How Important is Work-Life Balance?
Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is not only important for health and relationships, but it can also improve your employee’s productivity, and ultimately performance. Put simply, if your people don’t view work as a chore, then they will work harder, make fewer mistakes and are more likely to become advocates for your brand.
Businesses that gain a reputation for encouraging work-life balance have become very attractive – especially when you consider how difficult it can be to attract and retain younger workers these days. The Oxford Economic suggests, “Replacing an employee costs on average around £30,000 and it takes up to 28 weeks to get them up to speed.” Bearing this in mind, it might be a good idea to keep your existing employees happy. Focusing on work-life balance will help you draw a valuable talent-pool for new recruits and boost retention rates. It will save time and money, whilst ensuring a high level of in-house talent.
Here are some more reasons why work-life balance is important for your people and your organisation:
- Fewer Health Problems
When we are stressed and overworked, we run the risk of jeopardising more than just our social lives – our physical and mental health is in danger too.
It’s no secret that when we are overworked, tired or stressed – our health will suffer. A poor work-life balance can lead to a variety of symptoms that can affect our wellbeing. This ranges from the flu to serious health conditions like strokes and respiratory problems. A study conducted by UCL of more than 10,000 participants stated that white-collar workers who worked three or more hours longer than required had a 60% higher risk of heart-related problems than those who didn’t work overtime.
By encouraging your people to look after themselves and find balance, you will significantly limit health problems and absences. This will ensure your organisation is more efficient during business hours and people want to be part of the business and culture.
- More Engagement
By helping your people to find the perfect balance between work and home, you will increase their engagement levels. This has many positive effects: According to Tower Perrin’s global survey; “Companies with highly-engaged employees had a near 52% gap in performance improvement in operating income.” Additionally – “Companies with high levels of employee engagement improved 19.2% in operating income while companies with low levels of employee engagement declined 32.7%.”
Having an engaged workforce will lead to your people going the extra mile for you and becoming loyal advocates for your brand and product. This is evidenced by Temkin Group, who suggests that “engaged staff are 2.5 times more likely to stay at work late if something needs to be done after the normal workday ends.”
- Fewer ‘Burnouts’
We all get stressed from time to time. It is unavoidable. However, workplace burnouts are avoidable, and you should make efforts to ensure this doesn’t happen to your people. Burnouts occur when we feel overwhelmed and unable to meet constant demands. The negative effects of burnout can affect every aspect of our lives.
The inability to separate work from personal life will massively increase the chances of burnout, so it is important to encourage your team to take time off and truly relax.
- More Mindfulness
When we find and sustain a healthy work-life balance, we develop greater control over our focus and ability to concentrate on the task at hand – this is known as mindfulness. Wouldn’t you prefer a team that is fully focused on whatever they are doing, instead of worrying about work/home?
By encouraging your people to have a healthy work-life balance, you will create an environment where everyone is dedicated to the task at hand. This will improve retention rates, productivity and ultimately profit.
This article first appeared at
https://thehappinessindex.com/blog/importance-work-life-balance
