Why Companies Don’t Realize They’re Failing At Work/Life Balance

The best way to find out what employees need is to ask them

It’s no secret that work/life balance is a top priority for employees and a key factor in recruiting and retaining top talent. In fact, the importance of finding that healthy balance has grown substantially – many young people now place a higher value on work/life balance than they do on a salary or career advancement. That’s why promoting work/life balance has become such an integral part of the recruiting strategy for most HR teams.

However, many organizations have a hard time delivering on that promise. 

In a recent study on the current state of work/life balance, workers average at least one hour of  outside work on 89 days a year and about half of all weekend days. In fact, 42% of employees even say they feel obligated to check in with work while on vacation, and most say they’re expected to be “on” even when they’re technically “off.”

Unfortunately, this has resulted in a wide expectation vs. reality gap. In a survey of HR leaders, two-thirds said their employees enjoy a good work/life balance—but almost half of the employees disagreed. Instead, nearly two-thirds said they were expected to be reachable outside the office, which means they can never truly unplug from work.  

That’s a real problem for companies that expect high-value, knowledge-based workers to put in long hours and be available for duty 24/7. It can quickly lead to burnout, disengagement and dissatisfaction, sending great employees heading for the door. While many companies fear lost productivity if they make genuine work/life balance a priority, the reality is that the loss of valuable talent is a much bigger risk. 

A large part of the divide between expectation and reality is that companies don’t know what’s really happening. Despite having clear written policies, unsupportive colleagues and managers can still make workers feel uncomfortable for taking personal time, setting an unwritten expectation for more work and less life. Those workers are then afraid to speak up out of fear they may be perceived as lazy or unmotivated, and instead feel obligated to work more, until it eventually becomes the norm.

The result: companies think they offer good work/life balance, but don’t even realize they’re failing at it.

The solution: ask employees for anonymous feedback on the state of their work/life balance. By assessing the situation through anonymous feedback surveys, HR teams can identify genuine employee experiences and concerns that can alert leaders to potential issues. Anonymous feedback gives employees the opportunity to express their personal experiences without fear of judgment or retaliation, and it gives the organization insight into the culture that may not be apparent in daily interaction.

Even with formal work/life balance programs in place, getting honest feedback on how effective they are is critical to delivering on employees’ expectations. 

“The best way to find out what employees need is to ask them,” says Susan Cucuzza of Live Forward LLC in an interview with Monster.com. “The program may have components working for some but not others. Everyone defines ‘balance’ differently, which makes it difficult to please everyone.” 

To get genuine input, companies should use a third-party platform to gather anonymous feedback. Especially in a culture where reality doesn’t meet expectations, employees will naturally be skeptical of an internal survey tool, and fear their identities won’t actually be concealed. Instead, it could be perceived as a fishing expedition to see who’s really looking for an opportunity to slack. 

With a neutral, independent, third-party system, employees will feel more confident giving honest feedback knowing that their responses will be confidential. And, companies will get more accurate results.

Once those results come in, it’s imperative that leaders are honest and transparent. Hiding the data or skewing the interpretation will only fuel the fire that management doesn’t truly care about work/life balance. Even if the results aren’t good, don’t worry too much about what employees will think—after all, they’re already living and working in this environment every day. Having hard data will actually help to validate their feelings, and with everyone on the same page about the real state of work/life balance, the organization can work together to chart a better course forward.

Talking the talk when it comes to work/life balance is simply not good enough in today’s high-stakes battle to attract and retain talent. Your company must take calculated, decisive action to: 

In order for authentic change to take place, leaders must set a good example. By managing their own work/life balance, they can demonstrate that the expectation is a reality and employees can feel comfortable taking advantage of this valuable benefit.