and job threat stress would predict increased levels of work-life conflict, and decreased levels of work-life balance. Due to the well-documented relationship between stress and

health, the influence of job stress on wellbeing was also investigated in this sample of academics (N =139). Perceived job stress (threat and pressure-type stressors) was associated with poorer work-life balance, and increased conflict between academics work and personal lives. Perceived job threat -type stress made a stronger contribution and was a significant predictor of work-life balance and work-life conflict scores, than perceived job pressure-type stress. Perceived job threat-type stress among academics was also a significant predictor and associated with poorer wellbeing and increased ill-being, but perceived job pressure-type stress was not related to academics wellbeing or ill-being.

Overview of Work-Life Balance Discourse and Its Relevance in Current Economic Scenario
Abstract

During the second half of 20th century, with work demands increasingly encroaching on family and personal time at a faster pace, employers acknowledged the need of work-life balance programmes to facilitate employees maintain a healthy balance between the conflicting demands of their work and personal life. Availability of work-life balance facilities to employees witnessed a phenomenal growth between the late eighties of the 20th century and early years of the 21st century. This growth has been abruptly interrupted by the current economic downturn. Increasing numbers of organisations, in the name of cost cutting, have either curtailed work-life balance facilities or are contemplating to do the same. This paper analyses the emergence of work-life balance discourse, from the days of early communal living till the present day theories, and presents a macro level model of work-life balance. Further, a detailed analysis of proven and anticipated benefits of work-life balance is presented to justify the need of work-life balance initiatives at organisational level during the present economic downturn.

Employee Work-Life Balance as an HR Imperative

Abstract There is a growing awareness in todays workplaces that employees do not give up their lives just because they work. Work and life remain the two most important domains in the life of an employed individual. However, the challenge of balancing work and non-work demands is one of todays central concerns for both individuals and organisations. With the growing diversity of family structures represented in todays workforce, particularly with the growing norm of dualcareer families, the importance of managing an employees work-life balance have increased markedly over the past 20 years. Employers are realising that the quality of an employees personal and family life impacts work quality and that there are concrete business reasons to promote work and non-work integration. In this paper, we contend that assisting employees to achieve a work-life balance should become a critical part of HR policy and strategy if it is to truly get the best from the organisations people without leaving them unsatisfied, burnt-out and unfulfilled.

Work-Life Balance: The key driver of employee engagement Abstract

A changing economy and an aging workforce can join together to create an employment environment where competent employees who are unhappy in their current situations are motivated to find a new place to "hang their hats." A highly engaged workforce is 50% more productive than an unengaged workforce. The majority of HR professionals (78%) feel employee engagement is important or extremely important to business success. Employee engagement has emerged as a critical driver of business success in today's competitive marketplace.

Employee engagement is increasingly viewed as a win-win strategy for companies, employees, and their communities alike. In addition, work/life balance is increasingly important for engagement and affects retention. This paper will examine some of the literature on Employee engagement, explore work-place culture & work-life balance policies & practices followed in industries in order to promote employee engagement in their organizations to increase their employees productivity and retain them. Work-life balance is key driver of employees satisfaction.

Work/Life Balance
Challenges and Solutions

Abstract
In organizations and on the home front, the challenge of work/life balance is rising to the top of many employers and employees consciousness. In todays fast-paced society, human resource professionals seek options to positively impact the bottom line of their companies, improve employee morale, retain employees with valuable company knowledge, and keep pace with workplace trends. This article provides human resource professionals with an historical perspective, data and possible solutionsfor organizations and employees aliketo work/life balance. Three factorsglobal competition, personal lives/family values, and an aging workforcepresent challenges that exacerbate work/life balance. This article offers the perspective that human resource professionals can assist their companies to capitalize on these factors by using work/life initiatives to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

ABSTRACT
In terms of Indian context, the concern over work-life balance is gradually becoming a common talk. When employees go back to their homes, they should not carry any organizational stress with them. An individual has two roles to play- personal and professional; each role having different set of demands. When such role demands overlap, multiple problems are faced leading to losses for all concerned: the individual, the family, the organization and the society. In sales job, the performance pressure is considerably high leading to stress and other problems. This exploratory research is an attempt to study the work-life balance issues with reference to area sales managers working in pharmaceutical sector. The results derived from data analysis reveal significant results with respect to work-life equilibrium. The study has wide implications for industry in particular.