Work-Life Balance as an Ethical Employer
While the concept of work-life balance has existed for centuries, the phrase itself was only coined 50 years ago in the late 1970s. The term first appeared in research papers that examined steps employers could take to help working mothers balance child-rearing with robust employment. The term quickly expanded to apply to all working parents and nuclear families and, by the early 2000s, had further evolved to encompass everyone in the global workforce.
The definition of work-life balance is straightforward enough: it is the specific balance of both work and life that is most fulfilling for each individual. However, that balance is flexible, and likely to change as an employee progresses in their career or personal circumstances change. For example, you might have an employee who is a stereotypical “workaholic”. They work full time (and then some) and despite this strain, their output is still consistently high quality and they experience great personal fulfillment by centering their lives around the workplace. However, a change in their personal life or values (such as the birth or adoption of a child, personal illness, or the loss of a loved one) could force them to redefine what their “balance” looks like.
Gone unaddressed, imbalance between work and personal life results in employee burnout, a very real, very serious occupational phenomenon. Employees experiencing burnout exhibit symptoms of exhaustion, disengagement, and are more likely to have a pattern of absenteeism. They are also more likely to experience high blood pressure, hypertension, sleep issues, headaches, poor immune function, depression, and even suicidal ideation.
While some jobs have always been hard to “leave at the office”, the rise of technology in the 2010s normalized work outside of work hours, even when doing so was historically unheard-of or taboo. Suddenly supervisors, managers, and coworkers alike could reach out and request information, materials, or feedback at any time in virtually any location, encouraging many to adopt a draining “always on” mentality. The COVID-19 Pandemic and the rise of remote work culture further muddied the delineation between work and personal life as home offices became the office and work hours became vague. This has resulted in an environment where employees are more primed for burnout than ever, even if they are still only clocking in for 35-40 hours a week.
While it might be easy to paint the employee as being solely responsible for obtaining and managing work-life balance, ethical employers know that this only accounts for half the picture.
As a business owner, you are the ultimate authority on your company’s cultural norms (whether written or implied). For example, if you set the precedent of reaching out to your employees outside of work hours, they will take it to understand that you expect them to respond outside of work hours too (even if other documents, such as your employee code of conduct or handbook state otherwise). Standards such as this can make it difficult (if not impossible) for workers to set healthy boundaries or say no to additional responsibilities, even if their plate is already full.
As an employer, it is your responsibility to design your workplace and company culture in such a way that allows your employees the opportunity to exist in a state of balance. Of course, there will always be fields where the stereotypical 8 hours of work, 8 hours of recreation (or personal time), and 8 hours of sleep per day format is not always applicable (medicine being a prime example), but these are outliers. Most business models do support the opportunity to find balance, and it is up to you, as a responsible employer, to cultivate that model in order to retain and nourish top talent.
What is the best first step to develop a culture of balance for your workforce?
The answer is simple: talk to your employees.
Unfortunately for business owners everywhere, work-life balance is nuanced and there is no neat, cookie-cutter policy that can be applied wholesale to every worker. The schedule and workload of one employee (like the one described in the section above) might leave them feeling fulfilled in the long term, while the same schedule would result in severe burnout for another. Additionally, both workers might experience a change in personal circumstances, leading to the opposite being true.
With that in mind, your best first step is to meet with your employees to find out what they need to stay productive and engaged at work. You can accomplish this with 1:1 interviews, by sending out a survey or questionnaire, or by having department heads instigate community discussions. You can then use the information gleaned from these conversations or documents to compare with key performance indicators (KPIs) and performance reviews to create a clear picture of each employee’s strengths and weaknesses and how their current workload accommodates or exacerbates them.
Armed with this information you will be able to identify trends and specifics that you can use to adjust your company’s culture and policies. While you will not be able to create individualized systems for each worker, you will be able to design a workplace that is better suited to support your staff in a meaningful way.
What is the best first step to enforce your work-life balance policies?
The number one way to enforce any policy or policies you implement is to lead by example (and make sure your leadership team does too). Management, department heads, and supervisors are meant to serve as extensions of you, doing what you physically cannot. If they do not uphold the standards you set and, instead, create their own, this can reflect negatively on you and your business. So, address issues within leadership promptly and discretely when they arise to ensure uniformity in the presentation and implementation of company ethics and values.
Examples of work-life balance policies and best practices.
When deciding what work-life balance policies and practices are right for your company remember to focus on meeting your employees half way. It is your responsibility as an employer to take into account the strengths and limitations of your business and staff in order to create an environment where your workers can find balance. By encouraging and rewarding employees who utilize the tools you provide you’ll create a positive feedback loop that will support and retain your top talent for years to come.
Provide paid time off (PTO). While some business owners balk at the idea of giving their staff paid time off, companies with PTO are more attractive to potential top performers and tend to have more productive and engaged workers than those that do not. PTO has also been linked to healthier, less stressed workforces, as employees are more likely to prioritize their health if they know they will not have to face financial repercussions for doing things like going to the doctor or spending time with loved ones. Finally, as many companies require PTO to be submitted in advance, management is able to take the appropriate steps to compensate for one less worker well ahead of time, further ensuring continued productivity in the workplace.
Offer flexible work arrangements. Remote and hybrid work arrangements are currently the most popular flexible options, but they are far from the only ones. There are compressed work weeks (four day work weeks with longer hours, providing employees a three day weekend), job sharing (where two part time workers come together to do the work of one full time employee), and flexible clock-in clock-out arrangements (with “early shifts” and “late shifts” with central hours remaining the same).
Make schedules predictable. Keep your work arrangements flexible when you can, but make schedules predictable. It’s easier for employees to maintain their work-life balance and manage their stress levels if they know their hours are going to be similar (or exactly the same) from one week to the next. So, if you have an employee who works better in the afternoons, consistently scheduling them to work afternoons will allow you to reap the benefits of their higher productivity and provide them the stability to establish a routine outside of work.
Set “do not disturb” hours. Make it a point not to send or respond to emails or direct messages outside of work hours, if you do work outside of designated hours make sure your status is set to not active, and schedule correspondence to be sent at the beginning of the next work day. Set an example for your employees and make it clear that you expect the same behavior in return.
Frontload the workweek. Introduce larger projects on Mondays so teams are finishing them up by the end of the week. This allows employees to take the accomplishment of completing a large task into the weekend while mentally preparing them to switch off their “work brains” for the next two days. To assist with this, you can also implement policies that eliminate internal meetings after a certain time on Fridays, allowing your workers more time to dedicate to deep work and to avoid introducing new information that might distract them from their free time.
Incorporate work-life balance into performance evaluations. Make work-life balance part of your six-month reviews. Provide recognition for maintaining defined work hours while still accomplishing goals, for not sending/responding to emails and messages outside of company hours, and maintaining a consistent workload with quality results.
Offer training and development opportunities. Offer instruction on time management, stress reduction, and delegation to management and allow the standards they set to influence those under them.
