Essay: Work-Life Balance And Wellness In Organizations.

Importance of Work-Life Balance in Organizations

Discuss About The Management Preferences Boundary Control.

Human resource management refers to the management that combines all the activities of the organization and increase the satisfaction level of most important asset of the organization that are the employees of the company. An organization can never build a good team of good professionals without having an efficient human resource management team with them. The human resource management of organization is completely responsible to satisfy the employees and make them feel connected with the activities of the company as well. Further, the organizational behavior is also one of the aspects that helps the employees to create work-life balance or eliminates it from their lives. The human resource management of the organization create effective workplace environment that maintain good workplace environment for the employees to work effectively and satisfy themselves in the organization. Work-life balance is taken as one of the basic requirement that is required by the employees to successfully work in the organization efficiently. This type of balance helps the employees to motivate themselves with the activities of the organization and give their maximum to help the organization to attain their objectives in the target market. Further, it is important for the human resource management of an organization to take care of the wellness activities for the employees. Employee wellness is very important task that should be adequately managed by the human resource management of the organization in order to take care of their needs and satisfy their demands as well (Casper, & Harris, 2008).

The purpose of this report is to provide brief information about the issue and importance of work life balance and wellness in an organization. The report talks about the review of literatures and argumentations laid on the aspects of work-life balance and wellness in an organization. Further, the latter part of the essay also explains the recommendations to the companies present in the external environment with an aim to improve the wellness of the employees and maintain work life balance as well. More details about the report are discussed below:

There are many researches that explained that the work life flexibility will replace the work life balance in the society. People present in the society have many responsibilities in their personal as well as professional, so it is important for them to fulfill both the requirements in order to live life successfully. Work life balance is nothing but a peace in the minds of people that helps them to successfully invest the right amount of time both personal as well as professional lives. People in the society not only live to earn money and get famous in the society, but they also want to invest their time with their family and fulfill personal responsibilities as well then only they would be called successful in actual terms (Duxbury, & Higgins, 2001). However, organizations now a days have totally forgotten that it is important for their employees to spend time with their family apart from fulfilling the organizational requirement. Work life balance is one of the basic requirements with the help of which the employees get satisfied with the organization. Casper & Harris (2008) explained that poor balance in work commitment and responsibilities can create the problem of stress and low productivity. The human resource management team of an organization should actively aim to create work life balance for the employees and aim to retain them in the activities of the organization. The management should support the employees in balancing their personal as well professional life activities (Lunau, et. al., 2014).

Challenges in Maintaining Work-Life Balance and Wellness

Initiation of work life balance activities at workplace will gradually motivate to work efficiently for the organization and help them to succeed in their goal as well. Further, it should be noted that increased competition in the market has created burden for the employees in the society resulting to which they are unable to take proper care of their family members and personal life as well. People in the current environment only focus on acing their professional life and personal life is left behind (Fischlmayr, & Kollinger, 2010). This act happens because the society now days is developed in such a way that people provide more focus to the professional growth of a  person but not the satisfaction in personal life. Unmanageable personal and professional life creates various problems for the employees like stress, unhealthy lifestyle, unsatisfied family, work tension as well. A balance will help the employees to concentrate on both personal and professional lives and come energetically to the office every day. Human resource management of the companies present in the industries is the major reason due to which people have starting losing their work life balance. This segment of the management is responsible for the good and bad of the employees so if the HR department of the company will look this aspect as a gap then ultimately they will aim to rectify but the management of companies do not face the need to solve this issue or even think of this aspect as an issue which lead to greater level of dissatisfaction among employees in an organization (King, et. al., 2012).

Apart from work life balance, employee wellness is also an important aspect that should be taken care by the human resource management of the organization but sadly it is also forgotten in the environment. Employee wellness refers to the program under which the companies take the initiative to improve the health of the employees working with them. It is very important for the organization to properly understand their responsibilities towards the employees and initiate activities that help them to take care of the workers. Such programs initiated in the organization reduce the health related absenteeism and increase the productivity of the employees as well. The human resource management should aim to create the policies that help employees to be in a better state of health (Spinks, 2004). The employees in IT firms constantly work on laptops and computers that give negative impact on their body, so the human resource management team of the companies should be aim to providing services to the employees that help them to manage their health along with the job. But sadly this is one of the major gap that are faced by the employees of the company as the human resource management of the companies does not favor the employees in any way even after providing productive work to the organization. The employees are important to the organization just like the profits are to them, so in order to optimum amount of profits in the organization; the management should aim to satisfy the employees by providing work life balance along with wellness as well (Redmond, Valiulis, & Drew, 2006).

Impact of Work-Life Balance and Wellness on Employee Productivity

The management of organization has no problem in comprising the health related activities in organization if it comes to increase the productivity of the organization. Summing up all the situations it should be noted that now a days in the competitive world, it is easy for the organizations to compromise with the perks given to the employees when it comes about increasing the productivity of the organization. Wellness is one of the important aspects that should be considered by organizations while implementing various employees’ related activities at workplace as this is one small initiative from the company that increases the satisfaction level of employees towards the organization (Azeem, & Akhtar, 2014).

Success for an organization is not achieved by the various activities performed by the employees but it is collective sum of all the activities that are aimed to motivate the employees to work better and efficiently for the productivity of the company. So, success can be earned if all the resources come together with a single motive for the organization. In response to which, the employees cannot alone work to help the organization to achieve success, it has to be the other departments of the company to work at the same time to increase the interest level of the employees to achieve their respective targets in the organization (Fernandez-Crehuet, Gimenez-Nadal, & Recio, 2016).

The above mentioned review of literatures explained the actual issue connected with the work life balance and wellness in various organizations, however it only explained the issues/ gaps on the part of the employees of the company, and the management also faces some difficulties in initiating such activities and providing them to the employees. Work life balance and wellness in organization is understood as the basic and foremost right of the employee which they should get in an organization but now the companies have forgetting it as a basic requirement for the employees. However, many times the companies try to provide such services to the employees but they fail to attain them (Mellner, Aronsson, & Kecklund, 2015). For instance, taking an example of an organization where the company provides incentives to the employees in peak seasons, at the particular period of time every employee will aim to earn more monetary incentives by working more than expected in the organization. Resulting to which, the employees invest all the time in organization working only due to which their health degrades and they are unable to give time to family as well (Ammendolia, et. al., 2016).

Employee Wellness Programs and Their Benefits

During the peak seasons if the organization tries to conduct fun weekends and half days then also the employees will not take it because it will reduce the capacity of work that they can perform usually. Increase in such workload and work pressure makes it difficult for the employees to invest time with their family and take care of their health as well. So, it should be noted that many times there comes situations where the employees are themselves not willing to attain the perks given by the company. Money is the most important aspect that distracts the employees from attaining work-life balance (Lyness, & Judiesch, 2014).

Further, it should be noted that the organizations should conduct employee wellness programs that should aim to properly take care of the health of the employees and decrease the negative health impacts caused to them due to the job (Zheng, et. al., 2016). This wellness program can successfully help the employees to understand the need and importance of the wellness along with work life balance. But the human resource management team of companies does not prefer in investing in this program of the company that decreases the satisfaction level of the employees(Lewis, et. al., 2016). The HR manager of the company invests comparatively less amount or does not adequate activities in the program due to which the employees are unable to successfully attain the benefits of the program. It is being noticed that there are very few companies that actually form family friendly policies. The problem of work life balance and wellness is one of the major reason due to which people have started taking retirement at very young age. People get frustrated from the job process due to continuous work; this aspect also hampers their health resulting to which they get to leave the job early (Sarkar, & Singh, 2015). This is an alarming situation for the companies worldwide because due to this act after a certain period of time the organizations will not have any experienced person with them to assist and guide the new comers with the activities of the organization (Williams, Berdahl, & Vandello, 2016).

The OECD research explained that one in every eight employees works more than 50 hours per week. It also explained that a full time worker spend 62% of their day working which is close to 15 hours to personal care but this is result is not enough it is decreasing as well (OECD, 2018). Further, it should be noted that work life balance is directly related to the wellness activities of the employees in an organization (Kim, & Windsor, 2015). Like if the employees of the company are focused towards the objective of achieving work life balance then they will ultimately aim to achieve employee wellness as well. They will take care of their rights at workplace and demand them as well but if the employees are not concerned about their rights then the human resource management team of organization will also not focus on them. Companies giving attractive perks to the employees to work after hours make the employees lose interest in their health and aim to earn more which results in degradation of employee wellness activities at workplace and reduction in work life balance as well (Durand, 2015).

Recommendations for Improving Work-Life Balance and Wellness in Organizations

There are various factors that may impact on the work life balance practices in an organization like size of the company, proportion of women employees, industry size, and job dissatisfaction, need to nurture a high level of commitment.  In an organization problem arises when the human resource department and the employees are not aware about the practices of work life balance. Inflexibility at workplace is the biggest reason of this aspect, if the organizations will adopt flexible activities and innovative strategies then it will ultimately provide positive impact at workplace (Lewis, et. al., 2016). But in order to implement this process effectively both the employees and the employer needs to work together and focus on this aspect. Thus, critical reviewing the above mentioned aspects, it should be noted that work life balance is required by both business as well as the employees to initiate success actively. Work life balance and wellness are one of the best ways to motivate the employees and increase their loyalty towards the organization but the HRD do not prefer investing their resources on employees. This acts as a major drawback for the organization in gaining competitive advantage in the target market (Boffo, Brown, & Spencer, 2017).

Conclusion

Thus, in the limelight of above mentioned events it should be noted that work life balance and wellness are two most important aspects that are required by the businesses present in competitive. Both the aspects are directly linked with the satisfaction of the employees in an organization. Work life balance can be understood as one of the most important aspect that the employees satisfied in an organization along with their families as well. Employee wellness programs initiated by the management help the employees take care of their health while working. But the above mentioned literatures explained that the human resource departments of the companies have started forgetting the essence of employee wellness and work life balance activities. This activity plays a major role in satisfying the employees, motivating them and building loyalty among them. The above mentioned report successfully explained the review of literature on the topic of the issue of work life balance and wellness at workplace. Further, it also explained the gaps in the current situation and critical review of the whole scenario. Lastly, the report also provided recommendations to the companies which they can use to increase the satisfaction level of their workforce.

There are many ways with the help of which the organization can activities initiate strategies that can help them to maintain work life balance and wellness of employees. The companies should initiate flexibility in their business; flexibility is one of the biggest reasons that resolve most of the problems of work life balance in an organization. Flexible working hours helps the organization in initiating work life balance to some extent; as if the employees get to choose the working hours according to their own comfortability then they can easily spend time with the family and work efficiently as well (Sirgy, & Lee, 2018). Further the organizations should also focus on providing adequate leaves and working hours to both male and female employees at the organization so that they easily fulfill their personal as well as professional needs.

All organizations should make use of the policies implemented by the CEO of the company PepsiCo. The CEO of the company understands the crucial need of their employees to spend time with their family in regards to which they initiated the leave loudly policy. Under this policy the leaders of the organization sometimes left the office by leaving loudly so that the subordinates can also go to perform their personal work without hesitating. This policy will also help them to take time for themselves and their personal work as well. Further, relating the work life balance and employee wellness activity with the macro level model of work life balance proposed by Naithani and Jha (2009), it should be noted that is a macro level model that talks about all the key aspects that helps the business and employees to maintain work life balance.

The spill over method is dependent upon the values, skills, mood, and the behavior from one role to another. It talks about two different roles initiated by the same person in the society. The result of spill over is either positive or negative as this aspect has been termed as generalization, isomorphism, continuation, extension, familiarity, and similarity.

Further, it should be noted, in order to provide high degree of satisfaction to the employees in an organization, the human resource department should provide both qualitative and quantitative benefits to them in the society (Starmer, Frintner, & Freed, 2016). Quantitative benefits talks about paid leaves, health insurance policies, cost of diminished productivity, retaining of employee cost, direct medical claims etc. Further the companies should aim to provide various qualitative benefits to employees  such as motivation, flexibility as workplace, work from home, implementation of BYOD (bring your own device) policy, leave loudly policy etc. The organizations should implement the family friendly policy that do not stresses the employee to spend time with family and at the same time complete the clerical work as well (Naithani, 2018). Employee wellness and work life balance activity goes hand in hand, so if the human resource department aims to implement one aspect then the other will automatically take place.  Thus, in this way with the help of such recommended policies the companies can easily increase the work life balance and employee wellness program effectively

References

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