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Work-Life Balance and Workforce Management
By : Lucy Caudle
Individuals face demands on their time from work and life requirements. If they cannot balance the requirements, it could mean an unhealthy life or unemployment. Work-life balance has become an important topic of study and discussion because of its impact on public health and business results.
Business results are affected because stressed employees are poor performers and unhealthy life choices lead to greater incidence of sickness absences.
WWith both governments and businesses interested in the issue, work-life balance has indeed become a center of considerable attention.
How Work Can Affect Life
A healthy life requires attention to important life areas such as family, children, friends and hobbies. A high-pressure work situation and time spent on commuting can eat into the time available for workers to attend to these areas. As a result, these important areas tend to be neglected.
Job security has also suffered with changing trends in industry. Information technology and competitive pressures have led to the practical disappearance of the earlier phenomenon of lifetime employment with one employer.
Employees are generally looking for better opportunities while employers might be seeking ways to reduce costs by replacing employees. Both these lead to frequent job changes and even to re-locations, adding to the stress and pressures faced by employees.
Add to these the stress of constant technological changes and the need to learn new things, and you get a future-shocked generation.
Results of Unbalanced Work-Life Situations
Rise in workplace violence, increase in levels of absenteeism and rising trend of workmen's compensation claims have made employers keenly aware of the need to attend more to the work-life balance of their employees.
In the personal lives of employees, inadequate time for family life and parenting lead to marriage problems and a generation of children increasingly addicted to harmful substances and ways of life.
Pressures created by the work situation are also affecting health and sexual lives.
Achieving Better Work Life Balance
Personal ambitions, a consumerist culture, an emphasis on "work-ethic" to the neglect of personal lives and the time squeeze caused by the demands of work, commuting and personal affairs are all contributing to the upset work life balance.
Remedial measures need to focus on certain key areas, including in particular:
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