Work-life balance

Work-life balance is about adjusting working patterns. Regardless of age, gender or race, everyone can find a rhythm to help them combine work with their other roles in life, e.g. parent, student, carer, etc.

Progress on work-life balance is likely to give individual employees much more choice about how and when they work. Research shows that the more control you have over your own work, the less stressed you're likely to get. But organisations, as a whole, need to tackle the issue - it can't just be the sum of individual responses.

Gradually, more employers are developing a wide range of work-life balance options, covering flexible working arrangements and flexible benefit packages. While flexitime and home-working options are not appropriate for every type of job, there is still room for imaginative approaches to choosing working hours. Here are just a few: flexi-time; time off in lieu; staggered hours; compressed working hours; shift swapping; self-rostering; annualised hours; job-sharing; working from home; tele-working; and breaks from work.

Flexi-time lets people choose when they work, usually outside the agreed core times. This means staff can vary their start, finish and break times each day. Hospital staff may work such hours to suit their family situation and childcare arrangements.

Time off in lieu is when employees take time off, in agreement with managers, to make up for extra hours worked. It's often used to compensate employees who attend meetings in the evenings.

Staggered hours means employees can all have different start, finish and break times. This allows employers to cover longer opening hours. It also offers employees more flexibility, as long as they're consulted first.

Compressed working hours lets people work their total number of hours over fewer days. For example, you can work full-time hours over four days a week instead of five, or work nine days a fortnight. A number of companies have introduced this idea for staff who study. This enables them to fit work around their courses and also provides financial support.

Who should go for it?

Work-life balance practices benefit both employers and employees. An employer who has invested to develop a valued employee will try to find ways to keep him. An employee who is interested in following a full-time university programme or a distance-learning programme may still want to earn his money and work experience.

Benefits

Businesses benefit if they make the best use of their most valuable resource: their staff. The main advantage of balancing personal and professional life is that the workers are happier. If they are happy, they work better; if they work better, the company profits. And if staff are happy, they will stay.

In fact, research has shown that savings and profits for businesses increase. It also shows that the quality of people's work improves for those who have work-life balance; 43 per cent of workplaces reported that the main advantage of work-life balance is having happier staff.

Employers benefit from having a more motivated, productive and less stressed workforce, as well as: maximised available labour; making employees feel valued; a loyal and motivated workforce in a less stressful environment; attracting a wider range of candidates, such as older part-time workers; increased productivity; reduced absenteeism; the reputation of being an employer of choice; and retaining valued employees.

Employees benefit from being happier at work and at home, as well as: greater responsibility and a sense of ownership; better relations with the management; better management of stress; improved self-esteem, health, concentration and confidence; loyalty and commitment; not bringing home problems to work, and vice versa; the time to focus more on life outside work; and greater control of their working lives.

Sometimes employers are against the idea of different working patterns because it's unclear how they will work in practice.

Offering good working conditions cements the company's reputation as an employer of choice and will attract the best candidates for the job. Workers are also holding companies more and more accountable for bad working conditions and inflexible practices. The pressure is growing on employers.

It's important to remember there are many examples of successful flexible working arrangements. If other employers have found solutions, it should be possible in your workplace too.

Here are a few questions which you may be asking yourself right now:

What type of arrangement and for whom? If it's essential that a particular job be covered during the whole working day (such as a receptionist), then job-sharing or a shift system for part-time workers may be the solution. If the completion of a job is important (such as design work), then changes could be made to working hours.

Flexible working lets businesses extend their working times and services. Job-sharers can cover for each other, and if holidays are taken at different times at least half the job is still done.

What happens about holidays for job-sharers? A common sense solution is to apportion the annual holidays pro rata and add them to holiday entitlement.

What about communication? Good communication systems are essential. You'll need to consider whether any extra communication will be needed if you change your working pattern.

In some jobs it will be crucial. For example, teachers who job-share a class will need a comprehensive hand-over. Job-sharers need to plan out a period of overlap, especially in jobs with more responsibility.

Employers recognise that this time can be extremely productive. What matters is that effective practical procedures are set up.

How do you supervise employees working at home?

In some cases people occasionally work from home or they regularly do specific tasks (report-writing or pre-paring for a presentation) at home. In these situations a trust usually develops, and supervision is unnecessary as the employee is also regularly in the office.

If employees always work at home then employers need to set up a structured system for management.

The emphasis will be on the completion of tasks rather than on time. Performance measures should be agreed and then monitored.

Communication is very important for those working at home. Assess when and how contact should be made. Steps should be taken by managers so that staff do not feel isolated. This could be done by regular contact, meetings, social events and support groups.

Will it cost more?

More employees may mean higher administration, training, space and equipment costs. But by retaining experienced staff you will reduce the cost of recruitment and training.

There will also be the extra cost of setting up employee's IT needs at home. But overall, people working at home will reduce costs - for example, less office space is needed.

There are strong arguments for saying that the benefits outweigh any costs. Employees who work less than full-time are said to be more productive because they have more energy and are fresher.

What if other employees resent one person leaving work early and they all ask to work different hours? It makes good sense to make sure everyone is informed when new working arrangements are introduced.

It's part of good management practice to ensure employees are treated fairly and that they are not overloaded with work. Resentment may well arise if no arrangements are made to deal with part of someone's job when they reduce their hours.

Society demands choice in the 21st century. The choice to take the children to school and then go to work, the choice to leave early to attend a language course or visit Granny, the choice to return to work on a basis you want, the choice to take unpaid leave to travel somewhere new, to train, or to have more time to visit friends.

CSB Employment Agency has been supporting the local business community with its services since 1987. For further information write to CSB at Vincenti Buildings, 14/19 Strait Street, Valletta VLT 08, or call 2122-5800 or 2124-6543, fax: 2123-0520, e-mail jobs@vacancycentre.com, or www.VacancyCentre.com