On the Road to Wellness
May 01, 2008 | Various Authors

…cont’d

A holistic approach to work-life balance

Employee value proposition (EVP) describes what it’s like to work at an organization. A well-defined EVP clearly identifies the capabilities employees must possess to succeed, the organizational culture and the leadership style.

Employees who embrace the EVP are likely to be a good fit with the organization and be engaged at work. Since EVP will vary from one organization to another, so will initiatives aimed at achieving work-life balance.

To properly diagnose work/life balance issues, follow these steps:

1. Identify objective measures of the problem
2. Gain a common understanding of it
3. Determine the root cause
4. Identify possible solutions
5. Prioritize and recommend alternatives.

Recently, food manufacturer Frito Lay Canada followed this process. While employee engagement was good (but starting to slip), absenteeism and turnover were increasing. Work-life balance was identified as a problem.

Recognizing the cost of recruitment, turnover and absenteeism, the company knew it had to make changes. A taskforce conducted focus groups, interviews and mid-year reviews with employees and learned that sick-leave relief, overtime and a need for recognition were issues. There were also issues related to scheduling, email overload and meetings, among others. The company’s focus on lean operations and high productivity was beginning to wear on employees.

To address the issues, Frito Lay started by developing a Work/Life Quality Promise to identify its responsibilities to employees, as well as their need to take ownership of their own work-life balance. The company also started providing BlackBerrys to employees and making scheduling changes. According to a Frito Lay spokesperson, “it wasn’t necessarily specific programs that made the difference, [but] more like a culture shift in small but notable ways.”

It’s too early to tell if these policy changes will address the work-life balance issues completely, but senior leadership is now considering work-life quality when making business decisions and employees are aware that the organization is addressing their concerns.

Rochelle Morandini is the national practice lead for organizational health at Hewitt Associates.