Work-Life Balance: Good for Workers, Good for Business
Featured Guest Blogger October 26th, 2009
Cindy Krischer Goodman writes a weekly column called “The Balancing Act” that appears in The Miami Herald and is distributed to more than 40 other newspapers on the McClatchy Newswire. Her column explores the conflicting demands of balancing a career and personal life. She also is a contributor to MomsMiami.com, writes a blog called The Work/Life Balancing Act and maintains a website, TheWorkLifeBalancingAct.com. Please note that the views of our guest bloggers do not necessarily reflect the views of the Sloan Work and Family Research Network.
Most of us moms and dads have known intuitively that getting the flexibility we need at work makes us loyal to our employers. Let us leave early on Fridays and we’ll work even harder the rest of the week. Now a new report shows that businesses benefit financially from helping their employees achieve work-life balance.
New research by Morgan Redwood, an expert in talent development, reveals that businesses that help staff achieve a good work-life balance enjoyed net earnings per employee of 23 percent more per year than the average for those who don’t. The Morgan Redwood researchers, who surveyed 100 businesses in the United Kingdom, believe this boost in the bottom line is because better work-life balance reduces absenteeism, improves well-being, and increases productivity.
Janice Haddon, managing director of Morgan Redwood, says when companies weigh their management options, they now will have some real numbers to use to make their decisions. She calls the ability to put an actual value on work/life balance “a breakthrough moment,” adding, “Work/life balance is not a “nice to have” when we’re in a boom time. It can have a fundamental impact on the corporate performance at all times.”
What’s more, the report found that in high-performing companies, there was a recognition that the success of the business depended on the success of workers. If a manager goes out of his way to accommodate an employee, the employee will redouble their work efforts later on, the Morgan Redwood study shows.
Will employers embrace these findings? Will they realize that women and men are struggling to manage heavier workloads and negotiate family schedules and responsibilities?
This week, another interesting report surfaced, a nationwide U.S. survey released in conjunction with research on status of women by Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress. The survey shows that men and women are concerned about what’s happening to families when everybody’s at work. Both genders said that they would like more help with these challenges. The recession seems to have pushed the challenges to new levels, with some parents working two part time jobs to make ends meet.
The report’s contributors also suggest nothing will change until men push for more family-friendly workplace policies that will benefit both genders. If men aren’t emboldened by their own struggles to balance work and family, there’s certainly some new ammunition in their arsenal—the bottom line.
I think the primary reason employers don’t embrace these family friendly policies is they are concerned they will loose something. If they understood they actually benefit in the many ways you describe, these changes would move through decision maker channels much more quickly. The easiest way to get the attention and buy in of senior executives is to tell them it benefits the bottom line.