WORK LIFE BALANCE

WHAT IS WORK/LIFE BALANCE?

• Equal balance between work and personal activities?
• Is it same for everyone?
Varies from individual to individual and varies over
time on a daily basis as well over different phases of life

• There is no perfect, one-size fits all solution

• The best work-life balance is different for each of us

because we all have different priorities and different
lives
• Work/life balance, in its broadest sense, is defined
as a satisfactory level of involvement between the
multiple roles in a person’s life.
 NEED OF WORK LIFE BALANCE
“No one can have everything and do
everything at the same time”
-Oprah Winfrey
• The inability to balance work and family
demands has been linked to :-
 reduced work performance
 increased absenteeism
 lower commitment
 poor morale
 Benefits of Work Life Balance
Initiatives for Employers

• Reduced absenteeism and lateness

• Improved employee morale and commitment
• Reduced stress and improved productivity
• A more flexible workforce
• Increased ability to attract and recruit staff
• Potential for improved occupational health and
safety
• Fulfillment of equal opportunity objectives
• Good corporate citizenship and an enhanced
corporate image
 Benefits of Work Life Balance
Initiatives for Employees
• Ability to manage work and individual commitments
• Improved personal and family relationships
• Flexible working arrangements resulting in reduced work
overload and stress
• Increased focus, motivation and job satisfaction knowing
that family and work commitments are being met
• Increased job security from the knowledge that an
organisation understands and supports workers with
family responsibilities
• Increased ability to remain employed.
• Increased ability to remain competitive in career
advancement
• Improved health and wellbeing of staff
 Global Perspective
• 1) New Zealand
• Employee’s perspective of work life
– Flexible start and finish times, and more leave - both paid and
unpaid.
– More choice about the way they work, including having more
input into rosters and shifts, and choosing the number of hours
they work
• Employers offering
• Using personal sick leave to care for others
• Flexible break provisions
• Study leave
• Governments initiative
• Obstruction
 Global Perspective –Contd.
• Netherlands
Initiatives to give workers more control over their working time,
such as the Netherlands' Adjustment of Hours Law assist
workers in improving their worklife balance.
• Australia
Work life policy for the ICT industry
This policy provides guidance and recommendations by
the Australian Computer Society (ACS) on work life issues
for employers and employees in the ICT industry
• Flexible working hours;
• Work location options;
• Employee friendly working arrangements,
• Paid parental leave,
• Job sharing and part time work,
• Promoting healthy life style alternatives through membership of
gym and other recreational clubs.
 Indian Picture
NIIT
 Innovative allowances for employees who were dating, got engaged and so
on. These policies ensured recruitment of promising talent and a motivated
workforce.
IBM
 Free membership to children of all IBMers to the GenieKids Resource
center through out the year - The Resource Center houses a library, activity
based games, pottery classes, computer classes etc.
 IBM employees can also attend Parenting Workshops at the Resource
Center, covering topics like "Developing Child's Intelligence",
"Communicating towards better parenting", "Developing parent child
relationships", at discounted rates through out the year
Accenture
 Incorporated family events into its employee calendars, with social
gatherings or outings where the whole family comes together.
Mandatory number of holidays, discounted gym and saloon memberships
and even in-house work-life effectiveness managers and career counselors
are all attempts by Accenture to counter stress and maintain the work life
balance.
 Infosys unveils new HR practices
• Paternity leaves
• Exams for employees who are interested
in other profiles, Job Rotation
• Lady employee will be allowed to work
from home (for particularly new mothers)
• initiated a pilot project for employees
giving them an opportunity to opt for a
one-year sabbatical at any point in their
careers
 Employee Welfare at Wipro
• Education
• Medical
• Housing
• Canteen and other Recreational facilities
• Club membership
• Insurance Policy
• Mitr
• Freedom Of association
Parameters of Study
Time Constraints

Marital Status
Work-Life
Balance
 The questionnaire was structured into 3
substantive sections:
• Issues in work life
• Issues in family life
• Issues in self life
Work-Life Balance

Work-Life Family-Life Self-Life

Work Life
• There are very less number
of males and females who
are working for less than 8
hours.
• 81% males working for 8-10
hrs and 16% males working
for 10-12 hours.
• Whereas in the case of
females there are 90% of
females working for 8-10
hours and 5% working for
10-12 hours.
• Means comparing with the
males there are less
percentage of females who
are working for long hours.
Official Travel (Representing the
Gender)
• 78% of the males travel
for less than 5 days a
month and 13% travel for
5-10 days. There are 9%
who travel for more than
10 days.
• Where as 71% of females
travel for less than 5 days
and 28% travel for 5-10
days. And there are no
females who travel for
more than 10 days a
month.
Representing the Marital Status
• 87% of the married people
travel for less than 5 days,
13% travel for 5-10 days. And
there are no married people
who travel for more than 10
days.
• Whereas there are 69% of
singletons who travel for less
than 5 days, 18% travel for 5-
10 days and there are 13%
who travel for more than 10
days in a month for official
purpose.
• From this observation we can
say that because married
people have more
responsibilities and they have
to dedicate more time to family
they are travelling less as
compared to singletons.
Office Tension at home
• We find that women
are more worried than
men about their work
when they come
home. We can notice
that substantially 78%
women carry office
tension home
compared to just 60
% men.
According to marital status
• Married women
comparatively carry
more office tension
back home than
single women.
• Approximately 90 %
of the married women
carry tensions back
home that 60% of
single women
Analysis-Family Life
• Majority of the males spent either
less than 30 minutes or more than
90 minutes with their family.

• Whereas majority of the females

spent around 60-90 minutes with
their family. This could be by their
own personal choice.

• When probed further into the study it

was found that men who spent less
than 30 minutes with their families
were generally unmarried. This could
probably be because they are
spending more time on their
personal life like going out for
picnics, vacations etc.

• While in case of females they

showed a very stable trend.
Probably due to the Indian culture
women are seen more to spend time
with their families.
Respondents spending time with
their family. (marital status wise)
• most of the married
respondents once they
reach home like to spend
time with their family.
• Whereas in case of
unmarried respondents
we found that once they
reach home they like to
spent time watching TV,
surfing internet, self
recreational activities, etc
rather than spending time
with family.
Percentage of respondents going on a
vacation in a year (marital status wise)
• 72% of the married respondents
went on a vacation for about once
in a year.
• Whereas in case of unmarried
respondents a high percentage of
respondents i.e. 25 per-cent didn’t
go on a vacation even once a
year.
• Probably less family
responsibilities on the shoulders of
the singletons helped them to
dedicate more time for themselves
as well as their work. On the time
frame when analysed the
singletons were found spending
more time at work and for their self
life. But the same frame would not
be feasible to measure the time
spent by the married individuals.
Helping children in studies(gender
wise for married individuals)
• 62% of the males and 50% of
the females did not help out
their wards with their
education.
• This could be attributed to the
late working hours
experienced by the
respondents.
• Most of these individuals
worked for 10 – 12 hours a
day. From this we found that
roughly the married individuals
in our sample were
contributing 11.19 hours of
their day to their work and
approximately 1 hour to travel
and could not or on personal
choice did not contribute much
to help their wards with their
studies.
No of hours of sleep daily
• 90% of the respondents
confirmed that they slept
for 6 or more than 6
hours daily.
• According to the medical
theories, an average of 6
hours of sleep is required
for an adult to rejuvenate
his physical capacities on
a daily basis. Despite, the
heavy work schedules all
the respondents of the
survey satisfied this
criterion.
No of hours of sleep daily (marital
status wise)
• It was found that
majority of the
singletons were
sleeping for more
than 6 hours. While in
case of married
respondents
approximately 50% of
them slept strictly for
5 – 6 hours.
Recreational activities
• 50 % of the male respondents
spend time engaging in
recreational activities while
maximum females do not. This
clearly shows a striking difference
in the choice made by males and
females towards balancing self life.

• One fourth of our respondents also

confided that they were interested
in recreational activities, but could
not find time to include them in
their daily routines for lack of time.
They were of the opinion that
vacations were the time when they
could get a break from work.
Membership of spiritual
organizations
• In response to being part any spiritual
or social organization, out of the total
males, singletons have a upper hand
than married ones. 25% of males are a
part of social or spiritual organization,
out of which 88% are single males and
12% are married. The rest 75% of
males, married or single are not part of
any social or spiritual organization.

• Out of the total females, there is an

equal distribution of analysis. 36% of
females are a part of social or spiritual
organization, out of which 45% are
single females and 55% are married.
The rest 64% of females, married or
single are not part of any social or
spiritual organization.
Hobbies
• The pie-diagram represents the
general response of the
respondents pertaining to hobbies.
32% of them preferred to watch
T.V. while just 4% finished their
office work while at home. When
further analysed according to the
gender it was found that females
were more keen on viewing the
television soaps while males were
into gym and internet surfing. A
quick observation of the details
showed that there was a even
distribution to all the options when
male respondents were
considered. While in case of
female respondents, the choices
were more tending to wards otions
like T.V, spending time with family
etc.
 Conclusion
• Conscious efforts taken by the employer to counter
barriers to work life balance. Also, the employee has to
ensure that there is effective time and stress
management.
• Respondents of this survey were spending time in all the
three fronts of work, family and self life. But the no of
hours spent by each of them was different. This could be
attributed to their personality and individual choice. It
could also depend on what they considered as best
balance for themselves.
• Another aspect of the entire study though not explicitly
covered is the organizational culture to readily accept the
work life initiatives into the organizational environment.
 RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE
EMPLOYER
• Motivation
• Appreciation of work
• Authority and Responsibility
 RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE
EMPLOYEE
• Pursuing Hobbies and Passions
• Effective Time and Stress
Management