Achieving a good work/life balance for employers and employees
Recent research suggests that office distractions add up to two hours every day. Imagine what you could achieve with better focus and attention and less distractions. Make every minute count by being more effective at work and having more time to enjoy at home. Research has also shown that 63% of people with poor time management also experience health issues.
Setting boundaries
If you work from home, getting a good work/life balance can be harder than for those who travel to an office, as the boundaries (physical and psychological) are even more blurred and sometimes the benefit of the flexibility to work from home gets lost. It is therefore also important to keep to a structure and set a start and end time to your working day. If you work from home here are a few top tips to consider:
- Just because your blackberry/i-phone/laptop alerts you to a new message does not mean you have to answer it immediately.
- Don’t get into the habit of checking emails in the evening and weekends (60% of people do though!). Set expectations with your clients and colleagues so that a culture of 24-hour working does not become the norm.
If you are a manager, it is your responsibility to set an example and create a positive working culture that does not require people to be permanently responsive to emails.
What can your company do?
Many working parents worry that they do not spend enough time engaging with their children and that there are not enough hours in the day to do everything that is asked of them at work either. As an employer or manager, you can help your employees by introducing tools and techniques to help employees achieve their full potential and accomplish great things both at home and at work.
You can develop your own strategies or bring in the expertise of a specialist coaching company, who can provide programmes to help you do this. This can result in:
- Improved performance: a valued and happy employee is productive. Less stress away from the office will create a more focused and productive workforce.
- Motivation: Office morale is a fragile thing, and in difficult economic times, when money and family worries are rife, making your employees feel valued can have a positive knock-on effect on their performance and your bottom line.
- Improved attraction and retention of your workforce: employees do evaluate their employment situation and providing employee focussed programmes can only support your claim to be an employer of choice.
- Social responsibility: Companies are under increasing government and regulatory pressure to take greater responsibility for the wellbeing of their staff. Employing an effective work/life balance programme incorporating such things as flexible and home working is one way of achieving this.
So what are you waiting for, go ahead and set some boundaries, and make every minute at work really count, and you could have more time for your home life. For the employers out there, helping your employees to better manage their work/life balance can result in a happier workforce and increased productivity for your business.
If you are a parent, read Anna’s useful Parenting tips article as well.
About the author
Anna Golawski is a Post Graduate qualified coach, and brings with her a wealth of talent and experience gained over the last fifteen years in business. Anna has over fifteen years experience working for Harrods, Rolls Royce and IBM. She started coaching in 2003 as part of her MBA and has enabled numerous clients achieve their goals and ambitions. She has written several coaching articles for magazines and is a business mentor for the Prince's Trust.
To find out more about the benefits Nineteen Minutes will bring to your organisation please call Anna on 07772 24 23 24 or e-mail annagolawski@nineteenminutes.com
Article copyright YourDoc Medical Ltd 2010. All rights reserved.
