scholarly journals Work–life balance policies: Challenges and benefits associated with implementing flexitime

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Downes ◽  
Eileen Koekemoer
Keyword(s):  
Human Resource ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Qualitative Research Design ◽  
Minimum Requirements ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Human Resource Practitioners ◽  
Value Add

Orientation: Helping employees to balance their work and family lives is a business imperative. Work–life balance policies (like flexitime) aim to support employees to do so. However, implementing these policies is problematic.Research purpose: The aim of this article is to report on the challenges and benefits associated with implementing flexitime as a work–life balance policy.Motivation for the study: Organisations must develop and implement work–life balance policies. This requires human resource practitioners to investigate and understand experiences and perceptions about the challenges and benefits of flexitime.Research design, approach and method: The researcher used a qualitative research design with an exploratory approach. She drew a nonprobability purposive and voluntary sample (n = 15) from the financial sector. She used semi-structured in-depth interviews to collect the data and conducted content analyses to analyse and interpret them.Main findings: The researcher extracted four main themes (individual and general challenges, the aspects organisations need to implement flexitime effectively and the benefits that would follow its implementation) from the data. Its benefits vary from work–life balance to employee loyalty and commitment. Some challenges are maintaining productivity, a shortage of critical resources and understanding flexitime.Practical/managerial implications: The research identified requirements that human resource practitioners should attend to in order to ensure that organisations use flexitime more effectively.Contribution/value-add: The researcher obtained unique findings about the minimum requirements for implementing flexitime effectively. They could assist organisations to address the challenges that employees face.

REFLECTIONS ON WORK-LIFE BALANCE FOR PARENTS AND GUARDIANS IN THE LIGHT OF DIRECTIVE (EU) 2019/1158 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

2021 ◽  
Vol specjalny II (XXI) ◽  
pp. 189-207
Author(s):  
Justyna Czerniak-Swędzioł ◽  
Ewelina Kumor-Jezierska
Keyword(s):  
Parental Leave ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Council Directive ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Minimum Requirements ◽  
Market Opportunities

In this article the authors submit thorough analysis a new Directive (EU) 2019/1158 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on work-life balance for parents and carers as well as the repealing Council Directive 2010/18/EU that entered into force on August 1, 2019, paying special attention to adjusting domestic regulations to it. The solutions adopted in this Directive lay down minimum requirements designed to achieve equality between men and women regarding labour market opportunities and treatment at work, by facilitating the reconciliation of work and family life for workers who are parents, or carers. To that end, this Directive 2019/1158 provides for individual rights related to the following: paternity leave, parental leave and carers’ leave, flexible working arrangements for workers who are parents, or carers.

THE INFLUENCE OF WORK LIFE BALANCE TOWARDS JOB PERFORMANCE IN PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION (PHEI)

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Noorlaila Hj. Yunus ◽  
Siti Musalmah Ahmad Fuad
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Support ◽  
Job Performance ◽  
Human Resource ◽  
Education Institution ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Private Higher Education ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
The University

Work-Life Balance (WLB) is an important factor that the Human Resource Management of private higher education Institution (PHEI) should concern about in order to gain high Job Performance in theinstitution. If there are WLB practices implemented by the university, the Human Resource Department (HRD) must always get feedback from the employees to continuously improve the WLB policy. This will benefit not just the employees but the most important to the PHEI by having a good productivities and high job performance employees. The result shows that most of the employees in the university have good social support from their colleagues at work place, friends and their families. This support have given them inspiration and motivation in doing their job properly and finally they might achieved high job performance. Eventhough the result were positive about the social support the employees receives, the top management including the HRD need to revise their policy of WLBespecially other factors that can influenced the employees to optimized their efforts in doing their job.

Teleconference focus groups with fathers: ‘You’re on the line with …’

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Burnett ◽  
Caroline Gatrell
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Dependent Children ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Entire Process

This chapter analyses methodological issues experienced in the employment of audio teleconference focus groups in fatherhood research. It cites a research project entitled ‘Work Life Balance: Working for Fathers?’, which explores how men with dependent children combine work and family commitments. As part of this research, when recruiting fathers for face-to-face interviews and focus groups proved difficult, scholars utilised the medium of recordable teleconferencing technology. In the context of research on fatherhood, the chapter evaluates the emergent complexities integral to the entire process of running ‘teleconference’ (telecon) focus groups. The first part of the chapter describes the technological and procedural challenges in the commissioning of telecon focus groups, while the second reflects on fathers' confession-like admissions.

scholarly journals Human Resource Managers Views on Implementing Work-Life Balance

1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Mohn
Keyword(s):  
Human Resource ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Human Resource Managers ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Tertiary Institutions ◽  
Resource Managers ◽  
Hr Managers ◽  
Stable Categories

This paper focuses on the views of Human Resource (HR) managers about the implementation of work life balance (WLB) initiatives. Increasingly, WLB has become an important part of employment relations discussion and knowledge. The literature presents two key themes in terms of how this is implemented in practice. Firstly there was a corporate theme, where WLB is developed and applied from within the organisation. In the second theme WLB is developed and applied in tripartite partnership. The literature showed the New Zealand (NZ) experience is confused as to which path it is following. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore the views of HR managers in NZ government funded tertiary institutions about the implementation of WLB practices. The research involved 3 in-depth, semi-structured interviews, which were then transcribed, analysed and compared until stable categories emerged. The findings reflected the confusion found in the literature. Approaches and knowledge of WLB were standardised and essentially uniform; there was much pride and satisfaction in achievements, both individual and corporately: and despite being government funded, the organisations reflected a corporatist theme in their approach to WLB. In summary, regardless of the rhetoric of WLB as positive to workers regaining balance in their lives, the research showed in practice it was 'a wolf in sheep's clothing' -- more beneficial for the organisations in terms of increasing worker productivity, than for the workers.

scholarly journals A Study on Work Life Balance of it Enabled Bpo Workers in Bangalore City (Karnataka)

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3.6) ◽  
pp. 134
Author(s):  
S M. Chockalingam ◽  
P Sudarshan
Keyword(s):  
Family Life ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Work Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Bangalore City ◽  
Day By Day ◽  
Growing Population

Human beings in this earth have to work for inevitable reasons. For the purpose of employment people even migrate to their nearest cities or even they may relocate themselves too far off places, due to swiftly growing population across the country and also numbers of people getting qualified degrees have increased a lot. On the other hand scope for employment is considerably reducing day by day. This has made job markets completely employee driven. When job markets become employee driven, by all means employees will extract much work from employees. This will make them spend more and more time at the workplace and less time with their families. The result of this will lead to imbalance between work and family life. This study tries to cover many insights on work life balance especially covering major BPO employees working at Bangalore.  

scholarly journals Examining the Moderating Effects of Work–Life Balance between Human Resource Practices and Intention to Stay

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (17) ◽  
pp. 4585 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hsiao-Ping Chang ◽  
Chi-Ming Hsieh ◽  
Meei-Ying Lan ◽  
Han-Shen Chen
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Commitment ◽  
Human Resource ◽  
Hotel Industry ◽  
Job Embeddedness ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Personnel Cost ◽  
Intention To Stay ◽  
Life Balance

Offering services to clients by staff is a major feature of the hotel industry. Therefore, maintaining high-quality and stable services is critical for hotels to stay competitive. As for hotel human resource management, how to effectively increase employee retention is crucial because it not only enhances organizational performance but also reduces personnel cost. In this study, the researchers used structural equation modeling to explore the relationship between job embeddedness, organizational commitment, and intention to stay in tourist hotel interns. Furthermore, work–life balance was used as the moderating variable between organizational commitment and intention to stay. The study subjects were interns who had completed between half and one year of an internship at a tourist hotel and were going to graduate from the school upon completing the internship. The results indicated that job embeddedness has a significant and positive effect on organizational commitment and intention to stay whereas organizational commitment mediates the relationships between job embeddedness and intention to stay. In addition, work–life balance moderates interns’ intention to stay. This study provides the hotel industry with useful management guidelines for retaining employees and improving competitiveness.

scholarly journals Balancing Work Life and Family Life: Problems and Remedies

Pravaha ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 217-232
Author(s):  
Tej Narayan Prasad Nepali
Keyword(s):  
Women Workers ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Time Management ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Simple Task ◽  
Family Responsibilities ◽  
Life Balance

Work- family balance” is a term that refers to an individual’s perceptions of the degree to which s/he is experiencing positive relationships between work and family roles, where the relationships are viewed as compatible and at equilibrium with each other. Like a fulcrum measuring the daily shifting weights of time and energy allocation between work and family life, the term, “workfamily balance,” provides a metaphor to countervail the historical notion that work and family relationships can often be competing, at odds, and conflicting.There was a time when the boundaries between work and home were fairly clear. Today, however, work is likely to invade our personal life — and maintaining work-life balance is no simple task. Family work balance is a complex issue that involves financial values, gender roles, career path, time management and many other factors. Every person and couple will have their own preferences and needs. The problem of maintaining a balance between work life and family life is not a new one. But in the recent few years social scientists have started paying more attention to it. Now there is growing concern in Nepal and experts are of the view that a constant struggle to balance both sets of life will have serious implications on the health of an employee.The seriousness of this problem increases many times in the cases of women workers in our society which is a traditional one and where women are still supposed to have greater family responsibilities. They are expected to look after their children, entertaining the guest, taking care of their parents, in laws and other elderly members of their families as also managing kitchen and other household affairs. Neglecting any of these responsibilities for the sake of discharging work in office or in other institutions where they are employed is not tolerated by their husbands and other male members of the society. We talk of women empowerment but we fail to understand the problems which working women are facing in the tradition bound society like of ours. The study is a pioneering work to investigate into this problem. It is a modest attempt to understand the manner in which women workers try to maintain balance between their work and family lives. The study also explores the ways and means by which female workers can be enabled to maintain proper balance between the two sets of their lives. The findings of this study may be of great use to employers, and business executives as well, who have now come to realize that the responsibility to maintain a healthy work life balance rests on both the organisation and employee. Pravaha Vol. 24, No. 1, 2018, Page: 217-232

Barriers Pushed Aside: Insights on Career and Family Success from Women Leaders in Academic Otolaryngology

2019 ◽  
Vol 161 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanya K. Meyer ◽  
Regan Bergmark ◽  
Marcy Zatz ◽  
Maya G. Sardesai ◽  
Jamie R. Litvack ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Academic Medicine ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Scholarly Activity ◽  
Snowball Sampling ◽  
Barriers To Advancement ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Qualitative Research Design ◽  
Conflicting Demands ◽  
Successful Women

Objective Although the literature adequately identifies the current gender inequality that exists in academic otolaryngology and describes the barriers to advancement of women in academic medicine, there is little information regarding the daily details of how successful women in academic otolaryngology achieve work-life balance. This study was designed to better understand how women in academic otolaryngology achieve work-life balance while negotiating family and childrearing commitments, clinical workload, and scholarly activity, as well as to highlight coping strategies and behaviors that women have used to achieve these successes. Study Design Qualitative research design. Methods Thirteen successful women in academic otolaryngology with children were recruited using a networking/snowball sampling methodology to participate in a semistructured qualitative interview about the daily process of work-life balance in an academic otolaryngology practice. A focus group of 7 additional participants was held to validate critical topics/themes. Results Four broad categories of findings emerged from the study: (1) participants’ strong commitment to academic medicine, (2) the fluid/elusive nature of work-life balance, (3) specific approaches to successfully managing home life, and (4) insights related to achieving psychoemotional health. Conclusions The conflicting demands between home and professional life are one of the barriers to recruiting, promoting, and retaining women in academic otolaryngology. Fostering a better environment for work-life balance is critical to promote the advancement of women in otolaryngology and otolaryngology leadership.

scholarly journals Migration: A means to create work–life balance?

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzette Dyer ◽  
Yiran Xu ◽  
Paresha Sinha
Keyword(s):  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Cultural Work ◽  
Human Resource Managers ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Complex Processes ◽  
Resource Managers ◽  
And Migration

AbstractIn this article, we examine the postmigration work–life balance or conflict experiences of 15 Chinese-born mothers living in New Zealand. Our analysis contributes theoretically to the work–life balance and migration literatures. It does so by revealing that balance and conflict is influenced by the interrelationship between the socio-cultural, work, and family domains; and that this interrelationship has both a complex and nuanced influence on postmigration balance and conflict. Thus, balance or conflict was influenced by the interrelationship between the participants’ unique experiences within the three domains, including experiencing satisfaction in all three domains and through complex processes of negative spillover, compensation, renegotiation and removal. The postmigration experiences highlight the need for a comprehensive and concerted approach by government, tertiary education institutions, and human resource managers to develop responsive policy initiatives that support migrants to settle into all aspects of their lives.

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