Human Resource Policies and Employees Work-Life Balance - Coursework Example

Do human resource policies designed to improve employee’s work-life balance confer benefits to the organisation?  Your name Student number Name of the unit Name of the unit coordinator Introduction Work-life balance policy is an important and critical issue in the work life today. Nevertheless, the human resource practitioners have not been interested in the adoption and the implementation of the policies until recently when they have found it a business issue that has benefits not only to the employees but also to the employer (Clutterbuck, 2003). There exists substantial research that supports the benefits work life balance has to organizations. The research highlights although indirectly an influence it has on organizational profit (Michie & Williams, 2003; Morgan, 2009). This has led to organizations as well as employees becoming increasingly aware of the benefits they can accrue from employee work life benefits. Among the benefits are employee well-being and satisfaction, successful recruitment and retention, reduced absenteeism and turnover, an increased productivity, and customer satisfaction (Mayberry, 2006; Morgan, 2009). Study reveals that employees would consider leaving their current place of employment for them to gain a better work life balance even if it meant for a reduced pay. According to Mayberry (2006), organizations that have invested heavily in the work life balance policy have a lower employee turnover. Professionals and managers are more often than not uniquely placed to experience difficulties in their endeavor to combine work and non-work responsibilities. This has led organizations a range of initiative concerned with the maintenance of a work-life balance. These initiatives are tailor made to facilitate the integration of work and the non-work domain. Those initiatives that organizations undertake take the form of, flexible work options, personal leave, organizational assistance with childcare, telework, reduced work hours among others (Estes & Michael, 2005). Available literature on this subject demonstrates that many of the organizations that offer flexible working conditions happen to report a high level of job satisfaction among its employees, a lower level employee absenteeism and turnover. Moreover, further studies are of the suggestion that these benefits accrue to the organization when the adoption and implementation is well structured and evaluated. Benefits of work life balance to organizations Work life balance is an aspect where the interaction between the duties one is employed to undertake and the other activities, this includes the unpaid work in the households as well as the community that is the personal development work/activities and leisure. The work life balance supports the creation of culture of productive work that aims at reducing the tension between that official duty (paid work) and the rest of the activities that are entailed in the employees’ lives. According to various studies, establishing work life balance gives psychological support as well as physical health and wellbeing. Flexible working arrangements on the other hand refers to how, where, and when work is supposed to be done. It is the practices in capacity for work as well as the systems that respond to the organizational needs that are ever changing not forgetting those of the employees and clients are forever changing too. This in return contributes to the improvement of individual and ultimately to the organizational outcomes. Among the benefits that is accrued with work life balance that will be discussed in this paper include reduced absenteeism, lower turnover and improved staff retention, high levels of productivity and performance, Higher commitment from employees Due to the competing demands between home and work have become of an increased relevance to employees due to workplace and demographic changes, organizations are under constant pressure to implement a work practice that has a way of facilitating employees’ efforts in the fulfillment of both their personal and employment related responsibilities (Fletcher, & Pruitt, 2002). Flextime is documented to be a very significant support of higher levels of work life balance that the traditional, working schedules that are fixed-hour based (Hayman, 2009). Research from Families and Work Institute reveals that employees with greater control over work schedules have a greater likelihood of showing an increased engagement to their work as well as an overall wellbeing (Powers, 2004). The organization accrue benefits also, for they get savings that are associated with overtime as well as the premium employee payments. This is usually as a result of an improved delivery time and also response to the client work and demands made by the employees. Moreover, the employees are have a better adaptability to workloads for they are greatly motivated and they also experience reduced tiredness which means they become more engaged to their work (Horwitz, Kieswetter, King & Solai, 2000). Any organization that wishes to adopt the work life balance policies should consider the fact that it helps improve the autonomy of workers in coordinating and integrating the non-work areas with the work areas. Improved staff retention and lower turnover Lower turnover and improved staff retention is another benefit that the organization accrues from the implementation of the work life balance practice. Employees do not leave the organization but instead they are better retained. As a matter of fact, the organization is more likely to attract new members while reducing the levels of work life conflict of their employees thereby having a competitive advantage. For instance, the offering of voluntary reduced hours is highly associated with increased retention as well as recruitment. Moreover, the provision of practices such as the onsite childcare centers is also associated with a lower turnover intentions among the employees (Perry-Smith & Blum, 2000). With the employees being in a position to balance their work and their family demands means that they have an enhanced employee productivity which in turn comes with business improving significantly. When this happens, the employees are motivated to continue working with the organization from the feeling of achievement and for the greater reason that it gives them a peace of mind in that they have lesser conflict with work and family issues. In a Glass and Riley’s (1998) study, the availability of flexible working hours resulted to a predicted retention among the newly employed mothers. Another study also found similar situation where the availability of flexible spending accounts that caters for childcare also predicted a reduced turnover among the working mothers. Reduced absenteeism and Productivity According to research, high rates of absenteeism can be highly influenced by the employees’ use of work-life balance practices such as the flexible working hours or also the childcare centers. Organizations with access to flexible working hours have reported a lower level of absenteeism as compared to those without the practice (Krauz & Freibach, 1983). Daltom and Mesch’s 1990 longitudinal study revealed that flexible scheduling intervention in organization decreased the level of absenteeism significantly among the experimented groups. It is documented that the effects were stronger in occasions where the employees were not obligated to obtain an approval from their supervisors regarding the requested flexibility. Moreover, there is a correlation between absenteeism and childcare provision. Child care users have been found to miss work less than the non-users. From an American hospital study on childcare program, absenteeism rates reportedly dropped from 6% to 1%, this was among eligible parents and following their introduction of the childcare hospital compared to the absenteeism for other employees that remained steady at 4% (Auerbach, 1990). Another school of thought according to the available literature argue out that while the non-directional work life conflict appears to mediate the link between the practices of work-life and absenteeism the childcare center users do not experience lower levels of conflict necessarily. Rather, the conflict is found to decrease in situations where employees express greater satisfaction with the establishment or existence of the childcare centers. According to this school of thought therefore, the childcare centers will be effective in regards to absenteeism if the organization is the most satisfactory alternative to childcare option s for the employees. In terms of productivity, available literature reveal that in situations where the childcare arrangements breakdown or is unsustainable, this work-life policy helped in the maintenance of employee productivity (De Cieri, Holmes, Abbott, and Pettit, 2005). . The fact that employees are enabled to schedule their time so as to balance their competing demand from home and work will mean that they are better committed to work whenever it’s time to work. They are able to get time to procure third party caregiving services, which reduces the levels of work life conflict. This helps the organization by ensuring a great employee performance and as a result organizational effectiveness. Conclusion This report makes it clear that the implementation of work-life balance practices has a fair share of benefits to the organization as well as to the employees themselves. Despite the fact that there are existing quotas that are of the idea that there are challenges associated with the practice, organizations need to undertake appropriate analysis on what the experiences of their employees are so as to tailor make the practices in line with meeting the needs that their employees express. This will see to it that not only the employees’ benefit from the practice but that the effectives of the practice deliver benefits. Although employees are given the responsibility of improving the implementation of the policies in this line it should be considered that some of the employees do not even understand what the work-life balance means to them. For this reason, it is the responsibility of the organization to effect flexitime policies though the human resource practitioners to address the challenges for the greater of the organization. It should attend to and manage the various aspects of work-life balance practices this should include the creation of awareness among the employees’ and letting know about the practice, information about it being disseminated. This can be easily done during the orientation programmes conducted for the new employees. References Auerbach, J. (1990). Employer-supported child care as a women-responsive policy. Journal of Family Issues, 11(4), 384-400. Clutterbuck, D. (2003). Managing Work-life Balance: A guide for HR in achieving organisational and individual change. London: UK Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Dalton, D. R., & Mesch, D. J. (1990). The impact of flexible scheduling on employee attendance and turnover. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35, 370-387. De Cieri,, H., Holmes, B., Abbott, J. and Pettit, T. 2005. Achievements and challenges for work-life balance strategies in Australian organisations.  International Journal of HRM, 16(1): 90-103. Estes, S. B., & Michael, J. (2005). Work-family policies and gender inequality at work: A Sloan Work and Family Encyclopedia entry. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/encyclopedia_entry.php?id=1230&area=All. Glass, J. L., & Riley, L. (1998). Family responsive policies and employee retention following childbirth. Social Forces, 76(4), 1401-1435. Hayman, J.R. (2009). Flexible Work Arrangements: Exploring the linkages between perceived usability of flexible work schedules and work/life balance. Community, Work and Family, 12(3), 237–338. doi:10.1080/13668800902966331, PMid:2576907 Horwitz, F., Kieswetter, G., King, D., & Solai, L. (2000). Flexible Work Practices, Productivity Improvement and Employment. Journal of Management, 31(2), 95–110. Mayberry, P. (2006). Work-life balance policies and practices in the UK: Views of an HR practitioner. Journal of Management, 23(2), 167–188. Michie, S., & Williams, S. (2003). Reducing work related psychological ill health and sickness absence: A systematic literature review. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 60(1), 3–9. doi:10.1136/oem.60.1.3, PMid:12499449, PMCid:1740370 Morgan, L. (2009). The impact of work life balance and family friendly human resource policies on employees job satisfaction. London: Oxford University Press. Perry-Smith, J. E., & Blum, T. C. (2000). Work-life human resource bundles and perceived organizational performance. Academy of Management Journal, 43(6), 1107-1117. Read More