Mark Lyttleton is an experienced business mentor, public speaker and angel investor, with a particular focus on supporting companies founded with the goal of achieving a positive planetary impact. He supports clients not only on a professional level, guiding them through the complexities of building and growing a business, but also provides personal advice, helping them to deal with the stresses involved in running a business.
Achieving the right work-life balance is crucial for both business leaders and their employees alike. This article will explore different tactics at the employer’s disposal to help their workforce remain happy, healthy and productive, minimising the risk of burnout. The embedded infographic looks at what burnout is, exploring its impact on UK businesses.
Members of the modern workforce are often forced to question whether they live to work or work to live. While some find it easy to switch off from work-related issues when they go home, many others find work eating away into their evenings and weekends, especially given how technology enables us to be ‘on duty’ 24/7.
While some employees are happy to bring their work home with them, others resent the encroachment on what should be their free time. The embedded PDF explores the COVID-19-driven shift to an ‘always-on’ culture and its impact on the work-life balance of employees.
Although employees also need to play their part in ensuring they achieve a healthy work-life balance, there are many things an employer can do to help them attain this, including:
- Assessing the organisational culture, getting to grips with the attitudes of staff and the support available to them.
- Talking to employees, asking them what would help them to better balance their career success with their personal lives. Information can be collected via surveys, focus groups, interviews and team feedback.
- Shrinking the working week or spreading contractual requirements over the whole year to allow for more hours in busy periods and less in quieter months.
- Facilitating term-time contracts and job sharing to support working parents who need to care for their children during the school holidays.
- Providing childcare assistance such as childcare vouchers, making it easier for parents to manage their work and family commitments.
- Creating employee assistance programmes, providing access to work-life balance hints and tips, stress counselling and concierge services.
- Embracing flexitime and remote working practices, providing staff with the freedom to manage both their work and home commitments.
You can learn more about the benefits of remote working from the employer’s perspective by viewing the embedded video.