Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Striking a balance

by Personnel Today 1 Sep 2003
by Personnel Today 1 Sep 2003

To
coincide with Work-Life Balance Week, we asked the training community what role
it could play in maintaining the equilibrium

Managing work-life balance is one of today’s great challenges as an
increasingly frenetic workplace takes its toll on people’s health,
relationships and well-being. According to the Work-Life Balance Trust, 80 per
cent of visits to doctors in the UK are stress related. This isn’t just bad
news for individuals: it loses 7 million workdays for British industry each year,
and the annual cost of absenteeism is a staggering £5bn.

The trust’s annual Work-Life Balance Week (1-5 September) is designed to
raise awareness of the issues and spur firms into action. We asked academics
employers and trend-spotters to share their opinions with readers and to ensure
that the effects of the week last longer than five days.

Claire McCartney
Researcher, Roffey Park

Some organisations take advantage of Work-Life Balance Week to run
conferences or workshops, perhaps on flexible working or stress and time
management. Some include fun activities such as yoga or massage, to slow people
down and attract their interest.

Work-life balance is not just about hours and workload; it is about having
control over what you do, and training can help people to achieve that control.
Staff surveys are vital if you are to identify any hot spots and do something
about them.

You also need to review current training. Is it working? What do people
want? Have any areas been overlooked? Make sure you don’t alienate staff by
catering for people with apparent special needs, such as parents, while
neglecting everyone else.

Tracey Carr
Managing director, Eve-olution

How effective the trainers can be depends on the culture of the
organisation. In a recent survey we conducted with health management firm
Vielife, 72 per cent of respondents felt flexible working and job share options
impeded career advancement, so we still need a huge cultural shift.

People are most productive when they feel happy and motivated, and are getting
something out of life at work as well as at home. We have the longest working
hours in Europe and the lowest productivity rate – could there be a link?

Alison Straw
Head of organisational development, Selfridges

Our philosophy is based on this premise: how many people on their deathbed
wish they had spent longer in the office? We encourage managers to challenge
the need for excessive hours. They are also expected to be role models of
balance themselves, and to know their teams well enough to recognise when they
are overdoing things.

Our responsibility in learning and development is to give managers the
skills to create realistic performance targets, and to provide feedback when
balance is not achieved.

Some of our operational staff now work from home. They appreciate spending
less time in the van and the business benefits too. However, there are
practical implications, and our line manager training includes specific
sessions to address them. How do you communicate with people you rarely see?
How do you motivate them or evaluate their performances? They also need to be
prepared mentally for losing the chance to socialise with colleagues or talk
with the boss.

Annette Andrews
Diversity manager, Europe, Ford Motor Company

One of our engineering line managers was so concerned about high stress
levels among his employees, he created a workshop to help his managers tackle
it.

What is significant is that it was driven by the bottom line and based on the
principle of empowering managers to be flexible and make decisions without
relying on HR policies and directives. They also commit to cascading the
information to their staff through half-day programmes.

The workshops have been so successful we designed a generic model, which we
are currently rolling out across Europe.

Ken Blanchard
Chairman, Ken Blanchard Companies

To achieve work-life balance, people must enter their day more slowly. Take
time for solitude, prayer, exercise – whatever helps them decide who they want
to be that day.

One company I know doesn’t allow staff to make or receive calls between
8-9am. They spend that hour planning their day and thinking ahead, which they
have found really helpful.

If you don’t carve out time for your reflective self, you get caught up in
the rat race. The trouble with that is even if you win, you are still a rat.

Further information

Work-Life Balance Week: www.w-lb.org.uk/wlbweek.php

The Evo-lution and vielife survey: www.eveolution.net/main/survey.asp,
www.vielife.com

Roffey Park’s new handbook: Work-Life Balance: A Guide for Organisations is
available from: www.roffeypark.com/bookshop/researchreports.asp
During Work-Life Balance Week, Roffey Park’s website (www.roffeypark.com) has a dedicated portal
with articles on the theme and information on what companies are doing.

Avatar
Personnel Today

previous post
Police officers to get stress tests
next post
What not to wear at work

You may also like

Five steps for organisations across the globe to...

8 Jun 2022

The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls

24 May 2022

Grants scheme set up to support women’s health...

16 May 2022

How music can help to ease anxiety at...

9 May 2022

OH will be key to navigating ‘second pandemic’...

14 Apr 2022

OH urged to be aware of abortion consultations...

8 Apr 2022

How coached eCBT is returning the workplace to...

8 Apr 2022

Why now is the time to plug the...

7 Apr 2022

Two-thirds of shift workers feel health affected by...

18 Mar 2022

TUC warns of April Covid risk assessment ‘confusion’

14 Mar 2022
  • NSPCC revamps its learning strategy with child wellbeing at its heart PROMOTED | The NSPCC’s mission is to prevent abuse and neglect...Read more
  • Diversity versus inclusion: Why the difference matters PROMOTED | It’s possible for an environment to be diverse, but not inclusive...Read more
  • Five steps for organisations across the globe to become more skills-driven PROMOTED | The shift in the world of work has been felt across the globe...Read more
  • The future of workforce development PROMOTED | Northumbria University and partners share insight...Read more
  • Strathclyde Business School expands its Degree Apprenticeship offer in England PROMOTED | The University of Strathclyde is expanding its programmes...Read more
  • The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls PROMOTED | The Great Resignation continues unabated...Read more
  • Navigating the widening “Skills Confidence Gap” in 2022, and beyond PROMOTED | Cornerstone OnDemand conducted a global study...Read more
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+