Employers: Work/Life Balance Doesn’t Negate Strong Company Performance

7 steps to creating work/life balance while boosting your bottom line

As work/life balance remains the rallying cry of today’s Millennial-driven workforce, there’s an important reality for businesses to accept: prioritizing work/life balance can co-exist with strong company performance. In fact, employees who are happy with their jobs are more productive and engaged, which ultimately leads to higher profits.

In a nutshell, work/life balance means ensuring that career demands don’t overwhelm an employee’s ability to enjoy a satisfying personal life. More than one in four workers blame unhealthy work/life balance as the reason they plan to leave their jobs within the next two years. This issue also raises employee stress levels, which nearly double health care costs and causes a third of workers to miss between two and 30 days of work each month.

By comparison, employees who are happy with their work/life benefits work 21 percent harder and are 33 percent more likely to stay with their current employers. Offering a desirable environment also enhances the perception of a company’s brand – an important advantage for recruiting and retaining top talent in today’s tight labor market.

Significant rewards await employers who are able to strike their own balance between increasing employee morale and ensuring their business meets its goals. But 66 percent of full-time U.S. employees currently perceive their work/life balance as poor.

Here are seven strategies for creating a healthy company culture that meets your workers’ needs while maintaining ROI:

How to create work/life balance in your workplace

1. Keep communication lines open. The best way to improve work/life balance at your business is by assessing it directly from the source: your staff. Asking for ideas and suggestions in the beginning stages of employment lays the foundation for high morale and agreements that benefit both sides. Of course, people’s lives change and it’s equally important to also encourage ongoing and honest communication about healthy work/life balance. Not only does this show your employees they’re valued, it helps company leaders understand when adjustments need to be made before employees become so unhappy that they quit.
2. Set the right tone at the top. Company leaders play an important role in creating a company culture that fosters work/life balance. Managers who model healthy boundaries between their work and personal lives make it comfortable for employees to do the same.
3. Make flextime flexible. While creating a flexible work environment is key, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. After all, everyone has different personal needs, preferences, and working styles. Many successful companies allow employees and supervisors to collaborate in creating work/life balance options that work best for everyone involved.

   For instance, you might enable employees with children involved in extracurricular activities to come in at 7 a.m. and leave at 3 p.m. so they can attend games or school events, or allow workers who are night owls to arrive at noon and work into the night. You could cut down on the number of personal days employees have to take by allowing them to make up work time outside of standard business hours when they have a conflict. Or you could help workers reduce childcare expenses with alternative schedules, such as enabling them to work four 10-hour days followed by three days off.

4. Offer remote work options. Today’s connected world makes it easy to maintain frequent communication with employees who aren’t in the office. While this may not be an option for every company or industry, giving individuals the ability to work remotely helps promote healthy work/life balance.

   Employees with young children or elderly parents can care for those family members while working – eliminating a significant source of financial and emotional stress and helping them stay focused on their job. Even offering one day a week when personnel can work from home is a major perk that enables them to avoid rush-hour headaches and take care of personal matters that might otherwise force them to take a day off, like doctor’s appointments.

5. Offer extra time off. Besides sick days and vacation time, consider providing extra personal days to help employees take care of personal needs without penalty. This extra time might enable parents to stay home longer with new babies or participate in school events that are important to their children.
6. Set boundaries. Just because an employee has a smartphone and can respond to work communications at any time doesn’t mean employers should call, text, or email them around the clock. Contacting employees outside of work too frequently can cause them to feel resentful and stressed. Burnout is a leading cause of poor performance, and it often goes hand-in-hand with low morale that spreads throughout your workforce. Have a plan that allows workers to complete their tasks before they leave, or wait until the following workday.
7. Cross-train. Cross-training ensures that multiple people possess the skills and knowledge necessary to perform every task within your business. Not only does this go a long way toward avoiding burnout by enabling everyone to take breaks, it also ensures operations will continue to run smoothly if key employees leave the company or take unexpected time off.

Driving productivity and profits

Nearly half of workers point to work/life balance as one of the top three attributes for gauging the attractiveness of a company. An unhealthy environment leads to low productivity, high turnover, and an inability to recruit the best talent. A skilled HR solutions firm can help your business create strategies that prioritize work/life balance, helping your organization save money, increase revenue, enhance its reputation, and maintain a more productive, engaged workforce.

To learn more about how to implement HR solutions that benefit your employees and improve your bottom line, contact Karp HR Solutions today for a free consultation.