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10 Ways Employers Can Encourage a Healthy Work-Life Balance for Employees

Striking that perfect balance between career and family has always been a challenge for American workers. Our schedules are getting busier than ever before, which often causes our work or our personal lives to suffer.

Work-life balance involves juggling workplace stress with the daily pressures of family, friends, and self. Modern employees demand greater control over their lives and a bigger say in the structure of their jobs. According to a recent Business Information Review publication, “The search for work-life balance is a process in which people seek to change things in accordance with changes in their own priorities, physical, psychological or both, and these can be triggered in their turn by factors such as: age; changes in working conditions; the demands of new technology; and poor management.”

Why Work-Life Balance is Important

When employees feel a greater sense of control and ownership over their own lives, they tend to have better relationships with management and are able to leave work issues at work and home issues at home. Balanced employees tend to feel more motivated and less stressed out at work, which thereby increases company productivity and reduces the number of conflicts among coworkers and management.

Companies who gain a reputation for encouraging work-life balance have become very attractive to workers and will draw a valuable pool of candidates for new job openings. These companies also tend to enjoy higher employee retention rates, which results in less time-consuming training, more loyalty, and a higher degree of in-house expertise.

Studies have shown that employees who have a positive work-life balance do a better job at work, so promoting this balance is beneficial to individuals and the company. This is a practical guide for employers who want to promote a healthy work-life balance for their teams.

Benefits Employers Can Consider Offering

These are some of the many ways that employers can promote work-life balance in the office without compromising productivity or efficiency.

Exercise Access

One of the most positive ways to reduce stress is exercise, and every able-bodied adult should be getting at least 30 minutes of it per day. Employees who eat healthy and exercise are less at risk of getting sick and missing days from work, which could ultimately detract from your company’s productivity.

Many office buildings have a gym facility onsite, so encourage your employees to use it regularly if your building has this amenity. If not, consider offering your employees a membership discount at a local gym.

To hop onboard the fitness tracker trend, you can encourage your employees that have Fitbits or other fitness devices to connect with each other for a little healthy competition and motivation. If a local nonprofit is hosting a 5K charity race in the near future, post signs about it around your office to promote a good cause and encourage your employees to get active to support it.

Childcare Services

As a parent, childcare duties don’t always stop when you leave for work in the morning. A family-friendly work environment has proven to benefit both employers and employees in a variety of different industries.

You can consider providing an onsite childcare facility that employs a trusted staff and takes the guesswork and frustrations out of other babysitting and daycare services. If this is not possible, you may want to offer your employees a childcare service discount to alleviate the stresses of caring for children during the workday and reduce the amount of missed work.

If neither one of these options is feasible for your business, try to allow your employees at least some flexibility to care for their children. This can include the ability to take time off to pick up a sick child from school, the ability to see a child’s school play at lunch time, or flexible start/end time for parents who drop off or pick up kids from school.

Company Outings

One of the best ways to boost employee morale and help workers get to know each other in a non-stressful capacity is by offering an occasional company outing. This type of outing can be as low-key or as extravagant as you like, depending on your company’s culture and budget for such things.

For example, you could organize a company-paid lunch either to be catered into the office or at a favorite group-friendly restaurant nearby. Happy hours, holiday parties, birthday celebrations, and park days are other fun ways to get out of the office and bond in a non-traditional setting. However, you don’t have to even leave the office to achieve this feeling of camaraderie. Some small companies have found great success in “breakfast club” programs in which employees take turns bringing in their favorite breakfast foods (either homemade or store-bought) to share with co-workers.

Ways to Encourage Balance in the Office

Project managers have a unique role in helping companies and employees work together to accomplish a reasonable work-life balance. These professionals are often tasked with the responsibility of supporting team development and challenging industry working condition standards. Ultimately, these are tasks that are crucial to individual and organizational productivity in the workplace.

To help you begin fostering a culture of balance in the workplace, here are 10 ways to encourage work-life balance among your employees.

Maintain Structural Consistency

It is important to maintain a sense of consistency and organization in your company structure because employees generally feel less anxiety if they know what to expect day-to-day as often as possible. Don’t be afraid to shake things up from time to time, but a steady and reliable work environment can counteract stresses that employees feel at home.

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