With our ever-changing workforce and bottom-line goals, it can be hard to balance work and personal life. Tasks pile up, deadlines get closer, and before you know if you've logged 60 hours in your work week. Regardless of why workers are putting in more hours at the office, studies have shown that not having work-life balance has serious impacts on mental health and personal relationships. Interestingly enough, studies show that 70 percent of Americans struggle to find an achievable and long term healthy work/life balance plan.
As an HR professional or leader in your business, it's your job to reinforce the importance of a healthy work-life balance. Remind employees that they need to take breaks to spend time with family or to step away from their work. Here are 5 ways that you can promote a healthy work-life balance in your organization.
Enforce Vacations and Breaks
This may sound strange, but a huge number of our workforce population actually feels guilty for taking time off of work. Around a quarter of all employees feel some sort of shame or guilt when asking for time off work – what's vacation time for if not to use it?
Breaking away from feeling guilty about taking time off is no easy task, which is where you come in. It's essential that you have a candid conversation with those employees who feel ashamed of taking time off of work. Employees feel pressured to stay at work for various reasons – they don't want to disappoint their boss, their management team is pressuring them into not using all of their vacation time, or they've simply convinced themselves that they should feel guilty.
By regularly enforcing that it's okay to take breaks and it's always a great idea to take some time off for themselves, you can begin to break the stigma that you should have negative feelings about taking time away from work.
Encourage Employees to Unplug
In our mobile world, it's easy to get caught up in taking your work home with you. With so much available for employees to access remotely, many people see their home as simply an extension of their office.
A great way to help your employees maintain a healthy work-life balance is to encourage unplugging for a while – no email, no cell phone, no work. Not only will it help them relax when they're at home with their families, there are some serious health benefits to regularly unplugging. This is a fantastic first step to helping someone who always takes their work home with them.
Communicate Effectively
Communication is essential for not only the success of your business, but the success of your employees. It's important to have open communication from top to bottom in your organization – there are so many issues with work-life balance that actually stem from miscommunication.
Your managers should be taking a personal investment in their employees to understand their needs. What may work for someone may not work for another. We all have our own work-life balance needs, and managers with highly-tuned emotional intelligence will be able to pick up on individual needs and help in any way they can.
Whether it's communicating time off policies or expressing concern for a personal situation, managers should foster a culture of positivity and understanding when it comes to balancing your work and personal life.
Encourage Healthy Behaviors at Work
As an HR team, it's a great idea to come up with ways for your employees to relax at work. Regardless of whether it's during a short break or their lunch, employees react very positively to spaces in the office dedicated to their rest and relaxation.
Whether it's a relaxation room or policies about flexible schedules, both managers and the HR team should adapt to what their employees say makes a great work-life balance. Not every office and workgroup are the same, so be sure to tailor your ideas to each group you support.
Know the Signs
Understanding the signs of unhealthy behavior will help your employees course-correct for a great work-life balance – you'll have the chance to stop chronic behaviors before they truly begin. It's important for both HR and the management team to be open and honest with individuals who struggle with work-life balance.
If you notice employees are having issues with long hours, taking work home, visible stress, or any other signs of a poor work-life balance, speak up. You're not only going to help the employee, but everyone else in their lives.
These are just a few things you can do to ensure that your employees have a great work-life balance. From vacation time to relaxation stations, you as an HR professional can really make an impact on your employees' lives!
