Work Life Balance and Making it Work

Work life balance is one of the most important factors for a candidate looking for a  new job nowadays. It is often a deciding factor when benefits such as salary are  comparable across roles. You need to start by understanding attitudes in your  workplace towards flexibility, what you currently have in place and how it is being  demonstrated, also what your current employees and candidates are looking for.

Everyone has different lives that change over time; therefore work life balance can  mean different things to different people. Work life balance doesn’t have to be a ‘one  size fits all’ policy, you need to find what works for your business and employees. Don’t  assume what will work for you will work for all your employees. Get feedback from  your employees and involve them in the process of understanding what everyone is  looking for and implementing a policy that suits.

Here are 5 ways to bring a little more balance to your day:

When planning your week, you and your employees should schedule personal time with family, friends and activities that help you recharge.  If a date night with your spouse/partner or a sports game with friends is in your calendar, you’ll have something to look forward to, which will give your or an employee extra incentive to manage their time well and be productive. Get to know your employees on a personal level not just work, work, work!

Many employees waste their time on activities or people that add no value to their lives i.e. spending time with another work colleague who constantly has a negative attitude and gossiping. Employees should take note of activities that don’t enhance their career or personal life, cut them out entirely or minimise that time spent on them. Employees often get sucked into habits that are making them less efficient i.e. surfing the web, social media, personal phone calls etc. As an employer you should monitor this and provide positive recommendations to your employees to help them enhance their productive time.

Everyone should make time for physical activity! We all have a jam packed schedule but making time to be physically active may help us get more done by increasing our energy and ability to concentrate. Have you thought about group personal training sessions with your employees once or twice a week? Look at a reward program for your employees that involves fitness programs.

Management often look at their own time and if they can outsource any consuming errands or even household chores, but what about those dreaded day to day tasks of your employees.  These days you can order anything online and get it delivered. What about having a gardener or house cleaner at home, have you considered hiring a Virtual Assistant for those laborious and tedious activities that take up precious productive time for your employees? If your budget is restricted you may find that the time you’ll save may be worth it. Find tasks that you and your employees enjoy doing and focus on those.

You don’t need to make big changes to bring more balance to your life or the life of employees that surround you. Be realistic and plan activities at least 1 week in advance. Start with scheduling 1 activity in your calendar i.e. date night with spouse/partner once a month, then slowly start adding more activities that are important to you. This could be leaving the office early 1 day per week to collect the kids from school. If you are having ‘one of those days’ try simply taking a 10 minute walk outside or listen to some music to help recharge those batteries. Encouraging your employees to venture down the same track could help create a more harmonious and productive work environment for everyone.

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