Thus, flexibility in the workplace allows employees to recruit a richer pool of employees. Also many organisations are seen to operate on the basis of a social norm which to them indicates the employee’s commitment to their job.
When looking at the benefits of work-life balance in the workplace and how it is implemented it can be seen that flexibility in the workplace permits all employers to recruit and therefore retain staff that are needed to run the day to day business of the organisation.
The benefits to employers that choose to operate a work-life balance policy would be that it increases productivity, maximises all available labour and resources and therefore reduces staff turnover and absenteeism.
The benefits to employees can be seen as having a greater control of their working lives which can assist them to have a better relationship with the management team thus providing them with the support that they need to achieve a more balance life.
There are ranges of ways in which employers can help with employees to achieve a successes work-life balance they are: Flexitime, Staggered hours, Time off in lieu, Shift swapping etc.
Work-life balance debates have been evolving over several decades dating back from 1975. This has given rise to many policies that have changed over the years some of these legal duties and employment acts may not directly associated with work-life balance policies, but organisations are required to consider them when developing a work-life policy.
The following acts are seen as being relevant in the way work-life balance policies in organisations are used:
This employment act states that all pay should be equal for both men and women although this act came into force in 1975.
This act states that no one should face any kind of discrimination on the basis of their skin colour or ethnic origin.
- Sex Discrimination Act 1975
The Government passes the Sex Discrimination Act which out laws discrimination against both sexes except where expressly permitted and also on any other related matters.
- Disability Discrimination Act 1995
This legislation must be consistent with all the requirements of this specific act. Also during 1995 the government announced that a new legislation on statutory maternity leave as it will be no longer be conditional on the length of service and 14 weeks is to be paid with paid leave foe ante-natal appointments.
- Working Time Regulations 1998
Before the working time regulations came into force, it was announced that affordable childcare is to be introduced so people could work also a white paper on fairness at work was produced in conjunction with the working time regulations.
This regulation has seen to have a direct impact on the way organisations apply work-life balance by dropping the long hours that affect employees to opting for a more flexible approach.
- Employment Relations Act 1999
When looking at this act it aims to try an provide the correct balance between work and home life, this act looks at the three initiatives that companies or organisations have to adhere to such as parental leave and improved maternity rights.
Also in 1998 adoptive parents were also allowed to claim leave when the child arrived and people with low income would receive tax credits during parental leave.
This act is seen to protect the employee’s family and private life away from any kind of discrimination that could affect them directly or indirectly and therefore considers the concept of work-life balance.
- Part-time Workers Regulations 2000
This act looks at all aspects of part-time working and ensures that all employees are treated fairly without facing any kind of discrimination.
Also the most recent development to the work-life balance policy is in 2003 parents that have children that are under the age of 6 are given the right to request for flexible working time and therefore all organisation have an obligation to consider the request made by the employee so long as it does not affect the company or organisation.
Providing work-life balance it has shown the employers and employees are a happier workforce and have a positive effect on the retention of staff and higher levels of motivation. Increase in performance levels have also been found, as employees are less tired, so therefore the work can be done more effectively
Having arrangements in place it enables employees to balance their work and other commitments, its helps the following:
- Both mothers and fathers to care for their children
- Those with caring responsibilities for older or disabled people
- Employees to undertake study or training
- People to play an active role in their local communities
Research from LRD found out that employees who have taken a specific leave; it allows skilled employees the opportunity to return early to work while balancing personal and domestic needs.
Work-life balance has also shown evidence employees’s control and confidence has increasingly taken control of their own careers. Moreover, individuals are beginning to define a successful career as it allows time and energy for activities outside of work.
Managers often work the longest hours and with the help of work-life balance practices their jobs can be done by part time, flexible workers or job sharing, this showed they outperform colleagues working standard full time hours. These managers working with the aid of work-life balance practices had greater problem solving and analysis skill and better planning and organisational skills than full-time managers.
The work-life balance 2001: Baseline study found that 91% of employers agreed that people work best when they can balance their work and other aspect of their lives.
The demand for flexible work is increasing, not only the workers with caring responsibilities need flexible work, so do 18-24 years old as they would be more motivated at work if they had access to work-life balance schemes.
Usually managers may have limited access to work-life balance because they have higher authority and being decision makers, it becomes less difficult for them to adapt to work-life balance.
In some organisation it is argued that work-life balance polices is more favourable to women with children and other caring responsibilities.
Some evidence show that workers who take up work-life balance as an options, is often portrayed with lack of commitment to their career or towards the organisation.
The London Borough of Camden Council
The London Borough of Camden Council has a workforce of 6600 employees; work-life balance was introduced in 2001 with the aim improving on the flexible working options open to staff. This mean the staff would benefit from:
- Increased opportunities to work from home
- More flexible hours
- Compress working weeks
Camden realised that it need to change its culture and performance management system so that it ensure a greater emphasis on result and to erode a lingering culture of presenteeism.
For Camden to implement work-life balance, workshops were organised where the managers would be encourage to run and to discover ways of improving service while offering individuals better opportunities to work flexible.
When the flexible working was introduce 29% of staff felt that the system was not perfect but it was better than before and a step in the right direction.
There was 2.5% reduction in the cost of sickness absences and a reduction of 2% in staff turnover in the first year. It has also enabled some departments to extend their opening hours.
The 2002 employee survey also highlighted the areas for improvement such as the employees were confused who was title to the policies and resourcing issues such as laptops. Some managers are unconvinced that work-life balance would work for their teams.
Although some of these issues have been resolve such as more resources being available and introducing case studies and success stories are disseminated among staff to communicate the availability of ideas.
In practice a small team, several members have taken up flexible working options and develop ways in which the team can meet business and personal needs. As a result the development is open for longer hours, the team has a more structured approach to carry out its workload and overall the team works better as a whole.
An employee comments, “The flexible working options are the best thing I have ever been offered by an employer. They have rekindled my enthusiasm and commitment to fulfil my role as a mental health broker.”
British Telecom (BT)
British Telecom (BT) workforce consists of 87,325 in the UK (March 2005) employees which delivers its telecommunication, Internet and IT services to millions customers.
Most of BT’s workers have responsibilities for others, children or elderly, disable or sick family and friends, with ageing UK population these demands on their people will increase and expert better work-life balance.
With the use of technology BT has transform the way the company runs to site-based workforce to an “eBT” this allow employees to be more flexible.
A common problem for BT was that often engineers had to leave customer premises due to lack of information which result to wasting time and decreasing customers satisfaction and enable flexible working.
BT has been able to achieve it increasingly demands of customers expectation by applying flexible workers, BT now has over 9000 home workers, nearly 500 job shares and more than 5000 part-time workers.
BT has used its own technological products and services to implement this change. BT Broadband is used by employees at home, in the office, on customer premises or while travel 70% training is delivered on-line to employees at work or home.
BT has changed their attitudes to enable flexibility manager have agree to flexible working request, performance focus and support facilities are provided though the “Achieving the balance” intranet site.
In practice the workers can now fulfil commitment around work. Now some of BT’s employees are long-term flexible workers. It allows some workers to work at different time and location as long they work full weekly hours.
Russell & Bromley
According to Russell & Bromley’s attitude and culture they have not shown to be favourable towards work-life balance policies although they have it written in their staff handbook still many employees face dealing with social needs and work needs.
Still today workers with caring responsibilities find it very difficult to adjust to their requirements although when interviewing they admit to being very positive in their attitude in the way they approach work-life balance policies.
They have been able to attract employees including myself who has two children one under the age of 6 years old by portraying a positive work-life balance image in terms of employment and childcare needs.
They do not accept that you have childcare needs that need to be met when required as they feel that in doing so it affects their day-to-day running of their business.
Conclusion
At the moment work life balance is becoming more real than it was before, as managers are becoming aware of employee’s personal issues that need to be attended during the typically working hours of 9am to 5pm.
With the aid of Internet and other sources of technology work life balance has become more real and strong, as people can earn a average wage,
Although some businesses only work during peak working hours, so it restrict them to be part of work life balances schemes
Today in the employment industry the way people work is rapidly changing, the UK workforce is becoming more flexible and is adapting to environment changes. Most organisation do have some form of work-life balance polices but these can only be implemented if attitudes are flexible.
It is important for organisation to start adapting to work-life balance as trends and life style are changing
At the moment th work lif balance is being more tha it wasbfore as managerd sre becomim
Bibliography
Textbooks
Pilbeam S and Corbridge M, (2002), People Resourcing HRM in Practice, 2nd edition, Prentice Hall.
Price, A. (2004), Human Resource Management, 2nd edition, Thomson.
Pidduck, J. and Haywood, KP. (2005) HRM 2, 2nd edition, Pearson Education.
Websites
www.employment-studies.co.uk
References
: viewed 28th February 2006,
Pilbeam S and Corbridge M, (2002), People Resourcing HRM in Practice, 2nd edition, Prentice Hall, reviewed pages 73 to 84.
Price, A. (2004), Human Resource Management, 2nd edition, Thomson, reviewed pages 381 to 383 and 541 o 543
Pidduck, J. and Haywood, KP. (2005) HRM 2, 2nd edition, Pearson Education. reviewed pages 238 to 251.
Gerry Johnson and K. Scholes, Exploring Corporate Strategy, Prentice Hall 6th ed 2002 (Chapter 3)
J. Byrne, “Pepsico New Formula”, 10 April 2000
Maya Deb K0317730
Kiran Varma K0329163
