Incorporating Work-Life Balance in your Workplace

ManagementSeptember 16, 2021 13:28

Written by Clare Chong

According to the latest study conducted by Kisi, Singapore was found to be the 2nd most overworked city in the world in 2020. 

Out of the 50 cities surveyed, Singapore came in second for the longest time taken for working and commuting. The country totalled an approximate 51 hours per week with roughly 25% of the population being overworked. 

With the International Labour Organization (ILO) defining overworking as anything over 48 hours, it is not surprising that Singapore is also the most competitive economy for two years consecutively in the IMD World Competitiveness Ranking. However, working long hours have detrimental effects on productivity and may lead to employee burnout in the long run.

 

Benefits of Achieving Work-Life Balance for your business

As noted by the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP),  “work” and “life” are interconnected as a result of varying demographics and heightened stress from balancing between familial and professional responsibilities. While the ability to cultivate work-life harmony practices will be essential so that the individual is able to attain both personal and professional goals.

Thus it is important for employers to recognise that there is business value in helping their employees to achieve a better work-life balance. Specifically, companies can see benefits in terms of higher talent retention, improved employee engagement and productivity and reduced sick leave.
 

Implementing Work-Life Balance Strategies in the workplace

There is a 4 step framework for implementing work-life programmes for your employees. Some examples include employee support schemes, flexible work arrangements as well as leave schemes.


Step 1: Establish the need
To encourage buy-in from the top management in cultivating work-life harmony as a business strategy, you could put forth the following rationale for implementing the programmes i.e. reducing costs and improving employees’ morale, commitment and productivity, responding to the needs of employees to attract and retain talents and to become a choice employer. In order to establish management support for flexible work arrangements, showcase how the team can meet core business needs with an achievable timeline and realistic targets.
 

Step 2: Assess Business and Employee Needs
Focus groups, workforce profiling and employee surveys are ways to assess employee needs which may change over time depending on their demographics. Business needs may also vary according to the different work nature or industry. Such business needs (organisational values, operational standards and business objectives) may also need to be reviewed in accordance with the above employee profiles for better work-life strategies.

 

Step 3: Design Work-life Programmes
As mentioned earlier where there are three broad categories of work-life harmony programmes (flexible work arrangement, leave scheme and employee support schemes), successful implementation would involve understanding the legal obligations, doing a pilot study, developing a communication plan, obtaining visible senior management support as well as setting clear policy and guidelines.

 

Step 4:Evaluate Work-life Programmes
Evaluating the programme will involve considering how well business objectives have been met and whether the needs of employees have been satisfied. Both quantitative and qualitative means can be used for this evaluation. Qualitatively, feedback can be sought from supervisors and employees on challenges faced in implementation and whether the programme was effective respectively. Exit interviews can also be conducted. In terms of quantitative measures, items such as voluntary turnover rate, key performance indicators and performance outcomes, absenteeism, the utilisation rate of programme and employee engagement and job satisfaction can be taken into account.

 

Cultivating Work-Life Balance

While employees can take initiative to establish a better work-life balance for themselves, employers should proactively take steps to provide employees with the means to make this possible. 

With the advent of technology as well as remote working, could a work-life balance be better achieved since employees are no longer required to be physically present in the offices?


In our webinar replay, we share some best practices and practical steps to implement work-life balance in your workplace.