By:Roberta Neault, PhD, CCC, RRP and Deirdre Pickerell, MEd, CHRP
Picture the Canadian workplace as a house you've just had inspected. The evaluator's report holds few surprises. The profit picture is improving, the job market is fairly positive, markets for the country's products and services are relatively strong.
The report includes a worrisome note, however. A hairline crack runs along the base of the structure. The Canadian workforce, the foundation of this particular building, is under considerable stress. Disability claims are escalating. Absenteeism and so-called ‘presenteeism’ are on the rise. Productivity isn't what it could be.
Fixing the problem will be expensive; and yet, not fixing it is expensive, as well. Unhealthy, dysfunctional workplaces cost Canadian employers billions of dollars each year.
~ Janis Foord-Kirk, 2005
Assisting employees to balance work with other life roles is a responsibility that employers can ill afford to ignore. Many employees are spending longer hours at work and, with the advent of technology, taking work with them wherever they go…answering emails in the grocery line or while cheering at the kids’ soccer game, engaging in conference calls while in transit, text messaging while at lunch.
Parents are doing laundry, buying groceries, or making lunches at midnight; sleep deprivation, in turn, impacts productivity at work the next day. Many employees are members of the “sandwich generation” – still caring for children while taking on increasing eldercare responsibilities for their parents.
Although few would argue the importance of balance, it remains elusive. HR professionals can play a pivotal role in shaping an organizational culture that contributes to employee wellness and work-life balance without detracting from profitability. To get started, consider some of the tips below to decrease absenteeism, increase productivity, and enhance job satisfaction.
Create family friendly workplaces
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Wherever possible, offer flexible working hours that accommodate employees’ other life roles (e.g., parenting, eldercare, community service, or coursework)
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Support workers tasked with elder-care responsibilities (e.g., Allstate Insurance Company offers an Elder Care Assessment Tool to help employees evaluate their needs in caring for aging relatives. One Allstate branch offered a four month long Caregiver Education program through the Agency on Aging)
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Consider providing space for an onsite daycare (or eldercare) centre
Encourage healthy lifestyles (e.g., fitness activities, good nutrition, adequate sleep)
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Equip on-site fitness centres to facilitate easy access for daily exercise
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Coordinate walking competitions…provide pedometers to every employee (at cost, if budget is a concern); facilitate “the fittest department” competitions measured by the department who logs the most steps
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Engage Weight Watchers or similar programs to facilitate in-house meetings
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Ensure the company cafeteria and vending machines have plenty of healthy meal options, at reasonable rates
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Provide water coolers that are easily accessible
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Recognize the dangers of sleep deprivation and discourage such sleep disrupting practices as late night work on projects, early morning meetings, and overnight travel
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Offer creative working solutions: part-time, flex-time, job sharing, and tele-commuting are all employee retention strategies that can be offered at little or no added cost to the employer
Create vacation friendly workplaces
Many workers choose to skip vacations or take “mini-vacations” (e.g., an additional day attached to a long weekend). A new survey by online travel company, Expedia, reports that a record 421 million vacation days will go unused this year; 31% of us will not use all our vacation, and the average worker will leave three days on the table (up from two in 2003)., Thigpen, 2005.
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Adopt a policy that encourages vacation time; don’t allow employees to bank vacation days.
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Do vacation partnering where duties of the vacationing party are shared so they don’t come back from vacation with mountains of work that has piled up; the stress of getting ahead and then being behind pre and post vacation discourages employees from taking their vacations at all
For more work-life balance tips and activities, read “That Elusive Work-Life Balance” available through Life Strategies Ltd. at www.lifestrategies.ca.
References:
Foord-Kirk, J. (2005, February 26). Healthy Workplaces: The price of a stressed workforce. Toronto Sun. Retrieved on November 30, 2005 from http://www.survivability.net/products/article.php?articleRef=96
Thigpen, D. (2005, August 7). Vanishing Vacation. Time.com. Retrieved on November 30, 2005 from http://www.time.com/time/insidebiz/article/0,9171,1090928,00.html).
About the authors:
Dr. Roberta Neault, CCC, RRP and Deirdre Pickerell, MEd, have made several presentations to BC HRMA members on the topic of work/life balance and frequently speak at national and international conferences and seminars on similar topics. They teach, both online and in-person, at several colleges and universities, and co-created a fully online program for career management professionals. Deirdre and Roberta wrote a Personality Dimensions® Toolkit for Trainers on the topic of Facilitating Work-Life Balance and Roberta is the author of That Elusive Work-Life Balance, a workbook designed to accompany their workshops.