Our Guide to Achieving Work-Life Balance
With everyone leading busy lives and striving to juggle work alongside the normal pressures of everyday life, it can be confusing to know how to support your people in their quest for work-life balance.
As an HR team, we’ve experienced a multitude of working environments and understand the importance that work-life balance can have on your people.
If you can positively impact the work to home life ratio, your people will feel less stressed and more motivated which will ultimately increase their productivity and reduce the risk of workplace conflicts.
Here are our top five tips to supporting your people in achieving work life balance:
Lead by example
Whether you’re a manager or company owner, your people will be watching how you work. This will set the tone for how they feel they are expected to work. If you’re consistently in the office early in the morning, working late into the evening or over weekends, your people may feel that this is also expected of them, which, although you may be initially pleased with their enthusiasm and commitment, could be impacting, and jeopardizing their mental health and home-life. This could be more damaging to your business in the long run.
When people are unclear about what is expected of them (i.e. if the working hours stated in their employment contract are very different to the hours that are kept by other people and managers), this could lead to feelings of uncertainty and anxiety.
Lead by example, set boundaries (e.g. not working on weekends or late into the evening) be consistent, and demonstrate that you have interests and a life outside work.
2. Foster a supportive culture
You can develop a supportive culture for your organisation by a) training your people managers and b) adopting family-friendly policies.
If someone has a manager whose expectations differ from their personal goals, it could have a detrimental impact on their view of the organisation and their work-life balance. Training your managers to act as a positive role model, whilst providing emotional and practical support can help to reduce conflict and increase job satisfaction.
3. Take Annual Leave
Research has shown that only 30% of employed people, take their full holiday allowance every year. But the negative impact of not taking adequate “time off” is well documented. Whilst it can serve to impact on someone’s lack of focus or creativity, not taking adequate breaks has also been linked to increased risk of heart attacks, strokes and other health concerns.
People may feel unable to take annual leave due to their workload, or conflicts with another person’s annual leave. While in some organisations, taking annual leave is viewed negatively and people feel they should take as little time off as possible.
We recommend putting the structures in place to encourage your people to take annual leave and rejuvenate because it will benefit both of you in the long term.
4. Encourage Team Building
If people feel supported and able to rely on their colleagues when they’re feeling overwhelmed or stressed, it can help to reduce anxiety and the risk of burnout. By encouraging team building activities, you will be enabling communication which can help to form better relationships and employee morale. When people feel happy and supported, productivity will follow.
5. Acknowledge lives outside work
Whether it’s simply a case of remembering the name of their dog/ partner / children and asking after them occasionally or going as far as hosting a “family fun day” for everyone to attend. Acknowledging that your people have interests and commitments outside of their role will help them to feel valued as individuals. This in turn can help to form better relationships between colleagues and cultivate a better working environment for everybody.
As an employer, it can be easy to fall into the trap of putting the onus back on your people, to take responsibility for their own work-life balance. But by encouraging a healthy balance, you will be demonstrating that you value your people as both individuals and the contribution they make to the organisation which over time can have a positive impact on their productivity and loyalty the organisation.
If you would like to discuss any of the suggestions in this article, or if you would like support in developing a culture that promotes and supports a work-life balance in your organisation,