Written By: Mai Mohamed Moussa

Edited & Published by: Mariham Magdy

          Since we are in a very critical time now, the Egyptian authorities imposed strict rules in order to control the spread of the coronavirus; which has led many companies to encourage working from home.

This offers an opportunity for many companies to finally build a culture that allows long-overdue work flexibility. So what if we took these circumstances as a sign, or a chance to change some work procedures and embed new strategies as employees need some freedom, and this could drive us to the familiar concept which is having a work-life balance, though many companies still ignore its importance and as a result our employees suffer from what is called work- family conflict.

Work- family conflict is an issue that needs a great attention, there should be policies and procedures to be established by organizations with the goal to empower employees to efficiently do their jobs and also provide flexibility to handle their personal issues and concerns.

It is really crucial for HR professionals and management to apply work-life balance strategies through avoiding letting any negative effects of work impact their personal lives.

 Research has revealed that employees who believe they do not have time for their personal life feel drained and distracted while they are at work since they don’t have time to enjoy, relax and recharge, they aren’t available for friends and family members.

Moreover, the spread of negative aspects of work into an employee’s personal life can lead to job exhaustion, disruption of relationships with family and friends, and increased stress that can lead to both mental and physical illness.

 WORK-LIFE BALANCE as a definition means getting work into balance towards living life to its fullest. Its main aim is to help create a better balance between the demands of a specific job and the healthy management and enjoyment of life outside work. Thus it doesn’t mean that you devote half of your life working and half of it playing; instead, it means balancing both in order to achieve synchronization in all physical, emotional, and spiritual health.

Most companies care about their employees’ health and safety from the physical perspective; like conducting safety trainings; fire safety, emergency procedures, first aid, or accident reporting procedure,  ignoring their psychological and mental health. That is why it is important to create work place policies that assist employees in mingling both personal and work responsibilities. Work-life balance as a strategy aims to generate more supportive and healthy work environments, which allows employees to have that balance between work and personal duties and thus increase productivity and strengthen employee loyalty.

There are some management practices which organizations must apply in order to improve their employees’ well-being.

Workload should be divided fairly among team members, as it is tempting for some managers to give their devoted employees more work than others or to ease other employees who are struggling in their tasks or may be slower in delivering the assigned job, which will let them stay after working hours to finish their tasks.

However, managers should be aware that there are some great risks involved in not allocating the workload in an equitable way. If you overwork your high performers you will lose them, as they will start to hate the fact that they’re doing more, and will start doing comparisons with other co-workers; which will affect his/her relationships negatively with those colleagues. This eventually will create an aggressive competitive culture inside the team, that is completely far from the healthy or the accepted one. They will feel overly stressed and that will also affect relationships with family. In addition, the employee will not have enough time for self-care or any development.

 The increase in the advancement of technology has created flexibility and more freedom for employees to carry on their jobs at home; not necessarily office based as now with cloud-based software, internet, mobile technology and the idea of ‘always-on’ access to the workplace have replaced the need for being at office every day.

This approach encourages Flexible time scheduling, as you are in control of how you manage your time, prioritize tasks, and take breaks at any time.

Proximity to family is supposed to be one of the benefits of working from home, which will accordingly increase their satisfaction. In addition, the autonomy, empowerment and trust given by managers, will help create more sense of commitment and will make employees feel more motivated, thus bringing about the best in them.

Counseling is a thoughtful and candid discussion of personal problems experienced by the employee. It is considered an HRD activity thus serves the same goal as any HRD activity; to ensure that each employee is a positive contributor to organizations effectiveness.

It includes designing, delivering and evaluating set of programs like employee assistance programs and stress management programs. These programs operate within organizations for the purpose of identifying troubled employees, addressing their personal issues and motivating them.  This approach will prove its success if implemented in a cost effective manner and also if the confidentiality of employees is maintained thoroughly by creating strict policies for keeping the content of each employee safeguarded.

       From the above it seems to be a win -win situation as the concept of Work-life Balance has been viewed as crucial to both organizations and people, and it has been found to greatly contribute in productivity improvement and efficiency of employees which in turn impacts the performance of organizations in a positive manner.