What are the benefits and barriers associated with the achievement of a work-life balance for employees and employers?

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HRM Assignment

Question 3

What are the benefits and barriers associated with the achievement of a work-life balance for employees and employers?

In this essay I am going to evaluate to what extent work-life balance (WLB) initiatives benefit employees and employers Also if in any way these initiatives can be detrimental to the employee employer relationship.  Also I will assess whether work life initiatives can improve productivity and any ways in which productivity can be affected. Finally I am going to discuss the barriers to the achievement of a work-life balance (WLB).

Work-life balance can be defined as ‘’ the principle that paid employment should be integrated with domestic life and community involvement in the interests of personal and social well-being’’ (Heery & Noon, 2001). The government and major U.K companies agree with this principle and have agreed that the growing long hours culture in the UK could affect ‘’personal relationships and community cohesion’’ (Heery & Noon, 2001).

        

Also work-life balance can be thought of as those policies which are family friendly.

Family friendly are policies that can be used within organisations which are sensitive to the needs of family life. These policies encourage employees to balance their family life with the professional careers.  Many policies are aimed at females who chose or need to work whilst also having to act as the main carer for children within a family. Also some policies aim to enable men to have more responsibility within the family and to be more active in a child caring role. Some examples of these policies are flexitime, paid parental leave, maternity and paternity leave, career breaks, working from home and paid leave for elderly care (Heery & Noon, 2001).

Achieving the right balance between work and life can be hard, with many people working long average weekly hours. A balance between paid employment and life outside of work can be hard to achieve, but with the implementation of work-life balance initiatives this balance can become more reachable.

Work can be very stressful, and stressed employees may cause friction within a workplace or a loss of productivity. We are now living in a ‘long hour’s culture’, people are working longer hours, than in previous years. Many studies show that the UK now has a larger proportion of workers that work excessive hours than many EU countries. Especially as we now live, in a 24 hour 7 days a week society. People are demanding services now around the clock. The Charted institute of Personal and development have found from surveys that they have carried out that the most frequent concerns from employees are long hours and intensity of work. [http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/wrktgtime/wrktmewrklfbal][11/01/09]

Employees and employers can both benefit from implementing work-life practices, it is reasonable to assume that when workers are less stressed then productivity may be increased, and research has shown this. When employees are less stressed the quality of work may improve; productivity may rise; wastage levels may reduce; moral may improve and recruitment and training costs may also fall as staff retention is increased.

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This shows how by implementing work-life policies employers and employees can both benefit. Employees can benefit greatly from work-life initiatives. There are many ways in which employees can introduce work-life initiatives. Flexible working practices are one way in which the balance can be helped. These include such initiatives as part time working flexitime and job sharing, or even with the increase in technology the ability to work from home seamlessly. Flexible working can have benefits for everyone, by working at home employers can gain greater cost effectiveness as overheads can be reduced or the space in the office per say could be used to hire another employee.  The employee then gains benefit from being able to work at home and achieve a greater work-life balance. This can lead to higher moral and more productivity. This could also make the organisation more attractive, employee retention can improve and more potential employees may be attracted to the company. Staff that may have left may stay now having the ability to fit their hours around there personal life (Beardwell, Holden, Claydon, 2004).

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Work-life balance can also be helped through the use of other flexible arrangements within the work place, such as career breaks. This is an agreement between the employer and employee for them to take a break from there contracted job for a set period of time. With an agreement in place for them to return to their job (Price, 2007).This could allow employees to focus on other goals within their life, even maybe undertaking further training in their given field of work, returning a more experienced employee. This is good for the employee as their work-life balance has been ...

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