One of the main problems for many employees today is the feeling of always being on the job. Advances such as digitization, while streamlining work and boosting efficiency, have also brought the growing sense of dissatisfaction that many employees suffer.

In addition to the hours that can be spent between the four walls of the office, they must always be attentive to notifications, work emails, and phone calls.

We are talking about small aspects that involve the employee’s disconnection with his personal life—having to answer emails outside of work hours or make plans for the next day before sleep can interfere with each employee’s vital obligations.

The consequences of imbalance:

• Work-related stress accumulates healthcare expenses up to $180 billion a year in the U.S.
• Millennials are increasingly concerned about career paths that could help them maintain lifestyles they envision
• 63% of workers in the U.S. are willing to quit their jobs because of work stress

The demands of maintaining two lives, one work and the other personal, alternating between one and the other can produce high-pressure levels on the worker.

This is where the emotional and psychological factors play a crucial role because, in the long term, they can generate various diseases or ailments in employees:

Stress

Stress is perhaps the most notorious element. It can manifest itself in different ways, ranging from a marked irritable character to psychosomatic manifestations. An excessive presence of stress leads to health problems for the employee, but it also has negative consequences.

Burnout

Whether taking long daily commutes or assuming various responsibilities, the workers who suffer the most professional burnout are the most vulnerable to this disease. Its symptoms are chronic fatigue and inefficiency, aspects that decrease productivity.

Depression

Although it is not always linked to a poor work-life balance, it can be enhanced by it. Many of the personal problems are the result of incompatible schedules and work overload. We are talking, then, of another of the leading current causes of sick leave.

Other phenomena

Other phenomena such as addiction to work or insomnia, although not diseases “per se,” are factors that can harm productivity in the company.

Not being able to balance work and personal needs, far from being an anecdotal fact, can be a real problem for both the employee and the company.

Conciliation and its impact on the company

On the other hand, just as the neglect of the imbalance can affect the health of the employee and the company’s performance, the promotion of conciliatory strategies in the company can have a real impact at all levels.

Companies that ensure a balance between the personal and professional lives of their employees benefit on three levels:

HR Management

Any conciliatory measure will impact a better image of the company and greater satisfaction of the staff. But it is convenient to clarify that these measures are primarily intended to help employees better manage and plan their own time, which also helps reduce their stress level.

Productivity

For many, conciliatory policies mean nothing more than complications and expenses for the company. However, these efforts have a direct impact on worker motivation, positively affecting performance. Therefore, we know that 95% of the organizations that offer services to improve work-life balance see an increase in their productivity.

Saving

With conciliatory actions, the company has a greater capacity to retain talent without increasing salaries. In addition, the motivation generated by these measures has a substantial impact on the employee’s commitment to the company, which is evident in the workforce’s stability and the reduction of absenteeism.

Conciliatory actions

Apart from looking for a better work organization, each company can take as many conciliatory actions as it wishes. The limit is in each one’s creativity, and that is why there are numerous conciliatory techniques. Among all of them, we are going to comment on some of the most frequent small conciliatory actions:

Make schedules more flexible

Make schedules more flexible. For example, during the summer, you only work part-time on Fridays. By offering flexible hours, we give workers the freedom to fulfill their obligations and work when they are most productive.

Work-from-home

If balancing your personal and professional life can be a real challenge, why not try combining the two? In addition to enhancing employee performance, working from home is an initiative widely valued by today’s employees, as it reduces work stress in 82% of cases 6.

The COVID-19 pandemic barred physical contact, rendering organizations to implement teleworking practices. The shift in the work-from-home environment proves that remote working bears outstanding potential.

Conciliation

Offer services that help conciliation. The company may provide services to meet the employee’s personal needs that may be adversely affected by the job. Thus, childcare can be solved with daycare checks, while food is solved by offering the restaurant ticket to the employees.

With this corporate attitude, we help the employee to feel more committed to the company and, therefore, to be more productive. Besides, we generate intangible benefits in the company with these initiatives to make this an attractive place to work.

The new conciliatory trends

But beyond the measures or traditional conciliation services, there are a series of strategies aimed at conciliation that are increasingly fashionable in the business world.

These are new ways of working that include flexible hours and intensive working hours and propose new physical and digital spaces for collaboration and cooperation.

Remote working

In this line, we have a remote working, a new trend that starts from teleworking, and that gives the concept one more turn by adding responsibility to the employee and using new technologies.

In this way, remote working is a new model that empowers the employee, delegates more tasks to him, and more voice. It is based on the agreement between staff and management, where there is no limitation of time or place of work.

Thus, the worker will have more autonomy in deciding where and when to meet its objectives. In this digital age, modern methods such as smart working make the office concept no longer essential.

How to make a conciliatory policy?

Whether by promoting physical activities, making schedules more flexible, or using any other action, we can use these measures to develop a conciliatory policy in our company. For this, it is essential:

Direction

Raise management awareness: First, it is vital to convince managers that reconciliation is the only way to improve both the company’s productivity and the employee’s well-being. If we have a conscientious board, it will be a big step to help staff achieve the long-awaited balance between personal and professional life.

Personal needs

Get to know the staff and their personal needs: Does having to travel to work affect you? How do you manage your relationships with the family? How would you see smart working?

Empower the worker

Empower the worker: By listening to your opinions, we can find better ideas than we had thought. In this way, we could create the right environment and help a worker improve their productivity levels and daily performance.

Inspire through leadership: How does a company’s leadership approach the subject of work-life balance matters significantly. Recent examples of entrepreneurs and professionals bear testimony to this fact. Entrepreneurs like Vesna Vrankovic, the co-founder of Our Hempco, has made significant strides to maintain her professional and personal life. The entrepreneur is also professionally attributed as a model, lifestyle advocate, human rights activist, and philanthropist. She is a working mother keen on creating a better world with a strong influence.

She is also a Founding Partner in Bond Leisure (F&B Consultancy Company) and Brand Ambassador of O2 Life Hyperbaric.

Prior to her successful entrepreneurial pursuits, Vrankovic also led a modeling career spanning over two decades. She modeled and represented state-of-the-art fashion and lifestyle brands in the European and North American fashion and luxury lifestyle empires.

She was notably featured on the magazine covers of elite publications, including Elle and dazzled runway walks representing Carolina Herrera, Philip Plein, Galliano, Amato, Valentino, and many others.

Her modeling career is a legend. And her business ventures are progressive. But perhaps the most symbolic fragment is her passion for lifestyle secrets, lifestyle habits, and lifestyle success. Her career in hospitality is evident. Vrankovic co-founded Tribeca Kitchen and Bar, an organic restaurant in Dubai. She took up the role of the Creative Director. The business has been a recipient of many accolades and major success, including “Best Bar Food” in Timeout Magazine Restaurant Awards and “Best Ladies Night” in the Hype Magazine Awards.

Towards a conciliatory culture in the company

If we carry out the previous steps successfully, we will create a conciliatory culture that will motivate the workers we already have and attract potential employees.

Ensuring effective compliance with these techniques or strategies that help improve balance requires the prior creation of a company’s conciliatory culture.

This mentality change is a large-scale task, which depends on the company’s managers’ level of awareness. They must understand the difficulty many employees have in disconnecting and the benefits of conciliatory policies.