Fundamentals of Managing People - Coursework Example

?Work/ Life Balance Introduction For any organisation to succeed there has to be maximum cooperation between the employees and the management. As a matter of fact, one can easily conclude that the performance of the company depends almost wholly on the employees’ performance. A happy employee results in a happy customer and this ultimately leads to a positive business results. All employees want to work in a job environment that is healthy, respectful, fair and democratic. For an employee to give optimum results, the employer and employee have to agree upon these issues. Wages, Training, safety, diversity, work-life balance as well as health and wellness are some of the core employee priorities. When these are fulfilled, quality output is guaranteed. Additionally, when this delicate balance is attained, employees are able to foster team spirit among themselves as well as loyalty to their employees. Employers on the other hand will experience lower employee turnover rates which eventually lead to reduced profits (Hall, 2003:46). Work life balance is an essential part of the puzzle because every employee has a family and friends outside the employment scope. Many an employee has left their jobs because it does not adequately cater for this particular need. Changed Employee Priorities A decade or so ago, the highest priority for most employees was developing their careers. Today, the tips of the scale have changed. Most employees are more interested in having both a family and a good career and most would leave a job owing to reasons related to work life balance (Palundi, 2012:77). It is essential for one to pursue achievement and joy in not only the job but also in one’s personal sphere. Enjoyment in this case means pride, celebration, happiness, a general sense of well being and satisfaction in the job that they do. This has in turn led various companies in the globe to offer competitive packages that offer flexible practices concerning work-life practices. Paid work and family care are the most essential elements of work family balance. However, work-life also includes education, volunteering and recreation. Work-life allows employees to share their time with both the job and their family and still produce quality results. Employers need to understand that work-life balance is important to the employee. However, the employee also has a role to play in ensuring that his needs are met so that his productivity is optimal. It is the employee’s chief responsibility to ensure that he congratulates himself on work well done and keeps motivating himself (Hall, 2003:79). In addition, it is up to him to give himself a break when he deserves one. He also needs to set boundaries between his professional and personal lives. The management and the employees have to agree on a program that will enhance a positive balance of the two. In a recent study, it was estimated that in every five employees, two are not satisfied with the balance between their private lives and the professional ones. Long working hours, long commutes, increased pressure at work, changing demographics and the deterioration of boundaries between work and life are some of the contributing factors to the dissatisfaction. Employers who ignore this vital element in their employees’ lives will experience high turnover rates, unhappy employees as well as low morale. All employees need to realize that their employees are more interested in assistance programs to better their loves holistically more that monetary compensation (Marchington and Wilkinson, 2005:135) It goes without saying there it is not possibly to achieve a perfect balance between work and life. Once cannot be able to schedule equal number of hours to all the many aspects of work and life (Beauregard, 2009:83). Trying to do this will frustrate the employee since it will end up being both unrealistic as well as unrewarding. Additionally, it is worth noting that the balance will keep varying as time progresses, even as little as on an everyday basis. For example, the balance that used to work for an individual when he was single will be different from when he got children. Nonetheless, there is no perfect balance for everyone. The employee cannot adopt one single practice for all employees. Each has their own specific needs and priorities thus one blanket practice cannot suffice. The employer needs to sit down with each of his employees and understand them that way it is easier to make that decision. How Employers can Facilitate the Process Companies need to set up work centred trainings and programs (Palundi, 2012:78). An effective work-life program helps to create a symbiotic relationship between the employer and employee. These programs need to produce bottom line results that are measurable. An employer needs to weigh the output of their employee with and without the program to see the difference. There are several work-life programs that a company can easily implement in order to ensure that a balance between work and life is arrived at. Perhaps the most effective program to enhance a healthy balance between work and home is telecommuting. Telecommuting gives the employees a chance to work from home at least once a week. Advances in technology have enabled this to happen. Employees can attend meetings through teleconferencing and can receive and forward work related reports through email. These methods are instant and thus go a long way in ensuring that the company goes on with or without the actual presence of employees (Marchington and Wilkinson, 2005:136). The employees can even be able to link to the company’s network from home from their computers at home. This way, the employees can then spend less time on their commute to work. This method is a diversion from the traditional way of doing things and has had a problem being incorporated into organisations. It requires a lot of trust between the manager and employees. Thus, the employees have to take time and cultivate the trust so that managers can allow them to carry work home. It also requires dedication since once one is at home, there are plenty of distractions. A flextime program is one where employees are allowed to work extra workers during the weekend so as to get a day or two off every other week (Beauregard, 2009:83). For example an employee can choose to work an extra hour from Monday to Thursday then get Friday off. This gives the employee a chance to spend time with family, attend to personal duties as well as go for a vacation. The employer and employee should agree on which weeks one is allowed to work half days. It is important for the employee to ensure that during the days he is working, he produces optimum results that overcompensates for the days that he is not at work. Additionally, the employee should not leave his tasks incomplete and in the case that he does, he should delegate the duties (Reece, et al., 2010:56). Employees with special needs for example those with children deserve special working arrangements. These employees should either be allowed to work shorter hours or hours that will be conducive to that particular arrangement. Another option would be to allow these employees to bring their children to work so they can bond with their children and those who need to breastfeed can do so. However, this second option is difficult to implement because once children are allowed to come to offices, chaos is inevitable (Marchington and Wilkinson, 2005:136). These children can however be housed in a creche whereby they are taken care of by baby sitters. The parents are only allowed to see them at specific times. All companies should implement the controversial paternity leave (Fiona, 2007:386). Typically women get a chance to go home for a certain number of times in order to give birth and also take care of their babies exclusively for the first few months of their lives. The bond between the mother and child needs to be fostered. However, it seems that the relationship between a father and his children has been ignored in this equation. A man also needs to have time to take care of his children and thus form a much needed relationship between the two. Although the paternity leave need not be as long as the maternity leave, it too is essential and should feature in every family man’s job calendar. Another essential leave that each employee needs is a career development leave (Reece, et al. 2010:58). This leave will give and the employee an opportunity to further their studies or take training courses that will ultimately improve his career. It is also important to note that once the employee makes career development, this employee will contribute better to the company thus bringing about more profits. It is also important that these leaves should be paid to ensure that the employees do not have compromise on their salaries. Other ways that the employees can enjoy a proper work-life include establishing a lights out policy and a no overtime day. In this case the employer should set aside a day such that people are not allowed to work overtime on that particular day and thus have to go home and deal with their personal lives. In addition, the company can have a regular lights out time where by the office is closed and no one is allowed to work. Nonetheless, employees can also be allowed to have their birthdays off as well as earn vacation time. Programs such as in-house child care, gym memberships and stores go a long way in ensuring the employees are comfortable. How Employees can Facilitate the Process Ultimately, this is the employees’ burden. They need to put the right bargaining strategies in action as well as adopt behaviours that will provide a conducive environment for work-life balance to take place. Every individual has to take ownership so as to create balance and value and assume accountability for their output and performance. Employees have the responsibility to notify their employers about any changes that may have occurred and that will have an effect on the work environment. Good examples of these are such as having to go back to school in the evenings, death in one’s immediate family, or having to take care of an elderly parent (Fiona, 2007:386). The employee needs to negotiate with their employer so as to deal with these changes at home. Every employer knows the value of a good employee and thus will be willing to make the necessary changes. A pro-active employee should have researched on possible solutions before presenting the problem to the employer. Ultimately, the employer has to learn how to balance his own life (Reece, et al., 2010:56). He needs to learn how to share work on case it is too much. It is important to know when to refuse extra work load and when to take up the challenge. Taking all the work and leaving no time for one’s family at home. The employer should also learn how to manage his time and avoid procrastination any duties. Disorganisation and procrastination usually costs the employee a lot of time. Setting realistic, achievable goals and sticking to deadlines goes a long way in ensuring that valuable time is saved. The employer also needs to set boundaries. He should separate the office form home and at times it is wise to switch off one’s phone and not to answer any meals. Conclusion In a nutshell, separating professional life and personal life is a delicate balancing act (Stredwick, 2009: 94). There needs to be cooperation between all the shareholders at the work place, right up from the management to the staff. Sometimes, the company can set up policies to ensure that employees are fully satisfied and motivated. However, most of the time, all that is required is proper negotiations between the employer and employee (Lockwood, 2007:13). Each needs to discover the value of the other person and thus a cohesive working environment is attained. It is also important for each employee to recognize that his needs are not identical to the others and that circumstances vary accordingly. A work life balance is ultimately achieved by cohesion of practiced behaviours and attitudes as opposed to a one-time occurrence. In the competitive market, companies should strive to meet both the internal and external needs of their employees. The employees need to treat the company as they would their own and the employees should likewise treat the employees as they would themselves. This will ensure maximum cooperation between the two. References Beauregard, A. (2009) Making the link between work-life balance practices and organisational performance, Human Resource Management Review, vol. 19, pp. 9-22. Fiona, M. (2007) Work-life balance: contrasting managers and workers in an MNC, Employee Relations, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 385-399. Hall, A. (2003) Managing people, McGraw-Hill International. Lockwood, R.N. (2007) Work/ life balance: challenges and solutions, Society for Human Resource Management. Marchington, M. & Wilkinson, A. (2005) Human resource management at work: people Management and Development, CIPD. Palundi, A.M. (2012) Managing diversity in today’s workplace: strategies for employees and employers, ABC-CLIO. Reece, B.L., Brandt, R. & Howie, F. (2010) Effective human relations: interpersonal and organisational applications, Cengage Learning. Stredwick, J. (2009) An introduction to human resource management, Routledge. Read More