11 Best Ways To Achieve Work-Life Balance and Its Benefits
Balance, a term which is associated with almost everything present around us. Today’s work culture revolves around the concept of balance to a great extent. Here, the balance between ones’ work and life. Times are hectic, humans are more engaged and achieving a perfect work-life balance seems like a far-fetched dream.
The normal employee work schedule now is not only confined to usual office hours. Earlier when most of the work was manual, employees’ left their work at work. They were able to relax and spend some quality time with their families. But with the IT revolution, the entire work scenario has changed. Employees are now able to access their work irrespective of the place and time. This has ultimately resulted in a shift in the traditional work schedule.
With workload filling up each day owing to the competitive marketplace bounded by the revolving hands of the clock, workers are now more engaged in their work than ever before.
WORK-LIFE BALANCE
“Balance is not better time management, but better boundary management. Balance means making choices and enjoying those choices.”
–Betsy Jacobson
One may view work-life balance as the approach to maintain an equal number of hours between work and play. But it’s not! Having a well balanced work-life is not only about coming to and returning from working on time. In a broader perspective, it’s about prioritizing what’s important at that time.
Like during the work time, doing the assigned tasks with complete sincerity and responsibility. And then enjoying the personal time with family and friends only after leaving work. Mixing both together can lead to a social and time imbalance.
Moreover, office works brought home and continued while being with friends and family hinders the employees’ social commitments. It affects the inter-personal relations between the employees’ and their loved ones’ weakening the deep one to one connection. Continuity of the same over a long duration creates distress. This further results in the rise of various physical and psychological problems within the employees.
The poor work-life balance of employees’ leads to a series of problems for employers too. This includes degrading productivity, lack of focus at work, fatigue, substance abuse being a few amongst them. Nowadays, employees look for a good work-life balance while looking for a new job. And this is why every company should value the importance of encouraging a company culture promoting a good work-life balance.
IT'S IMPORTANCE
Poor work-life balance is one of the main reasons behind employees leaving work. This hampers both the employees and employers. Therefore, in a greater sense, promoting well balanced work-life becomes more important.
As a study by Oxford Economic suggests,“Replacing an employee cost on average around £30,000 and it takes up to 28 weeks to get them up to speed.”
Putting the focus on the work-life balance as a part of employee engagement strategy is very impactful. Employees who are able to maintain a good work-life balance are more likely to deliver the best results and less likely to leave their jobs.
WHAT CAN BE DONE FOR A HEALTHY BALANCE BETWEEN WORK AND LIFE?
As an employer, you have a big role to play here for ensuring your employees don’t remain trapped in the work-life balance feud.
As the saying goes, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”
Similarly, for encouraging a good work-life balance several measures can be taken beforehand.
Here are the 11 best ways to achieve work-life balance
1. Taking Time Off Between Work
Taking time off in between work helps in dealing with stress. The human body is not designed to endure long working hours in one go. Physical movements like light walks, stretching in between work is essential and particularly for white-collar employees.
Quick breaks help the body to recover from the physical and mental exhaustion endured by employees.
2. Volunteering Time Off
Volunteering is a great way to stay social and build interpersonal connections. Encouraging the employees to volunteer for social causes helps them de-stress and commit socially.
Moreover, this also helps boosts a company’s CSR i.e. Company Social Responsibility initiatives. Thus, earning goodwill for the organization and build a better relationship.
3. Proper Planning
Planning the day to day activities at work is another great way for managing a good balance between life and work. It helps the employees to prioritize their activities and work in accordance with the importance of a task.
Moreover, adhering to a well-laid plan also helps save a lot of time at work. Thus, adding more to an employees personal time for taking some rest, reading, playing, gyming, spending quality time with family friends and more.
4. Encouraging a Healthy Lifestyle
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle plays a big role in an employees quest to achieve a healthy work-life balance. Healthy employees are like the jewels in the crown for every organisation. An unhealthy work-life balance disrupts the employees physical and mental health. Considering this fact, it hampers their productivity to a great extent. Encouraging the employees to take up a healthy lifestyle eliminates various health risks.
Just like having good physical health helps one to stay energetic, a stress-free mind is a room full of clarity. This helps the employees to excel both in their career and life. A healthy lifestyle is also a great stress management solution and helps the employees cope with stress smoothly.
5. Encouraging No Work at Home Policy
Most often the employees carry their work home in order to make up for the deadlines. The inability to leave work at the workplace is a major issue resulting from the excess work-load born by the employees. Committing to work during off hours hinders the amount of rest needed by the human body.
Moreover, it leads to a social imbalance in the life of an individual by creating barriers. These barriers are mainly not able to give time to the family, friends, missing out on occasions, less interpersonal communication and many more. Employers can make sure that all these don’t happen by adopting a strict “No Work at Home” policy.
6. Flexible Work Schedule
Maintaining a good balance between work and life isn’t possible if there’s no personal time left after leaving work. In such a case, having a flexible work
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