How Employers Can Support Work-life Balance For Their Teams

Work-life balance refers to maintaining a good balance between the demands of regular work and your personal life.

Creating a work-life balance allows employees to live a well-rounded life without focusing too heavily on either work or personal life.

In order to achieve this, individuals must be able to reach a point where their work and personal lives get equal attention.

This is not an easy thing to do, especially if employers don’t offer support. So, how can employees support work-life balance for their teams? Below are some things that can be done.

1. Providing a Flexible Workplace 

Employers can promote a balance between work and personal life by providing their employees with a flexible workplace. This is a workplace that gives employees more freedom.

For instance, employees can set their own schedules. This way, if an employee needs to be present for family activities like the birthday of a child, drop-offs, and other important activities, they can easily rework their schedules to accommodate these activities.

A flexible workplace also means that employees have the freedom to work during hours when they feel most productive.

However, in order to avoid slacking off and make sure all company goals are met, employees can set the goals and requirements that have to be met. This way, even with the freedom and flexibility, employees still have timelines and goals to meet. 

2. Creating Room for Remote Work 

Employers can also support a balance between work and personal life for their teams by creating room for remote work. This way, employees are not confined to the workplace at all times.

Remote work practices tend to promote more productivity while reducing issues like stress and burnout, which can affect the mental state of employees. 

3. Providing Employees With Breaks During The Day

A lot of corporate spaces have become so rigid that employees do not get breaks like lunch hours.

Bringing back these breaks like lunch hours can help resolve the issue of lack of proper work-life balance and other mental health conditions that have plagued the corporate space.

Allowing employees to take breaks like lunch hours or tea times will give them a chance to respond to calls from their friends or family, check up on their loved ones, and even cater to their personal needs.

An employee can get the opportunity to even get in a workout, medication, or just relax during their free time.

This can in turn promote productivity in the workplace as employees get to come back to work feeling more energized and in a better mental state. 

4. Creating An Environment That Promotes Active Parenting

One of the hardest things for a parent is balancing their work and parenting responsibilities. Companies can support parents by providing facilities like daycares on the work premises.

This way, parents can easily access their kids while fulfilling their work responsibilities. Companies can also come up with learning pods or come up with activities like “bring your kids to work” days, extended paid family leaves, and sabbaticals for parents.

All these activities and programs will serve as safety nets for parents to have a healthy balance. 

5. Building a Culture of Support 

Employers play a vital role in creating a work culture that supports good mental health and a work-life balance. Companies can build a culture of support to promote a balance by:

• Promoting flexible work arrangements 

• Helping employees manage their responsibilities 

• Providing employees with sabbaticals and paid leaves 

• Limiting after-hour responsibilities like limiting after-hours emails to make sure employees can prioritize their personal lives when away from work 

• Providing mental health resources like access to a counselor to clients who need them

6. Encouraging Company Leaders To Promote Work-life Balance Behaviors

It is difficult for employees to find a balance between their work and personal lives if there is no support from their corporate leaders, like managers.

Companies can support a balance by modeling and encouraging the balance through their management.

A strong commitment from management and company leaders is important for creating a culture where balance is not only achievable but also valued. 

7. Creating Clear Boundaries Between And Personal Life

Employers can also come up with policies that discourage after-work responsibilities like communication.

This can be achieved by setting clear expectations for email and messaging responses, limiting meetings outside regular work hours, and introducing programs like no-email weekends. 

8. Increasing Paid Leave And Making Vacation A Priority

Companies can also promote a healthy balance for employees by making vacation a priority.

Allowing and encouraging employees to take long breaks like vaccinations and leaves will give them time to spend with their families and friends.

Providing employees with higher paid leaves will encourage players to take breaks without fear of ramifications like lack of salaries. 

Conclusion 

Supporting a work-life balance is not just beneficial for employees. Employers also benefit significantly from this.

A company that supports a work-life balance is likely to see more profits, better performance, and increased productivity from employers.

It also helps with employee retention, attracts top parents, and improves the success rates of employees and the company in general.