Three Ways Employers Can Promote Work-Life Balance

Last Updated on January 16, 2025 / Employee Relations

It’s no secret that the work environment has changed in recent years. We’ve experienced a pandemic, a labor shortage, inflation, and a contentious election, just to name a few. The recent Mercer Global Talent Trends found that more than 80% of employees are at risk of burnout. This was found to be stemming from excessive workload, financial stressors, and exhaustion.

It has become more important than ever that employers listen to and understand the motivations of their employees in order to best attract and retain them. Many employees have made changes that better support family life, financial security, and their lifestyle through flexible work situations, including flexible work options. Many are realizing that work-life balance is not a “nice to have,” but rather it is a necessity.

This and other research also found that the ability to enjoy a work-life balance ranked highly as a reason employees both join and stay at a company.

Three Ways to Promote Work-Life Balance

Each person has his or her own idea of work-life balance or work-life integration, which is another term that some use for the concept of the give and take, tug and pull between work and personal life. So how can employers meet the diverse needs and desires of their employees and achieve work-life balance, particularly if it means something different to each person? Here are three potential solutions:

1) Offer Flexible Work Options

To be competitive in today’s market, consider offering flexibility in where and when work is performed. Although this contradicts many headlines of CEOs and leaders demanding employees return to the office, many organizations are finding a hybrid approach can meet both the organization’s and the employee’s needs.

Steps to ensure success with hybrid work

A hybrid work arrangement can present unique challenges to individual and team productivity, collaboration, and success. We recommend that employers:

• Plan for and build internal supports for those who are working remotely to ensure they have the appropriate support (people and tools) and clear direction to optimally perform.
• Be purposeful with the time employees are required to be in the office. If this is a change for remote employees, provide valid reasons why their presence in person is needed. This may also require training for managers to engage employees to see the value of being in person.
• Allow some flexibility so employees have some say in when they are in the office. When employees feel they have some degree of control, versus being told, they are more likely to buy into this model.

Employers should also ensure that their policies and practices are updated to align with their efforts of supporting employee work-life balance. For example, if you offer hybrid work situations, you should formalize this through a Hybrid Work Policy that both supports the need for employees’ work-life balance and meets the demands of the business.

Offering a hybrid option allows employees and their employers to view the work-life balance holistically and offers insight into how employers can build trust and empowerment within their employee groups while still maintaining fair expectations of employees. By offering the option of a hybrid work environment, employees can reduce the high levels of stress they’ve carried in the past around personal and family obligations and seek a better balance without long commutes.

2) Encourage Employees to Protect Their “Me Time”

Personal time is extremely important for a healthy balance. We are able to be more productive at work when we infuse our daily schedules with some downtime. However, working where we live can lead to blurred lines between work and homelife causing some to find it hard to turn off the workday knowing that there might be one more email/text/phone call that awaits their attention. Employees can start to feel that they need to be available 24/7… falling down the slippery slope that leads to burnout.

Employers can help employees to protect their “me time” by fostering a culture that supports that behavior. For example, it can help to set expectations and encourage employees to “turn off work” by a certain time each day. If an email request happens to be sent during a time when an employee should be “off duty,” instill the habit of noting when something isn’t urgent and can wait until their next workday. This can help employees to set healthy boundaries between work and personal life.

Encourage team members to set time aside each day by doing something for them, whether it’s for 10 minutes or for an hour. The goal is for this time to be set aside for something that truly calms their mind. It could be anything from exercising, meditating, reading, watching TV, etc.

Another way to encourage employees to protect their time is by maintaining a sense of structure throughout the day, whether employees are virtual, in-person, or hybrid. Be sure that you are continuing to host regular staff meetings, group meetings, and social gatherings to make time for some fun together as well.

3) Work Smarter, Not Harder

Help team members stay in the loop through weekly “huddles” or calls to keep everyone accountable and connected. Regular one-on-one meetings allow managers and employees to continue to touch base and uphold the objectives and goals set for the year.

Evaluate processes already in place. Don’t look for places to cut corners, but rather look for steps in the process that may not be necessary to complete the same high-quality work. It’s easy to get into the daily habit of following processes when there may in fact be an easier way.

Work-Life Balance Benefits for Employers

Whether you call it work-life balance or work-life integration, employers who embrace it will not only thrive in terms of attracting, engaging, and keeping valuable employees, they will help to prevent burnout, increase productivity across the board, and ultimately become employers of choice with a reputation for supporting work-life balance. If an employer chooses to ignore the work-life balance expectations of the current workforce, they run the double risk of losing great employees who leave for opportunities that better meet their needs and the impossible task of attracting new talent into a less-than-desirable work environment.

 

Thank you to Cathleen Snyder, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, Director of Training & Development, and Cassie Whitehouse, M.Ed. for sharing their expertise on work-life balance.

Creating an organizational culture that is supportive of the diverse needs of employees is imperative to attracting and retaining the talent you need – not to mention critical to your bottom line. Clark Schaefer Strategic HR can support your culture strategy through employee surveys, establishing remote and hybrid work policies, identifying retention solutions, developing employee recognition programs, and more. Contact us today!