WUNRN
Pursuit of
Greater Work-Life Balance for Families
28 January 2014 - There was a
time when corporate culture and the concept of work-life
balance seemingly stood directly opposed to each other, particularly
for women with ambitions of having a family.
However, as opportunities for
women in senior management have increased (relatively speaking – gender
imbalance is as much of a challenge as it always has been) so too has the
understanding that corporate culture must change to allow its employees to have
a life outside of the demands of their professional careers.
These changes have stemmed from a
need to ensure women balancing work and family commitments are
not disadvantaged in their careers as a result. But, today this issue no longer
applies to women alone.
Many modern couples would like to
share duties when it comes to child-raising and care arrangements, so that both
partners can continue their professional careers. As such, a growing number of
men would also now like to take a more family-orientated approach in their
lives – for their own sense of fulfillment, as well as to support their
partner.
This puts more pressure on
corporate culture to pay greater attention to the work-life balance. Otherwise,
talent retention could present a challenge.
Government measures for balancing work
and family
Inge
Woudstra, an associate at Ashridge Business
School, is the director of W2O Consulting & Training and started
the web-portal, Mum & Career
for professional working mothers.
She has noted an increased desire
among fathers, as well as mothers, to spend more time with their families and
explains how professional mothers balancing work and family have already had an
impact on company policy.
“There are lots of companies
that, over the past ten years, have introduced flexible working
policies or work-from-home policies. At the policy level and at the target
level, I think a lot has happened,” she says.
Woudstra cites a
Elsewhere, a recent article in Der
Spiegel explored the developing trend of men in
Indeed, government measures in
Plus,
Woudstra thinks this policy
stance is quite clever because by offering an incentive, men are encouraged to
take up their entitlement, which she says in the
Flexible working can improve employee
loyalty
Whoever government measures are
primarily aimed at, companies too must play their part in helping both men and
women to achieve a work-life balance that works for them and thus far, research
indicates that it is in companies’ interests to do so.
“For a lot of parents, when
you’re unhappy with the work-life balance, you’re unhappy with your employer,
so productivity goes down,” says Woudstra before adding that if parents can
find a solution that works for them, the employer sees the results in their
motivation and loyalty to the company.
“So far, in the UK, all the
numbers show that women that get flexible work are more engaged, work harder
and are more committed,” says Woudstra.
Trust is also a key issue here
she argues – a term in vogue among employers right now. If a company is liked
and valued by their employee then they will be less likely to want to leave and
therein, flexible work has also been linked to a strong decrease in staff
turnover.
On the whole, research
highlighting the benefits of flexible working is plentiful, and Woudstra
confirms that companies are aware of its results, arguing that a bigger concern
lies in its implementation.
Implementing flexible working
In this sense, flexible working
is easier to achieve in an industry with a pre-existing history of using it
effectively or that tends to attract a larger proportion of women – for
instance, in the non-profit industry. Within a company successful
implementation can also vary depending on your role, sometimes even coming down
to an individual manager and whether or not they believe it can work.
Elsewhere, industries that can set measurable targets find it easier to bring
in flexible working policies.
“As soon as you have more clear
and transparent targets, being there becomes less of an issue,” says Woudstra,
explaining that this has allowed the finance sector to improve its showing
regarding the work-life balance.
But, in other industries, the
term ‘flexible working’ is enough to make employers suspicious that it only
benefits employees, meaning new ways of getting employers on board have to be
developed that highlight business benefits instead. For example, how sharing
workspaces or ‘hot-desking’ can cut costs – however the principal remains
largely the same.
“Some of the larger IT companies,
consultancies and law firms are talking about ‘agile working’ and ‘smart
working’, just because it seems to be a more accepted word in their company,”
says Woudstra.
Is corporate culture changing for the
better?
Fundamentally, to incorporate
flexible working into corporate culture requires moving past the assumption
that office-based work can’t be beaten and indeed, more managers need to be won
over to this shift in thinking.
Woudstra says that in her work
she still meets women who have dropped out of work because balancing work and
family seemed impossible, and she talks to men who would like more options to
do the same.
But, generally-speaking much progress has been made in the past decade and the signs are that things will continue to improve. For instance, whereas before the onus was on proving to a manager that shared or flexible working could work before it was implemented, there are now examples where the onus is the other way round – on the manager to prove it doesn’t work before it is discounted.
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