Work-Life Balance

By: BARBARA MARCHETTI
Date: August 8 2005
Published on: HR.com

Market conditions continue to improve and corporate America has waited what seems like an eternity to reap the benefits of their hard work. While many executives may experience some degree of satisfaction in seeing their tireless efforts pay off, the unsettled feeling brought on by an underlying deficiency quietly gains strength amongst the masses: the quest for Work-Life balance. It’s a topic that brings with it a litany of other subjects, issues and concerns. Despite the fact that most individuals aspire to find work-life balance, most do not truly understand what it is thus as an employee who seeks to “find it” and an employer who seeks to “facilitate it”, "it" can be daunting.

Assessing, identifying and implementing the most competitive recruitment and retention programs are standard business initiatives in today’s market and require significant investment in time and resources. Human Resources professionals grapple with modifying and fine-tuning the precise combination of compensation, bonus, incentive, recognition and benefit programs to attract the best and the brightest while simultaneously drive employee commitment, loyalty and productivity. Consultants are often tapped on the shoulders to assist H.R. with the collection of real time, competitive intelligence so that organizations find themselves ahead of the curve with regard to talent acquisition and employee development programs. So long as companies support the initiative through budget allocation, the investment in both internal and external resources should pay off in dividends, thus obviously providing those larger companies with deeper pockets the distinct advantage over smaller companies, right?

Wrong on both counts.

Throwing dollars at a problem that is rooted “emotionally” and serves as the foundation for the quest for happiness reinforces the sad fact that most executives, those entrusted to positions of leadership, simply don’t “get it”.

Why is it that given the same task, the same expectations, and similar standards that an employee can perform at different levels of productivity for two organizations of equal size, industry and structure?

For what reasons do people stay, contribute, produce and turn away enticing employment opportunities? Their managers “get it”. The “it” being respect for one’s desire to seek harmony, work-life balance.

Exhaustive efforts have been put forth by organizations to define corporate culture, vision, values, etc. all in the spirit of driving productivity, revenues, profits and market share. However, in the pursuit of excellence, companies have overlooked a critical fact: people work for people, not companies. On the flip side of that, companies hire people who come with a package deal be they families, friends, pets or other responsibilities. Employees do not live in a vacuum. Yet, companies have made it almost impossible for employees to find the balance that is so desperately needed because the subtle message that is never mentioned but often implied is that in exchange for robust compensation, benefits and corporate perks, you need to work harder and, within the executive and senior management ranks, longer…much longer. Over a period of time this imbalance creates tremendous angst for the individual therefore creating a steady decline of passion, enthusiasm for and commitment to the employer, taking huge bites out of revenues and profits.

All the corporate sponsored retreats, off-site strategy sessions, company outings, training and development programs and weekly foosball tournaments will not strengthen one’s commitment and loyalty to an employer if at the core of a leader’s soul is a lack of respect and understanding or just blatant ignorance to an individual’s need to have harmony in his/her life. Consider the increasing number of executives who either put their careers on hold or abandon them altogether in pursuit of that which truly matters – balance.

Selfishly, leaders impose their own view for work-life balance on their employees. Rather than fix the problem they need to manage the issue. Acknowledgment of, respect for and acceptance of one’s desire to manage that balance will pay off in dividends with regard to productivity and performance, as well as open the floodgates for hiring top, committed and loyal talent.

Corporate America’s responsibility is to foster an environment that is conducive to productive and fulfilling lives and to realize that work is a part of one’s life yet it does not define the individual. The best companies will hire leaders who walk this walk. The “balanced scorecard” that is representative of an employee’s level of performance in the workplace must be appropriated to “work life” balance. Management must start recognizing that an individual’s outside interests, ranging from family commitments, to coaching to volunteer work or to simply wanting to see one’s home during the day light hours are essential to the quest for work-life balance. These significant deposits in employees’ emotional bank accounts will yield tremendous dividends to those employers that “get it”. Why is that so difficult to “get”?