The concept of work-life balance has been around for many years now and in our post-pandemic world, it is something that is on the minds of many employees.
For companies that are prepared to look at the issue with an open mind, developing a great culture with a good work-life balance means that there are a lot of benefits to be had.
In this article, we wanted to look at these benefits and show how understanding the competing needs of home and work can actually make your business more profitable and a more pleasant place to work.
In this post we are looking at;
- What is work-life balance?
- Improving productivity
- Improving innovation
- Reducing sick days
- Reducing staff turnover
- Increasing employee engagement
- Improving your brand reputation
What is work-life balance?
The concept of work-life balance has developed over the years and it is fair to say that the pandemic has shown us that there are many different ways that businesses can work.
A good work-life balance is one where the employee doesn’t feel that their home life is negatively impacted by the hours they work or the stress that this brings.
We’ve all heard stories about people who give up highly paid and just as highly stressed jobs to go and do something they enjoy for much less money and this is the essence of work-life balance.
It simply means people enjoying their work and not being consumed by it.
Work-life balance may be improved by having flexible work hours, a no-contact policy when not at work or involving the family in the social side of the work environment.
In short, a great work-life balance is one where the employee feels comfortable and supported and where they aren’t taking their work home in a negative way.
Improving productivity
A good work-life balance might seem a bit of a “nice-to-have” for businesses but actually, there are some real-world benefits that it produces.
For example, a survey of 50,000 global workers by the Corporate Executive Board of Fortune 500 companies found that employees who have a good work-life balance work 21% harder than those who don’t.
Imagine a 21% increase in productivity in your company and you can see that your bottom line could be transformed at relatively little cost.
Improving innovation
One of the biggest competitive advantages a company can have is that of exceptional innovation.
Being flexible, agile and able to develop new products and services ahead of the pack, means that the business can deliver above-average profitability and carve out a sizeable market share.
In a recent article in the International Journal of Innovation Management, researchers showed that companies that have a culture where work-life balance is valued tended to be much more innovative and developed a long-term sustainable competitive advantage.
Reduces sick days
According to the Harvard Business Review, burned-out employees cost US businesses somewhere between $125bn to $190bn a year in healthcare and lost productivity.
In the UK there are nearly 170,000 claims for stress-related illness and injury every year and 27,000 people take time off work each day as a result of stress.
The disruption of sick days alone is a major problem for many businesses but when you add on the cost of lost business or employing temps to cover missing employees it suddenly becomes a very real financial burden too.
However, employees who have a good work-life balance tend to be less stressed and as a result, take fewer days off.
This means that disruption and financial costs are reduced making it a smart move for any business.
Reduces staff turnover
Staff turnover can tend to be incredibly expensive for businesses both in terms of direct costs of recruitment but also the indirect costs of needing to get new people up to speed in their new role.
Sadly, even today the approach of many businesses is to try and outbid the opposition in a kind of salary war that never really works as you can find out in our post here.
So reducing staff turnover means that the company can avoid these costs but also the massive disruption caused by a revolving door of key people.
Having a formal work-life balance program has been shown to reduce staff turnover and also make it easier to attract people for whom the paycheque isn’t the sole reason for living.
Increases employee engagement
Employees that feel their company understands them are much more likely to be fully engaged in their role.
Businesses that make an effort to understand the competing needs of employees who have lives away from work are much more likely to develop a committed workforce that plays a full part in achieving the company’s aims.
Improves your brand reputation
Nobody knows a business like its employees. They know where all the skeletons are and they see clearly how the executives behave when no one is looking.
Nothing could be worse than negative publicity due to disgruntled employees.
So when your potential customers are searching for information on your business the one thing you don’t want them coming up with are posts by your employees complaining about the company they work for.
But in a kind of “virtuous circle”, a great brand reputation is also important if you want to attract and retain great people.
The Bayt.com ‘What Makes a Company an Attractive Place to Work?’ survey discovered some very interesting results regarding brand reputation including;
- 76% of people always turn to the internet to research a company when considering a job opportunity
- 70% of people wouldn’t work for a company they aren’t proud of
- 90% of people surveyed said they are attracted to companies that offer supportive environments.
- 60% give importance to an employer’s brand name and reputation when judging a new job offer
So you can see that a great brand reputation helps you attract great people and more importantly hang on to them.
Summary; work-life balance can transform your business
Imagine if your business found it really easy to attract the very best staff and yet had a very low turnover of people.
Imagine if those people worked 21% more productively than their peers and they took fewer sick days.
Imagine too if your company was much more innovative as a result and had a brand reputation to die for.
All of these benefits can be achieved by using a formal work-life balance approach in your business, by treating people as rounded human beings and understanding that they all have different needs and ambitions.
If you’d like to talk to an experienced HR professional about how you can develop a superb work-life balance culture in your company then contact us now and we’ll be happy to help.