For the employer

How to enable employees to balance work and personal life?

Why is it important to make an effort to ensure that all employees are provided with equal opportunities to balance work and personal life? Why should this be a matter of concern for the employer and executives? The answer is fairly simple – because it is in your direct interest as the manager and leader to ensure that your employees feel good at work. Only by feeling this way will they be able to fully realize their potential and creativity. Attempts to balance one’s work and personal life usually cause a great deal of anxiety, tension and fatigue. By freeing your employees from the additional challenges of giving everyone the impression at work that one’s personal life is going great, you will also create a safe environment for your employees to be fully committed to their job.

Implement a work-life friendly policy in your organization. It may consist of the following measures:

• Flexible work schedule.
• Part-time work.
• Remote work.
• Counselling before and after a career break.
• A back-to-work program for women and men getting back to work after their parental leave.
• Additional financial incentives for employees to cover the costs of nursing and caring for family members.
• Additional financial incentives for employees to cover their childcare costs.
• Providing a children’s room, kindergarten or babysitter for the children of employees, or compensating the costs thereof.
• Breastfeeding room.
• Additional paid days off for family and personal reasons.
• Organization and/or financing of informal education measures for the children of employees.
• Benefits for recreational family activities.
• Measures for employees on parental leave (for example, keep in touch days, consultations, invitations to employee events, paid working days for employees on parental leave who would like to return to work for a few days during this period).
• One-time bonuses, allowances, pay-outs or other benefits related to personal and family life (e.g., after birth of a child, return from parental leave, or death of a family member).
• Events, sessions and campaigns for informing and raising the awareness of employees on the topic of work-life balance.
• Periodic employee surveys about their needs and challenges of balancing personal life and work.

You may add other measures to this list at your own discretion according to the specifics of your organization and the needs of your employees.

Even after the implementation of all these measures, the most important thing is to change the norms and work culture of your organisation. You need to ensure that your employees feel safe to talk freely about their work-life balance needs, and to actually use the measures available at their workplace. It is also necessary to ensure that the needs of mothers and fathers are treated equally.