Michelle Rodger: Everyone's a winner when you achieve a work/life balance

Published on Saturday 16 January 2010 14:09

THERE'S a tedious report from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills that examines how job satisfaction for workers in different family circumstances is affected by work/life balance policies in the workplace.

The results suggest women with children aged zero to four present lower levels of job satisfaction while, interestingly (their word, not mine), men's satisfaction does not seem to be affected to the same extent by the presence of children. Duh! (My word, not theirs.)

I could have told them that in half the time and at half the price – well maybe not quite half, a decent profit margin is important, as we all know – but the bottom line of the report, couched in multivariate analyses and descriptive methodologies, has shown that both men and women benefit from working in "family-friendly" environments (again, their word, not mine).

We don't need to be told how important it is to be flexible in the workplace, indeed it's really not a choice as legislation now demands it, but we need to learn more about the tangible benefits to businesses of happy employees.

And more importantly, we need to learn how best to enable flexibility while boosting productivity, morale and customer satisfaction.

Neil Lapping, MD at adventure holiday specialists Macs Adventure, agrees. Businesses need to be creative about working practices.

"Don't get me wrong," he says, "Our staff are contracted to a certain number of hours a week. But we don't stand at the door at 9am clocking everyone in.

"A lot of the guys get involved in voluntary work and one of the team is looking to take a month off next year to do volunteering overseas. I have no problem with this because I know it is appreciated and will strengthen the relationship in the workplace."

Some may say the more flexible you are the more employees will try to take advantage, but in Lapping's experience striking a good work/life balance means he sees a huge difference in staff morale, motivation and loyalty.

"When it gets down to it, the team works hard and I think it is only fair and reasonable you show a bit of flexibility," he says. "It is very important to make staff feel valued and to do this an employer needs to recognise life outside work is just as important as what you do in the office."

Commsworld MD Ricky Nicol understands the value of work/life balance from personal experience. Diagnosed with cancer four years ago, he spent almost a year working from home while undergoing intensive treatment.

"I was able to e-mail, talk to colleagues and staff and, as I got better, I could also talk to my customers from home," says Nicol. "Being able to play an important part of my role had a tremendously motivational effect on me, and it was a great stimulus to me and to my staff; I was still leading the business despite everything."

Nicol is now setting the pace on working practices. When two analysts decided to leave to go to live in India and Turkey respectively, Nicol refused to accept their resignations. Instead, he set both individuals – valued analysts – up to work from their new homes overseas with no interruption to their work or service to their clients.

For Nicol, it was a win-win situation. His employees got to continue doing a job they love, his customers experienced no disruption to the service they enjoyed – in fact, the time difference means the cover provided to customers has been extended – and he hasn't had the hassle of trying to find and then train new staff, so everyone is happy.

He believes, if people are happy at their work, they are more productive. "Ours is a people business," he says, "intelligence, skills, experience and knowledge, social and interpersonal skills are vital. "These aren't people driving a bus where they have to be in the bus eight hours a day. The important thing is quality of work, not the time spent doing it or where it is done."

Former recruitment entrepreneur Angela Paterson says people tend to think of work/life balance as work less and play more, but that's not it at all. It's about work/life flexibility. But, she insists, the important element is that the organisation is working and business is being delivered.

This year, from an employer's perspective, staff welfare could prove critical. Paterson, now a non-exec director and company adviser, explains: "Last year a lot of people took jobs because they needed one, not because it was the best job for them.

"The fall-out from that is that when the economy picks up a lot of people will find other options in employment and their current employer might find it difficult to keep them."

To put it bluntly, happier employees>higher productivity, less absenteeism and greater customer satisfaction and loyalty. The net result is that you retain your skilled employees and can even charge a premium for your excellent customer service.