The Case for Work Life Balance: Closing the Gap between Policy and Practice

ork/Life Balance:
W
olicy and Practice
A Hudson initiative to help businesses compete and succeed in the future
|
20:20 Series
The Case for Closing the Gap Between P

---

Table of Contents


1: Introduction
2
2: What is ‘Work/Life Balance’?
3
3: Public and Organisational Policy
6
4: An Imperative for Business
9
5: The Gap Between Policy and Practice
15
6: How Does Your Organisation Stand Up?
20
7: Recommendations
23
Appendices
Appendix 1: Diagnostic Quiz
26
Appendix 2: Notes
28
Appendix 3: References
30

---

1: Introduction
Australian and New Zealand organisations are increasingly considering the
benefits of ensuring their employees achieve ‘work/life balance’.
The subject of how work/life balance can be achieved and enhanced has
received significant attention from employers, workers, politicians,
academics and the media. The concept, dubbed a ‘barbecue-stopper’ by
Australian Prime Minister John Howard, has been described as the “biggest
policy issue we have”.1 In an election year in New Zealand, the Labour
Government similarly acknowledges that “work/life balance and having
enough time for family is fundamental to the New Zealand way of life”.2
However, it is in the context of both Australia’s and New Zealand’s current
skill shortages and the prospect of an ageing workforce that it is now
imperative for organisations to embrace work/life balance practices to
attract and retain talent, not only from traditional sources but also from
untapped and diverse social groups. These are social groups whose
lifestyles can often demand greater attention to work/life balance: working
mothers, mature workers and some minority groups.
For future commercial sustainability, organisations need to ensure they not
just encourage but mandate a practical and workable work/life balance
policy, benefiting and meeting the needs of both the organisation and its
employees. And importantly, organisations not providing real opportunity for
employee work/life balance are opening themselves up to increasing
numbers of dissatisfied and unproductive employees and hence increased
attrition rates. Merely creating a work/life policy framework is not enough;
fostering an organisational culture that supports the use of available
policies is also of great importance.
This paper explores the notion of work/life balance, including the empirically
grounded benefits for employers and employees. The paper also challenges
some of the rhetorical assumptions associated with work/life balance.
Further, it outlines the cultural inhibitors to the implementation of flexible
work arrangements and provides practical strategies for developing
work/life balance agendas.
2
20:20 Series | The Case for Work/Life Balance: Closing the Gap Between Policy and Practice

---

2: What is ‘Work/Life Balance’?
Defining the Concept
Work/life balance, in its broadest sense, is defined as a satisfactory level
of involvement or ‘fit’ between the multiple roles in a person’s life. Although
definitions and explanations vary, work/life balance is generally associated
with equilibrium, or maintaining an overall sense of harmony in life.3 The
study of work/life balance involves the examination of people’s ability to
manage simultaneously the multi-faceted demands of life.4
Although work/life balance has traditionally been assumed to involve the
devotion of equal amounts of time to paid work and non-work roles, more
recently the concept has been recognised as more complex and has been
developed to incorporate additional components. A recent study explored
and measured three aspects of work/life balance5:
1 Time balance, which concerns the amount of time given to work
and non-work roles.
2 Involvement balance, meaning the level of psychological involvement
in, or commitment to, work and non-work roles.
3 Satisfaction balance, or the level of satisfaction with work and non-
work roles.
This model of work/life balance, with time, involvement and satisfaction
components, enables a broader and more inclusive picture to emerge.
For example, someone who works two days a week and spends the rest of
the week with his or her family may be unbalanced in terms of time (i.e.
equal measures of work and life), but may be equally committed to the work
and non-work roles (balanced involvement) and may also be highly satisfied
with the level of involvement in both work and family (balanced satisfaction).
Someone who works 60 hours a week might be perceived as not having
work/life balance in terms of time. However, like the person who works only
a few hours a week, this individual would also be unbalanced in terms of
time, but may be quite content with this greater involvement in paid work
(balanced satisfaction). Alternatively, someone who works 36 hours a week,
doesn’t enjoy his or her job and spends the rest of the time pursuing
preferred outside activities may be time-balanced but unbalanced in terms
of involvement and satisfaction. Thus, achieving balance needs to be
considered from multiple perspectives.
20:20 Series | The Case for Work/Life Balance: Closing the Gap Between Policy and Practice
3

---

A Balance of Family, Life and Work
In recent years, the term ‘work/life balance’ has replaced what used to be
known as ‘work/family balance’. Although the concept of family has
broadened to encompass extended families, shared parenting, same-sex
relationships and a wide range of social and support networks and
communities, the semantic shift from work/family to work/life arises from a
recognition that care of dependent children is by no means the only
important non-work function. Other life activities that need to be balanced
with employment may include study, sport and exercise, volunteer work,
hobbies or care of the elderly. ‘Eldercare’ in particular is becoming a
growing issue for employers. For example, about one-third of the 600,000
Australians who provide principal care for older relatives or friends are
employed.6 The timing of these care-giving responsibilities is important
because, generally, people are established in their careers before the issue
arises.7 Hence, eldercare has the potential to generate greater corporate
interest and response than did childcare.8
“The baby boomers will become responsible for their ageing parents
just as they are ready to assume leadership positions in business and
government. The need for attention to eldercare will be pushed by
senior managers who are experiencing eldercare problems personally –
a kind of pressure that childcare has not had.”
Friedman and Galinsky, 1992, p. 187.
The universal adoption of the term ‘work/life’, as distinct from ‘work/family’
has other positive consequences such as legitimising non-standard work
arrangements for a diverse range of employees. For example, although a lack
of work/life balance is often associated with either working mothers or white-
collar executives working long hours, there is a growing recognition that
other groups too may experience less than optimal work/life balance. Recent
reports suggest that as well as large numbers of unemployed people who
cannot find any paid work, many workers are ‘under-employed’, preferring
more paid work than is available. Blue-collar workers, the self-employed
and those earning low hourly rates may also struggle to achieve balance.
4
20:20 Series | The Case for Work/Life Balance: Closing the Gap Between Policy and Practice

---

Work/Life Conflict
Work/life balance is out of kilter when the pressures from one role make it
difficult to comply with the demands of the other. This is known as work/life
conflict.9 This means that if individuals do not feel they have a ‘good’ mix
and integration of work and non-work roles, they may experience negative
or conflicting outcomes.10 This implies a bi-directional relationship where
work can interfere with non-work responsibilities (work/life conflict) and vice
versa (life/work conflict).11
Employees who experience increased stress due to work/life conflict and
decreased perceptions of control over their work and non-work demands are
less productive, less committed to, and satisfied with, their organisation and
more likely to be absent or leave the organisation.12 Individuals experiencing
interference between work and personal lives are also significantly more
likely to suffer from reduced psychological well-being and physical health.13
In one study, people who experienced life/work conflict were nearly 30
times more likely to suffer from a mood disorder (e.g. depression), 10 times
more likely to have an anxiety disorder and 11 times more likely to have a
substance-dependence disorder (e.g., heavy drinking).14 On the other hand,
employees with lower levels of work/life conflict report higher job
satisfaction overall.15
20:20 Series | The Case for Work/Life Balance: Closing the Gap Between Policy and Practice
5

---

3: Public and Organisational Policy
Public Policy Development
A range of public policies supporting work/life balance has been developed
in response to economic and cultural trends, many of which focus on
women’s increased participation in paid employment. These trends include
the long-term decline in fertility rates16 and its impact on population and
labour-force growth; the strong growth in women’s labour-force participation
by the child-bearing and rearing age group (15–45 years) and its impact on
the demand for formal childcare; and the strong growth in participation in
secondary and post-secondary education by women and its impact on
career achievement.17
Legislative reforms such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO)
Convention 156, Workers with Family Responsibilities 1981, anti-
discrimination and affirmative action legislation and industrial relations
changes have also lifted the profile of issues related to work/life balance
and blurred the boundaries between public and private spheres. In
Australia, these reforms have resulted in mandatory reporting of policies
by organisations with more than 100 employees, the expansion of legal
protections to include explicitly those with family responsibilities, and the
availability, by agreement with the employer, of part-time work up to a
child’s second birthday.18 The Australian and New Zealand governments
also encourage employers to provide childcare support for staff with families.
A good example of childcare support is Star City Casino in Sydney. The
casino management provides a 24-hour childcare facility so that employees
can work the round-the-clock shifts necessary in a casino. The facility has a
playground, is close to the casino, in a secure building and is licensed for
15 children under two years of age. Management believes this has helped
both staff and the organisation, as evidenced by the lowest staff turnover
rate of any casino in Australia.19
Provided the contract of employment is not broken, employees in public
and private sectors in both Australia and New Zealand are entitled to 12
months’ unpaid maternity leave. After this time, they are entitled to return to
the position held before the leave, or to a position of comparable status and
salary. Unlike New Zealand, where employed women are entitled to 13
weeks’ government-funded paid maternity leave, Australia has no statutory
paid maternity leave.20 The New Zealand Government also supports and
partly funds the Equal Employment Opportunities Trust which, among other
things, initiates annual Work and Life awards; tracks progress on work and
family initiatives within organisations; and promotes the issue through
conference speeches and press releases. The Department of Labour in
New Zealand established a Work/Life Balance Project in the last half of
2003, which ran until the middle of 2004. Results from the project showed
6
20:20 Series | The Case for Work/Life Balance: Closing the Gap Between Policy and Practice

---

that many people perceived their work and non-work lives were out of
balance.21 One recommendation was government assistance for employers
to help them provide work/life balance initiatives.
Organisational Policies
In addition to the development of public policies supporting responsibilities
outside of paid employment, organisations have increasingly been
developing formal policies that attempt to facilitate the work/life nexus.
Work/life balance strategies enhance the autonomy of workers in
coordinating and integrating the work and non-work aspects of their lives.22
Three broad types of work/life strategies have been created to help
employees balance their work and non-work lives: flexible work options,
specialised leave policies and dependant-care benefits.23 These include
a range of policies and practices:
1
Compressed work week
2
Flexitime
3
Job sharing
4
Home telecommuting
5
Work-at-home programs
6
Part-time work
7
Shorter work days for parents
8
Bereavement leave
9
Paid maternity leave
10
Paid leave to care for sick family members
11
Paternity leave
12
On site/near site company childcare
13
Company referral system for childcare
14
Program for emergency care of ill dependents
15
Childcare programs during school vacation
16
Re-entry scheme
17
Phased retirement
18
Sabbatical leave
19
Professional counselling
20
Life skill programs
21
Subsidised exercise for fitness centre
22
Relocation assistance
23
Work and family resource kit or library
Figure 1: Range of different organisational work/life balance initiatives.
Source: Bardoel (2003).
20:20 Series | The Case for Work/Life Balance: Closing the Gap Between Policy and Practice
7

---

These interventions are generally aimed at facilitating flexibility, supporting
employees with childcare (and more recently eldercare) obligations and
alleviating the negative impact of interference between work and non-work
commitments and responsibilities.24
Public and organisational policy issues are not mutually exclusive. Rather,
many legislative requirements (e.g., equal opportunity) affect organisations,
while organisations voice their preferences for public policy to government.
In accordance with legislation and principles of equity, public and
organisational policy provides equitable, rather than identical, treatment to
its recipients. That is, the pursuit of ‘equitable’, rather than ‘same’ treatment
is behind the efforts to enable all employees to perform well and compete
effectively for employment opportunities as they arise.25
8
20:20 Series | The Case for Work/Life Balance: Closing the Gap Between Policy and Practice

---

4: An Imperative for Business
Skill Shortages
In the past, the provision of flexible work options was often viewed by the
management of organisations as an optional ‘fringe benefit’. In the current
demographic and economic climate however, policies and strategies that
promote work/life balance for employees are becoming increasingly vital
to commercial sustainability. Australia and New Zealand (and many other
developed countries) are in the throes of serious shortages of skilled
workers in many industries and sectors.26 This problem is partly the result
of, and will be exacerbated by, an ageing workforce that will grow
proportionally over the next 20 years. A research report by the Australian
Government Productivity Commission (2005) showed that one-quarter of
Australians will be aged 65 years or more by 2044–45, giving rise to
economic and fiscal impacts that pose significant challenges for organisations
of all types and sizes. The report predicted that as more people move into
older age groups, overall participation rates will drop and hours worked per
capita will be around 10% lower than without ageing.
The graphs that follow show population projections for Australia and
New Zealand. Both indicate an increase in the number of people in the
dependent population relative to those in the age brackets most likely to
participate in the labour force.
Source: Population Projections, Australia, 1999 to 2101 (ABS Cat. no. 3222.0).
Below-replacement fertility levels also contribute to this ‘structural ageing’.
In 1976, the total fertility rate fell below replacement level (2.1 births per
woman) and a record low of 1.7 births per woman occurred in 1999.27 The
combination of increased longevity and low fertility has led to a greater ratio
20:20 Series | The Case for Work/Life Balance: Closing the Gap Between Policy and Practice
9

---