Work-life balance is one of the great problems that workers have to face today. Balancing personal and family life with work is very difficult, especially for those who work in big cities or who have to travel long distances to go to work.
If we add to this reality young children, extracurricular activities and school meetings, the reconciliation of work and family life in companies can be a real feat. It is because of its interesting advantages that business practices are being carried out to reconcile the work and family life of its workers.
Advantages of family conciliation in companies
There are many companies that are carrying out numerous family and work-life balance policies. These family reconciliation measures have a series of advantages, both for the workers and for the company itself. Its benefits are the following:
Less reductions in working hours and furloughs
Those workers who do not have facilities to conciliate their family life with work tend to request reductions in hours or leave of absence, especially when they have a dependent family member or young children. This is, without a doubt, not very beneficial for the worker, who begins to receive a lower salary or not receive it at all. In addition, it is a setback for the company, since it is necessary to readjust the workforce to fill the vacancy left by the worker in question.
Stress reduction and increased motivation
In Spain, around 30% of sick leave is a consequence of the stress to which workers are subjected. Undoubtedly, facilitating work and family reconciliation in companies entails a lower level of stress in the employees, increasing their motivation and all of this redounding positively in work performance and in the benefits obtained by the company.
Increased performance and productivity of workers
The workers who find facilities for work-life balance have a better performance at work. It is evident that this must be the necessary result of work and family reconciliation policies: with these measures the concerns of the workers are much less and their performance is much higher. This, how can it be otherwise, is positive for the productivity of the company itself, whose benefits will be greater.
Reduction of work absenteeism
Thanks to flexible hours and other facilities when working, absenteeism is significantly reduced. This is so because many times there is no other option than to be absent from work to, for example, attend to urgent family or personal matters, delaying work. However, by taking conciliatory measures, less work absenteeism is achieved.
Better work environment and talent retention
Not only does the motivation, performance or productivity of the company increase, but, due to all of the above, workers are happier and more satisfied, which positively results in a good working environment. In addition, this undoubtedly helps to retain talent, that is, to those workers who have brilliant professional profiles.
What measures favor the reconciliation of work and family life in companies
Some of the measures adopted to facilitate the reconciliation of work and family life in companies are the following:
- Intensive work day. For example, from 8 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon, so that the workers have the whole afternoon free.
- Teleworking. Right now it is not only a conciliatory measure, but it is also necessary to alleviate the consequences of the health crisis derived from the coronavirus. Undoubtedly, being able to work from home, at least one day a week, greatly facilitates the reconciliation of work and family life.
- Schedule flexibility. Making it easier for workers to go to work and leave work when they want is a good option to facilitate work-life balance. For example, allowing employees to go to work from 7:30 to 9:30 and leave from 4 to 6 in the afternoon, so that they can organize their workday as best suits them.
- Hours paid for private matters. There are companies that, in addition to the holidays established by law or by collective agreement, offer their workers one paid day a year to deal with emergencies or personal matters.
- Business canteen. Offering this service is a good option for those employees who cannot eat at home or do not have time to cook the food they have to eat at work.
A company with an innovative organization must adopt policies to reconcile work life and family life for its workers that facilitate the reconciliation of both spheres of everyone’s life. It is of great importance to manage these conciliatory policies in the most appropriate way, for which there are tools that can be very useful, applications that will help promote your CSR strategy and the objectives of your company, helping you so that the business organization is innovative and fun.
