Having a strong work-life balance can help employees carve out enough time for both work and the many other facets of their lives. Providing your employees with opportunities for a great work-life balance often leads to positive improvements in employee happiness, loyalty and productivity.
But when running a business, although not intentional, it’s understandably easy to focus on the work domain of employees’ lives, forgetting they have a whole other life outside of the office.
Why is a having a great work-life balance vital?
It’s vital that employees have a good work-life balance, this much seems obvious but many companies are yet to implement the right changes. Not only does it improve their mental health, but it benefits the business too. Employees with a good work-life balance are more efficient, productive, motivated and loyal.
We know that ensuring this balance isn’t just the responsibility of employer but you can do a lot to help by establishing supportive policies and realistic expectations.
At the moment, it’s fair to say that here in the UK we’re not quite there with the whole work-life balance concept. New research by Indeed has found that around 36% of the UK’s workforce is unhappy at work. Of this 36%, 72% reported admitted that their workplace unhappiness has negatively impacted their physical and/or mental wellbeing.
What are the consequences of having a bad work-life balance for employees?
With 72% of people admitting their workplace unhappiness has negatively impacted their physical and/or mental wellbeing. For a third of people, this has led to physical symptoms such as headaches and migraines (55%) and insomnia (53%), and 22% admit to taking their work frustrations out on their partners.
Supporting research of 2,000 British employees found the average worker spends 1/5 of every year feeling unhappy in their role. More worryingly, 1/10 (11%) even start feeling unhappy less than six months into a new job.
These figures paint a stark and depressing picture of work in the UK but, thankfully, the pandemic has led more people (24%) to re-evaluate how happy they feel at work.
The research found that ‘The Great Resignation,’ – a mass exodus of workers sparked by the pandemic – is far from over, with a quarter of people saying the pandemic forced them to reflect on their current career.
Half of all workers now feel more motivated to make changes to their career, with 91% of those planning to change jobs citing happiness as one of the most important factors in their decision.
It’s more important than ever, to make your employees feel valued and important. Retain your workforce by encouraging a great work-life balance as well as evaluating other impacting aspects of your workforces happiness.
Plummeting Productivity
An ACAS report on flexible working and work-life balance showed how a poor balance can lead to absence, low productivity and stress. But when balance is achieved, benefits can include:
- Better levels of efficiency and productivity
- Lower levels of absence, sickness and stress
- A motivated workforce
- Improved customer service
- Higher retention levels
- More applicants for vacancies
There is no doubt that when employees are given the space and time to live a whole and rounded life their sense of wellbeing increases and they feel happier.
How to improve your employees’ work-life balance
Most employees need to work to have sufficient money to live, so it can be challenging for them to bring up such issues with the employer. This is where you come in. There are many ways that business owners and HR managers can help employees achieve a better work-life balance:
- Flexible working options (e.g. compressed hours, job sharing, remote working)
- Paid time off policies
- Supporting employees with caring duties
- Implementing reasonable time and communication expectations
- Mental and physical health promoting activities
- Medical services
- Adequate salary (yearly salary increases, to keep up with the growing cost of living)
What can managers do to improve work-life balance?
To achieve a workplace culture which promotes balance, the above efforts must be underpinned by managers who understand the importance of work-life balance. Training may be required to enable managers to spot signs of poor balance and its effects on the individuals. Work-life balance should also be modelled from the top down. If business owners and the senior management team take a break away from their desks for lunch, employees won’t feel obliged to stay at theirs.
Good work-life balance benefits both the employee and business, making it worthy of your time and investment.
Once your company gets big enough, hiring will become a full-time, year-round process. It’s why most large-scale tech companies have their own dedicated hiring managers whose duties are to handle the process.
As the possibilities of the technology industry expand further and further, it’s becoming more and more apparent that there isn’t enough talent to go around. So, make sure you keep yours by providing them with the tools they need from you to live a happy and fulfilled life.
