The Importance of Work-life balance for staff and employers in 2019 and beyond

By Sagar, Tech Social

Work-life balance is described as a self-determined state of well-being that allows an individual to effectively manage different responsibilities at work, as well as outside work. According to a major Canadian study, 1 in 4 employees experiences high levels of work-life conflict between their work and family.

The time spent at work is one of the major factors that influence this work-life conflict. Other reasons include job security, work-role ambiguity, work-role conflict, job dissatisfaction, work demands or overload, and many more.

Work-life conflict is a difficult problem that impacts both employee, and their employers and it seems that this problem is increasing. However, if you’re interested in a work-life balance that can help you live a happier, and more meaningful life then continue reading this post.

Why does work-life balance matter?

One of the reasons to focus on work-life balance is happiness, productivity, and engagement. People need time outside of work to participate in family life, community activities and to develop and nurture friendships. Although most people will say employers aren’t responsible for employees’ work-life balance, the truth is that employers that neglect their employees’ work-life balance may encounter higher rates of turnover and absenteeism as well as diminished productivity over time.

Both the employees and employers need flexible approaches to work-life balance. Attaining a good work-life balance is very important. When workers are happy and balanced, they are more productive, take fewer sick days, and are more likely to stay in their jobs.

Check out AppInstitute’s 111 Home Business Ideas for more ideas to help achieve the perfect work-life balance.

Strategies to achieve work-life balance

Now that you know what work-life balance is, and why it matters. Let’s take a look at some strategies employers can use to achieve and maintain a better work-life balance among their employees.

Promote healthy lifestyles
Prioritizing your worker’s health is an integral part of work-life balance. Long working hours force employees to sacrifice health and fitness, so there are some things you can do as an employer that will help your employees maintain healthy lifestyles. You could hold free workout classes at work to promote work-life balance or offer discount gym memberships at a fitness center near your office.

Support telecommuting
You can consider allowing your staff to work from home at least occasionally. However, you might be bothered that your employees won’t be productive from home, which is not true. So many companies around the world allow their employees to telecommute, and they are reaping the rewards. Telecommuting can also be an opportunity for employees to get things done at home that might have required your workers to take a full day off of work.

Embrace flextime
Flextime means allowing your employees to have flexible working hours or days. Flextime is an excellent way to encourage a healthy work-life balance. You can give your employees an hourly range of 35 to 40 hours per week and allowing them to space the time out. Flextime like this will let your workers have a life outside of work as well improve productivity.

Educate employees
Another way to promote healthy work-life balance is to teach your employees everything they need to know about work-life balance. Offer seminars about work-life balance, why it’s essential, and things they can do to achieve it. You can host a workshop and hire a professional to come and give the presentation. Educating your employees about work-life balance give them the tools they need to help themselves.

Implement short breaks
Short breaks during working hours are essential to your workers’ mental and physical health. The body was not meant to sit down on a chair and stare at a bright screen for hours. Ensure that your employees take all the breaks that they are entitled to by law. Taking breaks at work allows employees to do their job better, less burned out, be more focused, and more productive in the long-term.

Lead by example
Finally, it is essential to practice what you preach. If you tell your employee to close by 5pm each day, but you still send them emails when they got home, then it’s not ideal. It is vital to lead by example and respect the working time as well as the privacy of your employee when they are not in the office. It would help if you can avoid contacting them outside of office hours to allow them to switch off, and recharge from everyday work stress.

Benefits of work-life balance
Achieving a good work-life balance is crucial for all employees. Having a positive work-life balance can help your employees create enough time for both work and other facets of their lives. Below are some of the benefits of work-life balance.

Benefits of work-life balance for employees

Allow schedule flexibility
A happier, less stressed workforce
Lower levels of absence, and sickness
Better levels of efficiency and productivity
Improvements in employee health and well-being
Greater employee loyalty, commitment, and motivation

Benefits of work-life balance for employers

Improved morale
Less organizational stress
Better teamwork and communication
Maintain structural consistency
Increased engagement and commitment levels
Reduces Staff Turnover and Recruitment Costs
Meet seasonal peaks as well as boost your competitiveness
Measured increases in employee accountability and commitment

In summary

As you can see, good work-life balance benefits both the employee and business, making it worthy of your time and investment.

To achieve a workplace culture, which promotes balance, employers who truly know the importance of work-life balance must underpin the above tips. We hope the tips explained above will help you to start improving your employee work-life balance, starting from today.

More information about Irish Tech News and the Business Showcase

FYI the ROI for you is => Irish Tech News now get over 1.5 million monthly views, and up to 900k monthly unique visitors, from over 160 countries. We have over 860,000 relevant followers on Twitter on our various accounts & were recently described as Ireland’s leading online tech news site and Ireland’s answer to TechCrunch, so we can offer you a good audience!

Since introducing desktop notifications a short time ago, which notify readers directly in their browser of new articles being published, over 16000 people have now signed up to receive them ensuring they are instantly kept up to date on all our latest content. Desktop notifications offer a unique method of serving content directly to verified readers and bypass the issue of content getting lost in people’s crowded news feeds.

Drop us a line if you want to be featured, guest post, suggest a possible interview, or just let us know what you would like to see more of in our future articles. We’re always open to new and interesting suggestions for informative and different articles. Contact us, by email, twitter or whatever social media works for you and hopefully we can share your story too and reach our global audience.

If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at Simon@IrishTechNews.ie or on Twitter: @SimonCocking