Meet the need for work-life balance

Checklist: implementing policies to achieve work-life balance

Achieving a work-life balance is not just a one-off exercise, but a long-term commitment to operating your business in a way that respects your employees' responsibilities outside work. Policies designed to help you achieve this need to be tailored to your business and your employees. Make sure you:

• determine your core business requirements first - what do you want to achieve?
• ask staff - both managers and other workers - what they want
• consult with trade unions/staff associations
• consult all employees affected and agree upon selected policies, eg flexitime
• decide which of your employees will be covered by the scheme (ensure the scheme does not unfairly discriminate)
• draw up written procedures for implementation and evaluation, including regular reassessment
• ensure support from management
• take the lead in demonstrating a commitment to work-life balance
• explain any changes to employees and keep them abreast of regulatory changes, eg the right for parents to request flexible working

You can find out about the right of parents to request flexible working practices at the DTI website .

You may find it helpful to conduct a trial or pilot scheme to see how effective and workable your new policies are. Change the programme if this proves necessary and keep track of the progress of your business and your employees' work-life balance. You may need to introduce a hierarchy of needs if there is too much demand for some kinds of flexible working, eg giving priority to parents. You can measure the success of your policies by tracking changes in the rate of absenteeism, rate of staff turnover and customer satisfaction.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• Business benefits of improved work-life balance
• Recognising work-life balance problems
• Work-life balance - ways of working
• Checklist: implementing policies to achieve work-life balance
• Here's how family-friendly policies have helped our business

 

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