Managing work life balance and wellness - Essay Example

The recent economic crisis is thinning and with that, HR managers are scheduling interviews. Companies have started viewing their employees as an important and noteworthy fraction within the stakeholders’ list. Hence, now the scenario calls for improvement in working conditions; job stress, work-life balance and employee wellness are factors that are taken very seriously by HR managers. This change was primarily inspired by studies that show the correlation amongst mental fitness and organizational performance (Hancock & Szalma, 2008, pp.32-34). Research shows that (Cassidy et al., 2009, p.262) while a poor work-life balance has a long lasting negative effect on an employee’s productivity, it is much more harmful for his/her creativity.

Therefore, it is more so essential for HR managers in creative firms to maintain equilibrium within an employee’s timetable. People Management Challenges faced by HR Professionals I. Change Management While ‘change management’ is vastly a broad term, therefore the focus here would lie upon three major changes: 1. Economic Change: Change brought about by variations (mostly negative) within economic conditions drastically affects an employee’s work-life balance, this is because adverse economic conditions point towards job losses and this possible ‘loss-of-secure-income’ position drastically affects an employee’s performance as the employee loses sight of his goals and concentrates more towards keeping his job intact.

This situation according to CIPD (2010) creates stress, which would result in behavioural changes such as lack of focus, failures of commitments, increased time on work (due to reduced work speed and lack of commitment). 2. Technological Change: While it is commonly believed that adapting newer technology would result in job-cuts, researches have proved otherwise (Hayter, 2000, p.267). But this too does not hold true for some industries, as while apparatus might not necessarily cut jobs, but they definitely bring about a change by drastically increasing the level of skill required to conduct an operation, this increase in mental pressure is responsible for stress which disrupts work-life balance. 3. Strategic or Operational changes: While operational changes are a must for every organization owing to changes in consumer behaviour and technological enhancements, such changes many have many effects on an employee’s performance, as operational behaviour sometimes become compulsive.

The overall wellness and work-life balance is largely based upon the HR department’s ability to handle and promote change within an organization. In order to avoid complications, the HR team must prepare a theoretical training module based upon the proposed changes and initiate training procedures to prepare the staff for the upcoming change. II. Time Management Time management is a crucial challenge for HR professionals, as time is the basis of the work-life balance. While some might disagree that time management is concerned with HR, it is not true as under most professional work environments the revenues are high enough to sustain explicit staff members for each type of job, then it is the responsibility of the HR department to allot work to the best suited employee or department.

A recent initiative by the HR department ofR depatym,ent DS Norden a Dutch