WORK LIFE BALANCE

WHAT IS WORK/LIFE BALANCE?

• Equal balance between work and personal activities? • Is it same for everyone?

Varies from individual to individual and varies over time on a daily basis as well over different phases of life

• There is no perfect, one-size fits all solution

• The best work-life balance is different for each of us because we all have different priorities and different lives

• Work/life balance, in its broadest sense, is defined as a satisfactory level of involvement between the multiple roles in a person’s life.

NEED OF WORK LIFE BALANCE

“No one can have everything and do everything at the same time”-Oprah Winfrey

• The inability to balance work and family demands has been linked to :-

reduced work performanceincreased absenteeismlower commitment poor morale

Benefits of Work Life Balance Initiatives for Employers

• Reduced absenteeism and lateness • Improved employee morale and commitment • Reduced stress and improved productivity • A more flexible workforce • Increased ability to attract and recruit staff • Potential for improved occupational health and

safety • Fulfillment of equal opportunity objectives • Good corporate citizenship and an enhanced

corporate image

Benefits of Work Life Balance Initiatives for Employees

• Ability to manage work and individual commitments • Improved personal and family relationships • Flexible working arrangements resulting in reduced work

overload and stress • Increased focus, motivation and job satisfaction knowing

that family and work commitments are being met • Increased job security from the knowledge that an

organisation understands and supports workers with family responsibilities

• Increased ability to remain employed. • Increased ability to remain competitive in career

advancement • Improved health and wellbeing of staff

Global Perspective

• 1) New Zealand • Employee’s perspective of work life

– Flexible start and finish times, and more leave - both paid and unpaid.

– More choice about the way they work, including having more input into rosters and shifts, and choosing the number of hours they work

• Employers offering • Using personal sick leave to care for others• Flexible break provisions• Study leave• Governments initiative • Obstruction

Global Perspective –Contd.• Netherlands Initiatives to give workers more control over their working time,

such as the Netherlands' Adjustment of Hours Law assist workers in improving their worklife balance.

• Australia Work life policy for the ICT industry This policy provides guidance and recommendations by

the Australian Computer Society (ACS) on work life issues for employers and employees in the ICT industry

• Flexible working hours;• Work location options;• Employee friendly working arrangements,• Paid parental leave,• Job sharing and part time work,• Promoting healthy life style alternatives through membership of

gym and other recreational clubs.

Indian PictureNIIT Innovative allowances for employees who were dating, got engaged and so

on. These policies ensured recruitment of promising talent and a motivated workforce.

IBM Free membership to children of all IBMers to the GenieKids Resource

center through out the year - The Resource Center houses a library, activity based games, pottery classes, computer classes etc.

IBM employees can also attend Parenting Workshops at the Resource Center, covering topics like "Developing Child's Intelligence", "Communicating towards better parenting", "Developing parent child relationships", at discounted rates through out the year

Accenture Incorporated family events into its employee calendars, with social

gatherings or outings where the whole family comes together. Mandatory number of holidays, discounted gym and saloon memberships and even in-house work-life effectiveness managers and career counselors are all attempts by Accenture to counter stress and maintain the work life balance.

Infosys unveils new HR practices

• Paternity leaves• Exams for employees who are interested

in other profiles, Job Rotation• Lady employee will be allowed to work

from home (for particularly new mothers)• initiated a pilot project for employees

giving them an opportunity to opt for a one-year sabbatical at any point in their careers

Employee Welfare at Wipro

• Education• Medical• Housing• Canteen and other Recreational facilities• Club membership • Insurance Policy• Mitr• Freedom Of association

Parameters of Study

Work-Life Balance

Work-Life Balance

Gen

der

Gen

der

Marital S

tatusM

arital Status

Time ConstraintsTime Constraints

The questionnaire was structured into 3 substantive sections:

• Issues in work life

• Issues in family life

• Issues in self life

Work-Life BalanceWork-Life Balance

Family-LifeFamily-LifeWork-LifeWork-Life Self-LifeSelf-Life

Work Life

• There are very less number of males and females who are working for less than 8 hours.

• 81% males working for 8-10 hrs and 16% males working for 10-12 hours.

• Whereas in the case of females there are 90% of females working for 8-10 hours and 5% working for 10-12 hours.

• Means comparing with the males there are less percentage of females who are working for long hours.

Official Travel (Representing the Gender)

• 78% of the males travel for less than 5 days a month and 13% travel for 5-10 days. There are 9% who travel for more than 10 days.

• Where as 71% of females travel for less than 5 days and 28% travel for 5-10 days. And there are no females who travel for more than 10 days a month.

Representing the Marital Status

• 87% of the married people travel for less than 5 days, 13% travel for 5-10 days. And there are no married people who travel for more than 10 days.

• Whereas there are 69% of singletons who travel for less than 5 days, 18% travel for 5-10 days and there are 13% who travel for more than 10 days in a month for official purpose.

• From this observation we can say that because married people have more responsibilities and they have to dedicate more time to family they are travelling less as compared to singletons.

Office Tension at home

• We find that women are more worried than men about their work when they come home. We can notice that substantially 78% women carry office tension home compared to just 60 % men.

According to marital status• Married women

comparatively carry more office tension back home than single women.

• Approximately 90 % of the married women carry tensions back home that 60% of single women

Analysis-Family Life• Majority of the males spent either

less than 30 minutes or more than 90 minutes with their family.

• Whereas majority of the females spent around 60-90 minutes with their family. This could be by their own personal choice.

• When probed further into the study it was found that men who spent less than 30 minutes with their families were generally unmarried. This could probably be because they are spending more time on their personal life like going out for picnics, vacations etc.

• While in case of females they showed a very stable trend. Probably due to the Indian culture women are seen more to spend time with their families.

Respondents spending time with their family. (marital status wise)

• most of the married respondents once they reach home like to spend time with their family.

• Whereas in case of unmarried respondents we found that once they reach home they like to spent time watching TV, surfing internet, self recreational activities, etc rather than spending time with family.

Percentage of respondents going on a vacation in a year (marital status wise)

• 72% of the married respondents went on a vacation for about once in a year.

• Whereas in case of unmarried respondents a high percentage of respondents i.e. 25 per-cent didn’t go on a vacation even once a year.

• Probably less family responsibilities on the shoulders of the singletons helped them to dedicate more time for themselves as well as their work. On the time frame when analysed the singletons were found spending more time at work and for their self life. But the same frame would not be feasible to measure the time spent by the married individuals.

Helping children in studies(gender wise for married individuals)

• 62% of the males and 50% of the females did not help out their wards with their education.

• This could be attributed to the late working hours experienced by the respondents.

• Most of these individuals worked for 10 – 12 hours a day. From this we found that roughly the married individuals in our sample were contributing 11.19 hours of their day to their work and approximately 1 hour to travel and could not or on personal choice did not contribute much to help their wards with their studies.

No of hours of sleep daily

• 90% of the respondents confirmed that they slept for 6 or more than 6 hours daily.

• According to the medical theories, an average of 6 hours of sleep is required for an adult to rejuvenate his physical capacities on a daily basis. Despite, the heavy work schedules all the respondents of the survey satisfied this criterion.

No of hours of sleep daily (marital status wise)

• It was found that majority of the singletons were sleeping for more than 6 hours. While in case of married respondents approximately 50% of them slept strictly for 5 – 6 hours.

Recreational activities• 50 % of the male respondents

spend time engaging in recreational activities while maximum females do not. This clearly shows a striking difference in the choice made by males and females towards balancing self life.

• One fourth of our respondents also confided that they were interested in recreational activities, but could not find time to include them in their daily routines for lack of time. They were of the opinion that vacations were the time when they could get a break from work.

Membership of spiritual organizations

• In response to being part any spiritual or social organization, out of the total males, singletons have a upper hand than married ones. 25% of males are a part of social or spiritual organization, out of which 88% are single males and 12% are married. The rest 75% of males, married or single are not part of any social or spiritual organization.

• Out of the total females, there is an equal distribution of analysis. 36% of females are a part of social or spiritual organization, out of which 45% are single females and 55% are married. The rest 64% of females, married or single are not part of any social or spiritual organization.

Hobbies• The pie-diagram represents the

general response of the respondents pertaining to hobbies. 32% of them preferred to watch T.V. while just 4% finished their office work while at home. When further analysed according to the gender it was found that females were more keen on viewing the television soaps while males were into gym and internet surfing. A quick observation of the details showed that there was a even distribution to all the options when male respondents were considered. While in case of female respondents, the choices were more tending to wards otions like T.V, spending time with family etc.

Conclusion

• Conscious efforts taken by the employer to counter barriers to work life balance. Also, the employee has to ensure that there is effective time and stress management.

• Respondents of this survey were spending time in all the three fronts of work, family and self life. But the no of hours spent by each of them was different. This could be attributed to their personality and individual choice. It could also depend on what they considered as best balance for themselves.

• Another aspect of the entire study though not explicitly covered is the organizational culture to readily accept the work life initiatives into the organizational environment.

RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE EMPLOYER

• Motivation

• Appreciation of work

• Authority and Responsibility

RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE EMPLOYEE

• Pursuing Hobbies and Passions

• Effective Time and Stress Management