Work-Life Balance and its Importance
Work-life balance becomes a crucial tool for firms as gender roles in families and the workplace change. Setting up a balance between work and home obligations can help with new problems including employee burnout, health, and absenteeism. At the moment, both male and female employees frequently play comparable duties in the home and workplace. It is crucial to have work-life balance policies if you want to increase employee retention and productivity. Flexible work programs create room for employees to choose between full-time and part-time work schedules. With the improvement in communication technology, employers can allow employees to work from home at least once per week. According to Korgen, Korgen & Giraffe (2015), teleconferencing, creation virtual teams, online meetings, and skype calls can be effective in keeping members of the organizational teams/departments together as they implement flexible work programs.
Paid and Unpaid Leaves and Off Times
Employers are adults who meet challenges both in their families and personal lives. Unpaid leaves and paid time off are necessary to allow them respond to emergencies that they may encounter in their lives and families. Sick days and other form of leaves must be properly defined to allow employees avoid unnecessary stress from family or personal issues that may affect their productivity and job satisfaction. Although, unclear definition of what constitute the leaves and paid off times constitute, may negatively affect an organization, clearly defined off times and leaves will benefit both the organization and employees in the long run (Reilly, 2014).
Employees Benefiting from the Policies
Over the past years, families have experienced a shift on gender roles and types of families. As more women take different job positions, men are getting involved in family matters as well (Lyness & Judiesch, 2014). Men feel the need to spend more time with their families than in the past. Flexible work programs, paid off times, and unpaid leaves are beneficial to all types of employees. Just like female employees who are traditionally attached to family roles, men are getting involved in these roles. Therefore, the policies promote productivity, increase job satisfaction, and reduce the negative effects of stressors on work relationships.
Role of Work Place Culture
Organizational culture directly affects how employees can benefit from the formulated policies to realize a balance between their life needs and work responsibilities. According to Demerouti et al (2014), internally centric culture and flexible organization structure can encourage employees to take the opportunities created by employees in relation to work life balance. Moreover, top down approaches can enable organizations to effectively implement the above policies to realize the work-life balance initiatives. On the hand, an organizations, physical and emotional environments of an organization dictates how the interests of employees can be satisfied. Creation of healthy and productive work culture helps in establishment of work-life balance in an organization.
Effects of the Polices on Productivity
Flexible working programs allow employees to choose when they are comfortable to complete their assigned tasks as long as they abide to the company requirements (Korgen, Korgen & Giraffe, 2015). Such freedom allows workers to strike a balance between their family requirements and job roles. The policy will positively impact on productivity. Moreover, allowing workers to take paid and unpaid leaves will allow them to address emergencies and personal issues. The policy will help in reducing stress among employees hence helping in improving on their productivity.
Reference
Demerouti, E., Derks, D., Lieke, L., & Bakker, A. B. (2014). New ways of working: Impact on working conditions, work–family balance, and well-being. In The impact of ICT on quality of working life (pp. 123-141). Springer Netherlands.
Korgen, K.O., Korgen, J.O., & Giraffe, V. (2015). Social Issues in the workplace (2nd ed,). [Electronic Version]. Retrieved from: https://contents.ashford.edu
Lyness, K. S., & Judiesch, M. K. (2014). Gender egalitarianism and work–life balance for managers: Multisource perspectives in 36 countries. Applied Psychology, 63(1), 96-129.
Reilly, A. (2014). The impact of stress, coping and life satisfaction on work-life balance in the Irish workplace. Retrieved from: http://esource.dbs.ie/handle/10788/1934
