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Article
Overview: Work-life balance has become a front-line issue
for companies in the effort to retain a highly skilled workforce. This article
outlines the current state of play and offers principles for HR leaders to consider
when initiating or further developing their work-life balance policies.
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Key Takeouts:
- Evidence shows that flexible
and enlightened working practices are good for business. Achieving a balance between
the needs of home and work is a win-win for families and employers. Companies
that cater for the demands of working parents enjoy higher staff morale and better
productivity.
- Any change to current
work/life balance policy requires a rigorous process of analysis and change management
to ensure a solid return on investment. For employees to experience the 'soft'
benefits of flexible working, hard numbers must be crunched by employers to determine
where the greatest business impact lies.
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Australians
now work the longest hours in the developed world - more
than 200 hours per year above the global average, equivalent to an additional
five working weeks per year. Little wonder
then that many workers are caught in a spiral of longer work hours, growing job
insecurity, increased work stress and family responsibilities.
All
too often, parents want to spend more time with their family but fear being labelled
uncommitted. The "What Working Families
Want" survey commissioned by GlaxoSmithKline found that a long-hours work
culture had a serious adverse affect on working parents, 49% of whom said long
hours affected their morale to some extent.
The survey also reported that the most important thing employers can do to help
people juggle their personal and job responsibilities is to change corporate culture
so that a more acceptable work-life balance can be sustained. But
in Australia, employers have been slow to act. Only 28% of employers surveyed
for Managing Work/Life Balance's "Way Ahead" report said they provided
a work environment in which employees could determine their own work schedules
in a way that accommodated their lifestyle demands.
Despite the fact that Paid Maternity
Leave (PML) is acknowledged as an international human right, Australia and the
US are the only two countries in the OECD who do not currently have compulsory
PML. A survey of Australia's 100 largest public companies revealed that only 36%
provide PML, an increase of 23% in two years. Many
working parents also face significant challenges around the issue of child care.
The chronic shortage of places is exacerbated by the fact that child care workers
are vastly underpaid. Only 5% of all childcare places in Australia are employer-sponsored. Both
the lack of compulsory PML and the childcare shortage are exacerbated by an inbuilt
cultural resistance to viewing private responsibilities as an employer's problem,
even among working parents themselves. Almost half of those surveyed in the What
Working Families Want Survey said they were mostly responsible for balancing work
and home priorities themselves.
Family-friendly practices are good for business
As
the full impact of baby boomer retirements moves to centre stage in the coming
years, those organisations that don't embrace flexible work policies to expand
their talent pool will be in danger of being overtaken by more forward thinking
competitors. Progressive Australian
businesses are now offering women comprehensive maternity leave arrangements,
including keeping in touch during leave, bringing them back for training seminars,
and offering flexible return-to-work options. The results are increased retention
rates, and improved productivity. Qantas,
for example, has trialled a national childcare program because they were losing
700 staff members each year to parental leave. Esso, The Body Shop and AMP have
reaped the benefits of providing childcare for their employees' children through
lower absenteeism, better morale and improved job performance. Becoming
a family-friendly employer So
how can employers not only provide the flexibility that working parents require,
but also build the culture that supports a positive work/life balance? These three
simple steps are an effective starting point: 1.
Review the options available;
2. Re-educate your people;
3.
Review and Report on what is (and isn't) working.
1.
Review Before you rush into requesting
extra office space for a work-based childcare centre complete with breastfeeding
rooms and the latest in after-school care, realise that no two family-friendly
workplaces look exactly the same. If you haven't already got an employee committee
that represents the cross-section of all staff then one should be created with
work/life balance issues as part of their charter. A
wealth of information on family-friendly, flexible work practices exists - the
challenge is to know which is most appropriate for your workforce. Here are some
flexible work options to consider: - Part-time
work
- Flexi-time (short-term build-up
of hours - normally for a nine day fortnight).
- Time
Off in Lieu (TOIL)
- Job sharing
or job splitting (different job functions are performed by different employees)
- Work
from home/telecommuting
- Term
time or school hours working (for parents of young school-aged children)
- Annual
hours (uneven spread of hours throughout the year with core and banked hours)
- Compressed
hours (e.g. 4½ day week or nine day fortnight)
- Career
breaks (e.g. maternity leave) or sabbaticals
What
works for one person will not necessarily work for another. The challenge is to
match your current and predicted workforce with the best-fit flexible options.
Survey your staff to discern which options are most favoured by the majority of
people before selecting which practices you will introduce. 2.
Re-educate In setting out to change
a culture, you take on a task with many challenges. Unless there is widespread
dissatisfaction with the status quo, a clear picture of what the future looks
like, and an approved pilot program strongly championed by senior management,
you are likely to encounter pockets of resistance. Once
the range of flexible working options has been selected, develop a communication
plan to 'sell' the new initiatives. The goal is to persuade the 'middle mass'
(about 70%) of your workforce, who tend to be neutral about most issues, towards
your point of view. If you accept that it will take several years (and sometimes
generational change in roles) to bring about genuine cultural shifts, then you
can take a more realistic position on how long it may take for the full benefits
of your initiatives to be realised. 3.
Review and Report When it comes
to work/life balance, you need to allow time for patterns to emerge. Depending
on the starting point and size of your pilot group, it can take up to two years
before meaningful data starts to emerge (especially when maternity leave is included
in the program). Use the formal performance review system as well as anonymous
surveys to capture both hard and soft data on the important metrics. These can
be anything from numbers returning after maternity leave to percentage of annual
leave taken relative to increases in personal productivity skills. Of particular
interest are any statistics that demonstrate cost savings over expenditure (e.g.
a decrease in recruitment costs, lower sick/stress leave requests). When
you have meaningful data, then don't hesitate to report it to the powers that
be and celebrate success stories with the entire company. This lends increased
weight to future work/life balance planning and enhancements. Conclusion
Any organisation that wants to
get the most from its employees needs to take an active approach to the work-life
balance debate. The cost of absenteeism and a demotivated workforce can be enormous.
Conversely, enlightened policies breed loyalty, commitment and effort. Helping
staff to balance their work and home lives aids retention, can increase productivity
and, in the war for talent, can be an important aid to recruitment.
References:
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About Regent Recruitment
Regent Recruitment is a consultancy that assists leading Australian employers
to attract and retain talented staff on a contract, temporary or permanent basis.
Whether we are filling one permanent role or recruiting contract staff for a 400-seat
call centre, we deliver the same high level of service.Operating
nationally, the company is unique in that it combines the capabilities of a large-scale
multinational recruitment firm with exceptional service levels typically only
associated with small boutique agencies. How
can we assist you?
We would welcome the opportunity to have a confidential
meeting to discuss your staffing needs in more detail. If
you are interested, in the first instance please call Howard Mereine, General
Manager, on (03) 9909 7150 or e-mail Howard at hmereine@regentrecruitment.com.au. We
look forward to speaking with you.
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This article was licenced by Regent Recruitment for the Regent
Recruitment client newsletter.
Written by Victoria Small and Edited by Paul Quinn, Quinntessential Marketing
Consulting Pty Ltd.
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The
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