If you see a company with loyal, satisfied employees, there’s a good chance that company focuses on listening to and caring about their employees’ personal lives. It’s a fine line trying to stay productive at work while also having many responsibilities and cares outside of work. As an employer, remember your employees aren’t robots but people with friends, families, and lives outside of the office. In this article, we’ll discuss some tips for improving work-life balance for your employees, which all help to create a healthy work environment for everyone.
Support Families
As we mentioned, many employees have obligations other than work. That’s a good thing. People who already know how to manage many different things in life and handle responsibility well make excellent employees. Those employees need your support, but what does that support look like? Here are a few ideas of how you can support your employees who have families at home.
- Understanding when a parent needs to stay home with a sick child.
- Listening well so employees feel comfortable being transparent with you when there’s trouble at home.
- Being generous with parental leave.
- Getting to know employees by organizing family picnics and other gatherings, and also by simply talking with them.
Flexible Schedules and Remote Work
Not every company can do this. However, if there’s a way to offer employees the opportunity to work from home—or at least a mix of working from the office and from home—you should definitely use it. It’s one of the best tips for improving work-life balance for your employees.
The wonderful thing about remote work is it often creates productive employees and satisfied employers. Remote employees are happy at home; they have greater flexibility, which allows them to produce on their own terms. Additionally, many companies are saving money as the need for office space decreases.
Another idea that goes along with remote work is relaxing on schedules. If projects have a timeline and an employee working remotely gets it done on time, perhaps they don’t need to be held to the traditional nine-to-five hours but could instead work according to project completion and not the window of time in which it was completed.
This type of flexibility gives employees the benefit of designing career, life, and family in a way that creates balance and peace for them.
Encourage Time Off
Unfortunately, employees often feel guilty for taking time off, and many employers don’t help the situation because they don’t set the example themselves. Take time off and let employees know how much you enjoyed it and that you’d like to see them do it as well. Remind employees that you feel they’ll serve the company better when they take a break now and then.
Imagine yourself as an employee. Would you feel as though the company cares about your work-life balance? Many companies talk about making work-life balance a priority, but they never actually do something about it. Be the unique employer who cares, and you’ll have loyal employees for years to come.
