Showing a willingness to be flexible demonstrates employers are serious about employee work-life balance.

- By Ingrid Johnson

It is time to move beyond talking about employee work-life balance and get some action going. Employers serious about helping their most valuable resource – people – achieve satisfying work and personal lives first need a willingness to be flexible. They can offer flexible working schedules, customizable benefit packages, and a host of perks that help people better manage their lives and pursue life goals. Ultimately, the employer must also get workplace priorities properly aligned.

Corporate social responsibility applies to employees as much as it does to external communities. Increasingly, employers are responding to the needs of their workforces by getting past talking about work-life balance to developing solid strategies and plans.

There are plenty of reasons for giving more attention to work-life balance. One is the changing work environment in which technology has blurred the lines between work and personal lives.

Another is the changing labor force demographics. Multigenerational workforces and blended families are now common, meaning people are at different stages of their lives and have significantly different needs. Even the aging population is a factor because more workers are caring for older family members who often require attention during normal work hours.

Balancing Priorities and Policies

There are many ways to approach policies that promote greater employee satisfaction that inevitably raises productivity. A good place to start is by developing policies that encourage behaviors, like managers promoting employee healthy lifestyles and discouraging employees from doing work during their off hours. The advent of mobile technology has made a murky dividing line between work and personal lives since emails, texts and phone calls are available 24-7.

Companies can also encourage staff to utilize their vacation and sick leave as needed and make it clear that managers will do what they can to help employees manage their workloads.

Policies should reflect company priorities. A work environment that is rigid and leads people to believe profits are more important than lives is not conducive to work-life balance. Employees will be reluctant to ask for time off to care for a sick, family member or will feel obligated to check emails from supervisors on weekends.

Flexibility in priorities is key to meeting the needs of the modern, complex and mobile workforce. Priorities for completion of work assignments should be set, but managers must also be aware of the amount of staff work being done outside regular work hours. An excessive amount of overtime indicates the priorities and schedules are out of alignment with realistic expectations. It is a sure way to develop a dissatisfied group of employees who will eventually leave.

Keeping Life Scales Evenly Balanced

Instituting flexible benefits is another successful approach some companies have taken to work-life balance. Companies are adding healthcare benefits that accommodate partners. Some are letting staff members use sick leave, vacation time or time off to care for family members, partners or anyone relying on their caregiving, or to manage personal issues. The Department of the Interior U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gives employees the ability to invest in lifecycle funds, which automatically manage money reallocations based on the employee’s age, in recognition of a maturing workforce.

Accenture developed a “Total Rewards” package, a comprehensive collection of market-relevant benefits and opportunities for career development. This is a company setting benchmarks for work-life balance programs based on a philosophy that balanced lives enhance productivity. It has numerous programs to help employees better manage life challenges. For example, the company has a “New Parents Toolkit” for anyone expecting or adopting a baby and a “LifeWorks Employee Assistance Program” that helps staff members get confidential support for difficult challenges like end-of-life.

Offering flexible work arrangements and schedules are two more ways to promote work-life balance. Scripps Health has flexible work scheduling options that include job sharing, a compressed workweek and telecommuting.

As a technology company, it is not surprising that AT&T accommodates a distributed workforce using virtual presence technologies to reduce the need for frequent travel while keeping employees fully engaged. The corporate giant also has telecommuting and flexible workspaces called tPlaces, which are on-demand workplace hubs that place managers closer to clients.

Some companies are offering unpaid leave time for personal reasons for a limited-time period while benefits remain in force. Anadarko Petroleum, an American oil and gas exploration company headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas, allows employees to work eight nine-hour days and one eight-hour day and then take one day off, and all must occur within each two-week period.

The most flexible work schedules are in companies where employees decide when to work the required hours. This is particularly attractive to people active in their communities as volunteers, parents with children, and people who have responsibilities like driving family members to doctor appointments.

The Whole Employee

There should be a supportive workplace culture encompassing work-life balance policies and strategies. This includes activities as simple as keeping snack machines and breakroom refrigerators filled with healthy foods to adding an on-site gym or outdoor bicycling and jogging track and encouraging employees to use it during the workday as part of a wellness program. The business consulting firm North Highland, headquartered in Atlanta, GA, went the distance and offers on-site health services, physical therapy and massage, and fitness centers.

It has become abundantly clear to companies that work-life balance policies and strategies are not just nice-to-haves. They are needed to help staff better manage stress and live fuller, richer lives at work and at home. The programs contribute to recruitment and retention of talent and serve as employee engagement strategies.

The really nice feature of work-life balance programs is that they consider the whole employee and not the person who shows up for work. Companies are recognizing that it is impossible to have a clean division between work and personal lives, and the result is a wealth of programs and opportunities that drive greater satisfaction 24 hours a day.