What parts of work-life balance does an employer actually control?
The parts of work-life balance an employer controls are how work is distributed, how predictable schedules are, what is expected outside working hours, and how much autonomy employees have over how they do their jobs. The U.S. Surgeon General's Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being names four practices under what it calls Work-Life Harmony. Two of them are more autonomy over how work is done and schedules that are as flexible and predictable as possible. The other two are more access to paid leave and respect for boundaries between work and non-work time.
Where to look in your own organization
- How work is distributed. Consider whether the workload is distributed fairly, or whether additional work repeatedly falls to the same reliable employees.
- Coverage and scheduling. Consider how much advance notice employees receive of their schedules and schedule changes , and whether they can plan childcare, appointments, and the rest of their lives around their schedule.
- After-hours expectations. Find out whether employees feel expected to answer messages, calls, or requests outside of their working hours. Be clear about when employees are and aren't expected to be available. Let employees know that you want them to have boundaries between work and the rest of their lives, and help support them in maintaining those boundaries.
- Meeting load. Consider how much of the week employees spend in meetings and how much time remains to do their work. Look at which meetings are actually necessary and whether some could be shorter, less frequent, or eliminated altogether.
- Who absorbs the overflow. When someone is absent or a position is open, consider who takes on the additional responsibilities, and for how long.
Your organization may not be able to change all of these. Many organizations can change some of them, and employees can help identify which changes would make the biggest difference. .
How do we find out where employees are struggling with work-life balance?
Find out where employees are struggling most with work-life balance by asking employees directly. Then examine what they tell you by department, shift, role, and length of service instead of as one organization-wide result. Employees at different levels of an organization experience the same policies and practices differently. A schedule that works well for one team can leave another with no room for life outside work.
Asking can take different forms. A short survey, a few focus groups, or individual conversations with supervisors and employees may each be appropriate. The right approach depends on the size of your organization and how comfortable employees are speaking candidly. Who asks matters too. Employees may not tell a supervisor that the supervisor's own expectations are the problem.
Look at the data you already have as well. Overtime records, unused vacation time, schedule changes made on short notice, and absences can indicate where employees are stretched before anyone says so. How do I find out what my employees actually need? covers how to ask so that employees answer candidly.
What if the real problem is that there is too much work?
If the real problem is that there is too much work, the organization needs to address the workload itself. Flexible schedules or better boundaries may help employees in other ways, but they don't reduce the amount of work that needs to get done.
According to Gallup, a study of nearly 7,500 full-time employees found that 23 percent felt burned out at work very often or always, and another 44 percent felt burned out sometimes (Wigert & Agrawal, 2018).
It's important to gather data and ask employees directly what they mean when they say they are burned out or have no work-life balance.
Look at what employees are actually responsible for and how much time that work reasonably requires. Some responsibilities may need to happen less often, take less time, be reassigned, delayed, or eliminated altogether. If the work can't be reduced, the organization may need to add capacity.
What is still in your control
- Identify what can stop or wait. Ask employees which responsibilities are essential and which could be eliminated, delayed, done less frequently, or simplified. The people doing the work can often identify tasks or processes that take significant time without adding enough value to justify it. Then leadership needs to decide what can actually change and make it clear that employees aren't still expected to fit everything in.
- Look at who is carrying the most. Examine whether additional work is distributed across the team or repeatedly falls to the same employees. Reliable employees can become the default people asked to take on another responsibility, cover a vacancy, or solve a problem. If that is happening, look for ways to redistribute the work rather than continuing to rely on the same people.
- Put an end date on temporary coverage. When employees are covering for a vacancy, leave, or unusually busy period, tell them how long you expect the arrangement to last and what is being done to address it. If there isn't a clear end date, provide regular updates rather than allowing a temporary arrangement to quietly become permanent.
- Be honest about what can't change. Some periods of high demand or workload may be unavoidable. Explain why the constraint exists, how long you expect it to last, and what can change around it. Ask employees what would make the period more manageable, and follow through on the changes the organization can make.
If you've already invested in a wellness program and employees are still exhausted, that's a related problem with a different answer. Why isn't our wellness program reducing burnout? covers it.
How will we know whether the changes helped?
You'll know whether changes to work-life balance helped by going back to the same employees and the same records you started with. Before you make a change, write down what you expect to be different, such as fewer last-minute schedule changes, less overtime, or fewer employees telling you they're overwhelmed. Give the change enough time to make a difference, which might be a few weeks for a scheduling change or several months for a change in workload. Then ask again and look again.
Tell employees what you found, including when the change didn't help. How do we know whether the change we made actually helped? covers how to do that without making it a large project.
The Grantibly perspective
Angelika's perspective
When employees talk about problems at work, these are the things we hear: overwhelm, burnout, stress, no work-life balance, and not feeling valued or appreciated. Those words deserve to be taken seriously. People have one life to live, and their wellbeing, enjoyment, and energy matter.
We approach this as a people, data, and systems problem, which means HR can't solve it alone. When a whole team says they have no balance, the cause is usually something in how the work is organized. That means the organization can examine it and, in many cases, change it.
We don't walk in assuming we already know why your employees are stretched. Our role is to help you find out. We look for strengths as well as problems, because understanding where balance is working can be just as important as understanding where it's breaking down.
