19-02-2013, 03:20 PM
Work-Life Balance: The key driver of employee engagement
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ABSTRACT
A changing economy and an aging workforce can join together to create an employment
environment where competent employees who are unhappy in their current situations are
motivated to find a new place to "hang their hats." A highly engaged workforce is 50% more
productive than an unengaged workforce. The majority of HR professionals (78%) feel
employee engagement is important or extremely important to business success. Employee
engagement has emerged as a critical driver of business success in today's competitive
marketplace. Employee engagement is increasingly viewed as a “win-win” strategy for
companies, employees, and their communities alike. In addition, work/life balance is
increasingly important for engagement and affects retention. This paper will examine some of
the literature on Employee engagement, explore work-place culture & work-life balance
policies & practices followed in industries in order to promote employee engagement in their
organizations to increase their employees productivity and retain them. Work-life
balance is key driver of employees satisfaction.
Introduction
Nowadays, most companies do agree that engaged employees – those willing to ‘go the extra
mile’ – can have a very strong effect on the success of a business and so are seeking effective
techniques that will allow them to build engagement.Employee engagement has generated a
great deal of interest in recent years as a widely used term in organizations and consulting
firms (Macey & Schneider, 2008) especially as credible evidence points toward an
engagement-profit linkage (Czarnowsky, 2008).Towers Perrin, looking at over 35,000
employees across dozens of companies, showed a positive relationship between employee
engagement and sales growth, lower cost of goods sold, customer focus, and reduced
turnover.
In today’s knowledge economy employees today are looking for: opportunities to learn and
improve their skills and to have an open valve for imagination, creativity and ideas; senior
management interest in employee wellbeing; and to work for an organization with a
reputation as a good employer. Research shows that organizations that provide a workplace
culture with the psychological conditions of meaningfulness (job enrichment, work-role fit),
safety (supportive manager and co-workers) and availability (resources available) are more
likely to have engaged employees.
Employee Engagement
“The extent to which employees commit to something or someone in the organization, and
how long they stay as a result of that commitment”(2).“Engagement is the state in which
individuals are emotionally and intellectually committed to the organization as measured by
three primary behaviors: Say, Stay and Strive.”
Workplace Culture
The workplace culture includes the employee's attitudes, belief systems, value systems, work
ethics, behavior that characterize the functioning of a group or organization etc.
(e) .Workplace culture includes the beliefs, attitudes, practices, norms and customs (‘how
things are done around here’) that characterize a workplace. They can be both obvious and
implied.
Workplace culture is also known as organizational or corporate culture. It is defined as a
shared belief system of values and processes within an organization. It's been described
simply as "the way we do things around here." It is a powerful component to any organization
and has both explicit and implicit characteristics.
Work-life Balance policies & practices
Work-life balance, in its broadest sense, is defined as a satisfactory level of involvement or
‘fit’ between the multiple roles in a person’s life (Hudson, 2005).There is no one accepted
definition of what constitutes a work-life balance practice, the term usually refers to one of
the following: organizational support for dependent care, flexible work options, and family or
personal leave (Estes & Michael, 2005). Hence these practices include flexible work hours
(e.g., flextime, which permits workers to vary their start and finish times provided a certain
number of hours is worked; compressed work week, in which employees work a full week's
worth of hours in four days and take the fifth off), working from home (telework), sharing a
full-time job between two employees (job sharing), family leave programs (e.g., parental
leave, adoption leave, compassionate leave), onsite childcare, and financial and/or
informational assistance with childcare and eldercare services.
Engaged employees are a competitive business advantage
The most successful companies recognize that their employees are their most valuable asset.
Employee engagement is not just a buzzword – it has a clear link to increased business
success. Efficiency and productivity are prerequisites for success on a fiercely competitive
market. Healthy, capable and engaged employees are a company’s capital and a major
competitive advantage. Linkage research (e.g., Treacy) received significant attention in the
business community because of correlations between employee engagement and desirable
business outcomes such as retention of talent, customer service, individual performance, team
performance, business unit productivity, and even enterprise-level financial performance (e.g.,
Rucci at al, 1998 using data from Sears). Some of this work has been published in a diversity
context (e.g., McKay, Avery, Morris et al., 2007). Directions of causality were discussed by
Schneider and colleagues in 2003.
The Corporate Executive Board surveyed 50,000 employees in 59 organizations worldwide.
Employees with lower engagement are four times more likely to leave their jobs than those
who are highly engaged. Even more important, moving from low to high engagement can
result in a 21 percent increase in performance. "The key to engaging employees comes from
targeting the right employees with the right programmes. Companies that segment employees
based on commitment and 'line of sight' can find the right drivers that will retain and motivate
their most valuable employees. Programmes that increase trust, empowerment and customer
focus increase engagement and therefore provide a competitive advantage. Employee
engagement has emerged as a critical driver of business success in today’s competitive
marketplace. Thus, to gain a competitive edge, organizations are turning to HR to set the
agenda for employee engagement and commitment.
Work-life balance drives Employee engagement in diligences
Over the last couple of decades we have seen a dramatic shift in the workforce and the needs
of employees to effectively manage demanding work schedules and their personal lives. The
McCrindle Research study of 3000 Australians shows that work-life balance is the number
one factor of job attraction & retention (even above salary). Employers seeking scarce staff
are increasingly touting their commitment to work-life balance in recruitment advertising.
But apart from attracting someone into a job, do initiatives to encourage work-life balance
also stimulate employee engagement. HR Partner can explore options and create
recommendations for making change around programs, such as paid and unpaid time off
plans, flexible work arrangements and child and elder care resources. The increased demand
for work/life balance and the changing relationship between employers and employees are
driving the need for HR professionals and their organizations to truly understand what
employees need and want and then determine how to meet those needs while at the same time
developing and leveraging workplace talents at all levels.
Conclusion
Work-life balance and employee engagement becomes a visible benchmark among highperforming
organizations that reap the economic and reputational benefits of being publicly
recognized as a ‘best place to work’ or an ‘employer of choice’. Many Family-friendly
organizations feel the need for work/ life balance which include recruitment and retention of
valuable work force, reduced absenteeism, reduced employee stress, health benefits, job
satisfaction, and better life balance. It has been suggested that an effectiveness of work-life
balance policies and practices must incorporate the effects of workplace culture and
supervisor support of employees’ efforts to balance work and Family
responsibilities.Developing and maintaining a culture that enables and supports the
opportunity to have a desired work life balance and to promote the benefits of the employee
& organization.(Wheeler et al. ,2006) agrees that a strong organizational culture increases
employees intent to remain in the organization.