Work-life balance matters more than ever. Discover how HR leaders can foster authentic work-life balance through flexible policies, a supportive culture, and manager training
Updated: 13 Dec 2024
Work-life balance has become a higher priority for both employees and employers in recent years. It helps workers achieve fulfillment in all aspects of their lives, not just work. Employers, meanwhile, use the promise of work-life balance to attract top-tier talent. The question is: is a truly authentic work-life balance within reach?
In this article, we’ll go over what work-life balance might look like for individuals at your organisation. We’ll focus on how HR leaders, and managers in particular, can help their employees achieve an authentic work-life balance. By that we mean the kind of life that’s most meaningful to them.
Let’s start with a view shared by some of the world’s top leaders: that there’s no such thing as work-life balance.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos calls “work-life balance” a debilitating phrase. He suggests going for “work-life harmony” instead, because “balance implies there’s a strict trade-off”.
To him, success is not just about hitting the sweet spot between hours at the office and at home. It’s more about making sure that he has enough energy to engage fully in both settings. If you’ve attained a harmonious state, being productive at work makes you better at home. And being happy at home in turn makes you a better employee or boss.
Motivational speaker Simon Sinek holds a similar view. As he says, “Why should work and life be in opposition?” Find out more in this video:
Meanwhile, organisational psychologist Adam Grant calls work-life balance “mostly a myth”. He believes in taking advantage of flow. This means working more hours when we’re in the zone and taking as much rest as we need after that.
Just how realistic are these ideas on work-life balance in the traditional workplace? Maybe the real question is, how can we take the workplace beyond the traditional? How can we best accommodate employees’ changing needs and priorities?
What we offer next is a framework for HR leaders to use as basis for their companies’ work-life balance initiatives. Add to it, test its boundaries, and explore ways to accommodate individual employees’ growing needs and priorities.
Before we start with the framework, let’s start with the reasons why pursuing work-life balance is worth it.
Here are top reasons to promote work-life balance at your organisation:
Better employee well-being – Aside from reducing stress and burnout, an authentic work-life balance makes employees feel happy and fulfilled – at work, at home, and within themselves
Higher productivity – Employees with a healthy work-life balance are more productive and engaged at work. They feel more committed to an employer that values their health and wellbeing
Higher employee retention – According to consultancy firm Robert Half, work-life balance is part of an effective retention strategy. Programs that promote wellbeing, flexibility, and taking time off are likely to make employees stay longer with the company
Better at attracting top talent – A solid benefits program that includes work-life balance initiatives makes any employer desirable to top candidates
A four-day workweek is an effective tool for achieving work-life balance. It is also a smart recruitment strategy, making companies more attractive to job seekers.
Here are some strategies that HR leaders can take to help their employees reach the right work-life balance:
Setting expectations and boundaries is good practice in all aspects of life anyway, not just at work. When employees know what’s expected of them, they can manage their time and energy better.
Setting expectations can be done in a few ways, such as:
Establish clear policies on acceptable work hours. Remind employees, especially those with flexible work setups, to publish their available hours in all channels possible:
Find out how Pepsico makes flexible hours work in this article.
Not everything is urgent and important. Educate employees to identify priorities; if that’s not clear, they should ask their managers or team leads.
Use task management tools and apps to help identify which tasks are high priority. Encourage open communication within teams. Employees should be free to speak up to help clarify deadlines and priorities.
Having notifications on all the time creates a false sense of urgency. Use these alerts wisely.
Apart from public holidays and leave required by law, some organisations worldwide offer other forms of time off:
personal time off; some companies even offer unlimited time off
sick leave
parental leave
bereavement leave
volunteer days
These types of leave are typically offered by organisations that prioritise results and deliverables over rigid working hours.
The increasing use of technology over the past few years has its pros and cons. On the one hand, various tech tools help employees do their jobs more efficiently. The downside is that mobile devices tend to be addictive.
This is an opportunity for HR leaders and management to encourage digital down time. Clarify what policies exist on answering emails and responding to text messages out of hours. Australia’s right to disconnect law has made this clear-cut for employers Down Under; organisations elsewhere could pattern their own policies in a similar way.
We need not be stuck in old ways of working; the pandemic has taught us this. Global shutdowns led to work patterns such as working from home and hybrid work. If it was possible then, there’s no reason not to continue doing it.
Implementing flexible work arrangements leads to invaluable rewards:
This could be one of the most important factors in helping employees achieve work-life balance.
Creating a supportive environment that values work-life balance and respects employees’ boundaries is key. This calls for leadership buy-in; after all, modelling behaviours in setting and respecting boundaries comes from the top.
Does your organisation offer health and wellbeing resources such as employee assistance programs, and does everyone know how to access them? Promote these and other wellness initiatives more actively for higher uptake.
Encourage employees to use time management and productivity apps to help with their stress. Offer training sessions on prioritising and delegating tasks; promoting collaboration and teamwork helps reduce workloads and stress as well.
Finally, consider paying for subscriptions to wellness apps such as Calm, The Breathing App (this one’s free), and The Tapping Solution. Making this option available to your employees is a small investment in their wellbeing.
Find out what HR’s leading names think about work-life balance and other issues. Read our Special Report on the top 100 HR leaders in the world.
Managers are a vital link between employees and the leadership team. According to a 2019 study, employees see their team leader as a representation of the wider organisation. That same study said that employees with supportive supervisors and managers had better work-life balance overall.
Here are some ways that managers can make a company’s work-life balance initiatives work well for their team:
This means leading by example. Everything we talked about earlier – setting boundaries, clarifying priorities, defining availability – comes to life in the relationship between managers and their teams. It’s up to the manager to apply an organisation’s policies on work-life balance at the team level.
Part of setting the tone is being open, empathetic, and understanding towards the team’s individual concerns. Achieving an authentic work-life balance involves listening to each employee to see how the organisation can best support them. It’s up to the manager to explore some wiggle room in applying the policies to meet the employees’ needs.
In this TED Talk, Adam Grant shares practical ways to rethink flexibility at work and foster better work-life balance:
This is where workplace policies on these matters come in:
It is up to the manager to implement these tools in the way that best benefits their team. This could look like:
giving an employee freedom to clock in on the weekend to get a head start on the work week (and help reduce their stress on a Monday morning)
allowing a team member time off during the day for a family event
giving the employee time to decompress after a difficult client interaction or a challenging project
HR leaders and managers should consider any legislation or overarching policies that these initiatives could go against.
The way a team operates is a reflection of the wider organisational culture, and it’s the manager’s responsibility to make this happen.
There should be no disconnect between a company culture in writing vs. what's being practiced at the team level. Managers have a role to play here – they help make these policies benefit everyone on their team.
Part of fostering a supportive culture is honouring individual preferences. In aiming for a truly authentic work-life balance, personal styles are taken into account. This could mean:
balancing the needs of those with caring responsibilities vs. those without such duties
holding space in equal yet different ways for introverts and extroverts
accommodating diverse working styles
An example of that last point: some team members prefer to be in the office, while others do their best work at home. Making a variety of tools and options available makes any work-life balance policy feel truly authentic to the individual employee.
Going back to that study we mentioned earlier, an area that it identified as needing improvement is training managers to support work-life balance. HR leaders can support that move by:
assessing existing practices – Conduct a learning needs assessment to spot gaps in managers’ skills in relation to work-life balance
explaining the impact of a manager’s behaviour on their team – This should be the starting point of any training program for managers on work-life balance. Explaining the rationale behind this endeavour helps foster a sense of purpose among the participants
Core training topics could include:
effective communication: Emphasize the importance of open and honest communication with employees about work-life balance issues
empathy and active listening: Discuss the value of understanding and responding to employees' concerns and needs
time management: Go over practical tips for setting realistic deadlines
delegation and empowerment: Explain the importance of delegating tasks and empowering employees to take ownership of their work
flexible work options: This is a good opportunity to review the company’s policies on flexible work and how much leeway managers have in implementing these policies
stress management and mental health: This is all part of setting the example – train managers to model how to handle stress and burnout. How can they be advocates for wellbeing if they are stressed and burned out themselves?
In the spirit of accommodating varying work and learning styles, training for managers could take the form of:
To measure the program’s success, HR leaders could conduct assessments before and after training to identify any improvements in the managers’ skills and knowledge.
Employee satisfaction surveys are an option, too – find out if the training program has had any direct impact on the team members themselves.
Achieving authentic work-life balance is an ongoing journey that requires flexibility, empathy, and innovation. By implementing these strategies, HR leaders can create a workplace where employees thrive—and organisations flourish.
Let’s aim for what Simon Sinek advocates: “I find that the more seamless we can make work and life, the more we start to enjoy both more.”
We’d love to hear how your organisation supports work-life balance—share your strategies in the comments
