Work Life Balance - in modern Business Culture

Today’s Topic in our IBC blog is Work Life Balance, and its importance in the modern Business culture. We will talk about global trends and perspectives, about the important questions, and ways to implement it into the everyday business culture.

The ideal work–life balance is a very personal concept. It isn’t an obvious, tangible, or static thing that people can identify, get right, and then expect to keep. It’s dynamic and has different elements for different people at different times.

Work–life balance is sometimes confused with finding ways to work less or to work flexibly, because for some people these are the most important elements of a good balance.

As a general concept, work–life balance is a feeling of being in control of your life, being able to exercise choice, and about finding an equilibrium between your own needs and those of others, whether at work or at home.

If you’re unhappy about the way things are for you at the moment, don’t worry; there’s a lot you can do to help yourself. The first step is to pinpoint what being in and out of balance is like for you and to understand the triggers.

Once you’ve worked out those, you can move on to find a solution.

To elaborate we will present the most common questions asked, in order to find out if your work life relationship might be out of balance. The answers to the following questions will show if you are in a good relationship or if you could use a little help from a coach.

• How often am I concerned about not earning enough money in my current job?
• How often do I think about finishing my job and rushing off to do other things I like more?
• How often do I think about my prestige or whether others are going to praise or criticize me at work?
• How often do I think about the higher professional position I want to get in the future?
• How often do I think about my personal satisfaction at work, putting my career before the service of others?
• How often do I think of my work as an opportunity to put into practice my talents and skills?
• How often do I think of my work as an opportunity to serve and give my best to others?
• How often do I think of my work as an opportunity to make a positive contribution to society, to build a better world?

The single most important aspect of work life balance that is mentioned in research is time, that can be time spend at work, time spend at home, time spend commuting. Generally speaking, adjusting time spend is the easiest way to adjust the work life balance of an employee. The most common ways to adjust time is to make work more flexible. As a manager there is a few ways to make work more flexible for your employees such as:

Flexi-time working People working on flexi-time schedules are able to vary their start and finishing times, providing they work a set amount of hours during each week or month. Flexi-time is not only great for parents trying to manage a household as well as a job, but for anyone who finds working within a strict and continuous routine depressing and demotivating. Everyone’s energy levels fluctuate during the day but not necessarily at the same time, and so flexi-time is a good solution to making sure people always work at their peak.

Part-time working Employees with a part-time arrangement may decide between working fewer days each week or fewer hours a day. This option also works well for people with parental or caring responsibilities. The other people who benefit greatly from part-time working are those returning to work after looking after young children, those recovering or suffering from illness, and people who are trying to pursue other interests or careers.

Job sharing This involves two people dividing between them a full-time workload, with each working on a part-time basis. This is beneficial if you want to maintain something of your career while being able to spend more time with your children or to pursue other interests outside work.

Home working or telecommuting Many jobs now involve computer-based activities that can be done as easily from an Internet-linked PC at home or in a remote (telecommuting) facility. This style of working benefits not only parents and carers, but can help many people without those kinds of domestic responsibilities to work more productively.

Term-time working This option allows employees to take time off work during school holidays in order to look after their children. This time off is usually taken as unpaid leave, although the salary can be paid evenly across the year. The sorts of employers most likely to operate this scheme are those in industries that experience seasonal peaks and troughs.

So how do you implement those systems into your company?

Start by clarifying the most important needs of your business. Flexible working will only be sustainable if it doesn’t hinder your business’s ability to perform efficiently and profitably.  Speak to your staff to find out how many of them are interested in exploring flexible working arrangements

Engage staff in thinking about how flexible arrangements would affect the business and customers. Discuss what sort of re-organisation might be involved in new working arrangements.  Ensure that your staff understand what the business needs from them, so that they don’t make unrealistic requests about working flexibly.

And the most important thing is not to forget. Without balance there is no successful company. Not in this century, and not in ones up to come. So, do you want to be successful? Do you have what it takes to survive and thrive? Contact us in case you need some coaching.