Definition

Worklife Integration is an outcome of people exercising control and choice in their life to meet lifes challenges. This can be in terms of managing work responsibilities alongside their personal and family needs. The areas of a persons life which require integration will change based on the individuals life stages it is constantly evolving. For example, a person in his or her 20s may be balancing career development and social activities. When the person gets married and starts a family in his or her 30s, family and job responsibilities become competing challenges.

Why is it important?
Work and life stressors will continue to increase, as heightened expectations and choices around us compel us to seek for what is a good life. As this requires continuous self clarification of ones core values and life goals, worklife balancing becomes a necessary skillset that enables us to live and work efficiently and effectively. If an organisation takes cognizance of this worklife imperative and designs a conducive work environment for achieving a worklife integration outcome, it is likely to motivate its employees to work more efficiently and productively.

What are the roles of stakeholders?

To implement a successful Work- life Strategy, the organization, supervisors and employees all need to play their parts. Work- life programmes succeed in organizations where there is a workplace culture based on reciprocity and trust, with the responsibility for work- life integration shared among the organization, supervisors and employees. The organization:

develops and communicates a Work- life Strategy suitable for its business and its employees; makes its work- life programmes available to as many of its employees as possible, subject to business needs; has a sound performance management system that allows it to evaluate all its employees (including those on flexible work arrangements) objectively; and

Trains its supervisors to support Work- life Strategy.

Supervisors:

support the organizations Work- life Strategy; help tailor an employees flexible work arrangements in consultation with the employee and other relevant departs in the organization, e.g. HR; and Evaluate employee performance by outcomes and deliverables rather than hours clocked and physical presence in the office.

Employees:

familiarize themselves with the organizations work- life programmes and makes use of them appropriately; work with their immediate supervisors to design flexible work arrangements and other work- life programmes that do not compromise business outcomes; and Engage themselves in their work and add value to the organization throughout their period of employment.

Four steps to a successful Work life Strategy

This model comprises four essential steps that an organisation should take to implement an effective and sustainable Worklife Strategy. These four steps should be viewed as a continuous cycle of activities. To be successful, worklife integration needs to remain relevant to the changing needs of the business and employees, which may change over time.

1. Establish the need to implement/ modify a work life strategy

Work life Strategy is a business strategy to make it work, top management as a whole needs to buy into it and align organizational processes to it. Organizations have implemented work life programmes for one or more of the following reasons:

Attract and/or retain talent Raise morale Increase productivity Save on real estate and overhead expenses Reduce healthcare costs Provide work flexibility in response to changing employee needs Increase commitment Combat burnout Be an Employer of Choice Stay ahead of the competition

Once the need for implementing Worklife Strategy has been established, organisations can then move on to set targets and a timeframe in which to achieve these targets.

2. Assess business needs and employees work- life needs

Assess your business needs To make sure that targets are practical, an organisation should be clear about what its business needs are. Business needs include corporate values, objectives and/or operational standards that cannot be compromised for any reason. These may be broken down according to an organisations functional and business units, which may each have different business needs due to the nature of their work. For example, if a business revolves around customer-facing services (e.g. in a retail outlet) it may be possible to implement flexi-time with some creative scheduling, but it may not be possible to implement flexi-place. On the other hand, if there is a need for 24-hour operations (e.g. in a hospital), rotating 12-hour shifts with more days off might be appropriate, but a flexi-time would not. Organisations with a good understanding of its own business needs and process will be better able to customise a successful Work-life Strategy.

Assessing your employees work-life needs Different organizations have different employee profiles and these employees have differing needs. An organizations employee profile and employees needs also change over time. Therefore, there is a need to regularly assess employees work-life needs so that an organizations Work-life Strategy remains relevant. This may be done through an annual review. There are different ways to find out what employees are grappling with in terms of managing work commitments alongside personal and family needs. Three common methods include workforce profiling, employee surveys and focus groups. These are often used to complement one another.

1) Workforce profiling Workforce profiling refers to mining information within an organization, especially its existing employee records. It provides an indication of the areas of priority for work-life programmes. Tracked regularly, it can yield information about trends and changes which may be used to adjust work-life programmes. Some questions may include: a. How many employees are / have i. Near retirement? ii. Young parents? iii. Parents of more than one child? iv. Single Parents? v. Elderly parents? vi. Dependants with healthcare needs? vii. Men or women? viii. Married or single? b. c. d. e. Which part of the business is it most difficult to recruit employees for? What What are the prevalent health problems and costs? What is the absenteeism rate? How much medical leave is being consumed? could be the reasons?

2) Employee surveys Employee surveys reveal attitudinal information that may be used to gauge employee sentiments. Tracked regularly, this can provide information in employee sentiments that may signal deeper concerns in at the workplace. Some areas to survey may include:

a. b.

Issues related to job scope and responsibilities this may reveal concerns Non-work commitments and aspirations, e.g. the number of dependents, plans

about work and stress and indicate work flexibility options to attain higher education this can provide information about which work-life programmes to priorities c. d. A list of existing / upcoming work-life programmes this can provide Job satisfaction / motivation / engagement / work-life harmony levels information about which programmes are or will be popular

3) Focus groups Focus groups provide more open-ended responses than surveys, and allow moderators to delve more deeply into a topic to elicit and understand different qualitative views. They are essentially interviews with several people (generally 6 10) at the same time. It involves an organized discussion with a selected group of individuals to gain information about their views and experiences of a topic, e.g. a particular work-life programme. The moderator plays a very important role, and good leadership and interpersonal skills are required to moderate a group successfully and elicit useful information.

3. Implement work- life programmes

Design work-life programmes Work-life programmes fall into 3 broad categories:

1) Flexible Work Arrangements A successful Flexible Work Arrangement (FWA) need not be implemented for all employees in an organization. An effective FWA takes into account the nature of the employees job and his/her personality if either or both are unsuitable for the arrangement, implementing it would be counter-productive. Typically, immediate supervisors are in the best position to determine the suitability of the arrangement. FWAs are the most impact of work-life programmes as they shape the day-to-day operations of an organization and the daily routines of its employees. An organization can often reap benefits from a well-implemented FWA, saving on costs and ramping up efficiency and productivity. Before embarking on any FWA, it would be useful for employees to conduct a self-assessment and consider the pros and cons of their request. They must also consider which FWAs are

appropriate given the requirements and/or limitations of their specific job duties and responsibilities. An example of a self-assessment questionnaire by World At Work is provided below: World at Work FWA assessment questionnaire List of FWAs (PDF 16kb)

2) Leave Benefits Leave benefits refer to those over and above statutory requirements (i.e. annual leave, childcare leave, maternity leave and sick leave). Such leave may be (i) paid or unpaid, and (ii) subsumed under the annual allotment of leave benefits.

3) Employee Support Schemes Employee Support Schemes (ESS) help employees manage the non-work aspects of their lives, especially the time stress that so many of them face. These programmes may involve the innovative use of existing organization resources, simple gestures of appreciation for employees and their family, dependent care support, health and wellness programmes, flexible benefits and time-saving services. Such schemes need not be costly. For example, companies that already provide a service as a business could extend it to their employees at marginal cost, e.g. transportation, laundry, childcare, etc. This can make a big difference to employees and in turn, employee engagement. Develop a communication plan The successful implementation of work-life programmes hinges on proper communication of these programmes to employees in order to use these programmes, employees need to be aware of their availability. Studies have also shown that awareness of work-life programmes is as important as utilization of work-life programmes when it comes to improving employee engagement and turnover. A variety of communication channels may be used according to the norms of each organization, and effectiveness of the channels. Some common modes of communication include town hall / team meetings, emails, intranet, message boards, memos, department lunches, etc.

In addition to building awareness about work-life programmes, communication channels can also contribute to:

Sustaining a work-life culture, e.g. posters and placards of an organizations work-life values could adorn corridors, pantries and meeting rooms Transmitting work-life corporate values , e.g. handbooks on corporate values and organizations work-life programmes could be given to all new recruits Improving and invigorating the organizations Work-life Strategy, e.g. feedback channel could be used in regular evaluation of existing work-life programmes or to monitor shifting work-life needs

Some considerations for an effective communication plan include:

Define objectives (short-term, e.g. introducing a specific work-life programme, and long-term, e.g. developing a culture of flexibility) Identify target audience (including segments that might resist the new initiative)

o o o o o o

Customize strategy for buy-in Identify key message for each segment of the target audience Anticipate audiences concerns Prime audience for new initiative Educate and train middle managers Explain benefits of new initiative

Select channels for communicating and promoting the new initiative Build in a feedback mechanism so that it is possible to evaluate the communication plan Measure effectiveness of communication plan

Visible senior management support A show of support from the senior management for Work-life Strategy is crucial. Supervisors and employees of all levels will feel more comfortable supporting, participating in and using the work-life programmes. In this way, the purpose of the organizations Work-life Strategy is better achieved. Clear policies and guidelines Work-life programmes need to be supported by clear policies and guidelines. Policies and guidelines address the values, eligibility criteria and operational details of the programmes. As a rough guide, policies and guidelines for work-life programmes should:

Stress mutual benefits to both the organization and its employees Encourage an approach of mutual trust and accountability to developing and implementing work-life programmes Value employees for their contribution to the business, not their choice of work arrangement Include an objective, outcome-based monitoring and evaluation mechanism

4. Evaluate work- life programmes

Measuring the effectiveness of your work-life programmes allows you to determine whether they have met their objectives. Identifying a successful work-life programme can help build your business case, while discovering a work-life programme that did not meet its objectives would allow you to improve on it. Some data sources that could be mined to evaluate the effectiveness of the work-life programme include: Quantitative

Utilization rate of the work-life programmes Absenteeism Measure of employee job satisfaction, engagement, etc. Voluntary turnover rate

Qualitative

Feedback from employees about the work-life programme in meeting their needs Feedback from supervisors on difficulties faced implementing work-life programmes Exit interviews