Improving Employee Engagement by Addressing Employee Work/Life Balance

Submitted by Debra Gladney

Received by Stuart Cheyne

July 22, 2024

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY................................................................................................................... 3
INTRODUCTION: IMPROVING EMPLOYEE WORKLIFE BALANCE.....................................................4
Report Purpose: Reasoning and Organizational Context...............................................................4
Report Scope: Guiding Research Questions and Areas of Interest................................................4
Methods: Research Assessment.................................................................................................... 5
BACKGROUND: A RATIONALE FOR RESEARCH...............................................................................5
FINDINGS: COMMON STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING WORK/LIFE BALANCE..................................7
A) Flexible Working Hours and Working-From-Home Potential....................................................7
B) Encouraged Breaks from Work-Related Materials and Devices.................................................8
C) Increased Vacation and Personal Days......................................................................................8
D) Employee-Led Communication and Decision-Making...............................................................9
RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................... 9
References................................................................................................................................... 11

LIST OF FIGURES
Fig. 1 Articles Mentioning Work/Life Balance (1997-2011)………………………………………………. 6
Fig. 2 Average Hours Worked by Full-Time US Workers……………………………………………………. 7
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report discusses the benefits of encouraging our employees to find and maintain a healthy
balance between their working and personal lives and identifies the risks of failing to address
this problem. This report also includes research-based findings and recommendations for
practices we can implement immediately to encourage employees to achieve a healthy work-
life balance.
In 2023, members of our HR department were made aware through routine performance
reviews that many of our employees are facing challenges balancing their working and personal
lives. A 2023 survey of our employees found that this was impacting their performance.
This report finds that it is in Intelligent Design’s interests to address this issue since an
unhealthy work/life balance can affect an employee’s productivity, morale, engagement at
work, and relationship with the company. If it is not addressed, Intelligent Design can expect to
face increasing problems with employee motivation, and employee retention and turnover, and
the costs associated with these issues.
Though an official consensus among experts does not yet exist, common practices and
strategies can be identified. To improve our employees’ work/life balance, and by extension
their engagement and performance, this report recommends that our firm do the following:
 Allow our employees flexible working hours and the ability to working from home.
 Encourage unscheduled breaks and time away from technological devices.
 Increase the amount of vacation and personal days.
The report does not consider the cost of implementing these measures but recommends a
feasibility study is undertaken before these measures are approved.
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INTRODUCTION: IMPROVING EMPLOYEE WORKLIFE BALANCE

Report Purpose: Reasoning and Organizational Context
Internal research has revealed that a significant number of our employees are struggling with
their work/life balance. As research in this report will show, how an employee manages their
work/life balance can have a considerable impact on their performance.
While Intelligent Design will incur additional budgetary costs to address this issue, it is in our
firm’s interests to do so since an unhealthy work/life balance can affect an employee’s
productivity, morale, engagement at work, and relationship with the company. If it is not
addressed, Intelligent Design can expect to face increasing problems of lack of employee
motivation, and employee retention and turnover, and the costs associated with these issues.
This report discusses the benefits of adopting a more flexible work environment to incorporate
balance between employees’ working and personal lives and the risks of leaving this problem
unaddressed. This report also includes research-based findings and recommendations for
practices we can adopt to encourage employees to achieve a healthy work-life balance.
Specifically, this report recommends that our firm do the following:
• Allow our employees flexible working hours and the ability to working from home
• Encourage unscheduled breaks and time away from technological devices
• Increase the amount of vacation and personal days

Report Scope: Guiding Research Questions and Areas of Interest

In the sections that follow, this report will consider our employees' current feelings about their
work/life balance and how it affects their performance and productivity.
To these ends, the report background first provides answers to the following questions:
1. What is the status of our employees' work/life balance?
2. What is work/life balance?
3. How does an employee's work/life balance impact their performance?
4. What are the immediate and long-term impacts of unhealthy work/life balance?
The report then aims to address these concerns by answering the following question in the
research findings:
1. What effective strategies can Intelligent Design use to encourage our employees to
maintain a healthy work/life balance?
Research findings will serve as a foundation for recommendations to facilitate a healthy
work/life balance for our employees.
While there are many practices employees can adopt in their own personal lives and on their
own time, this report focuses solely on what we can do as employers to encourage a healthy
work/life balance. In addition, this report does not consider the cost of each recommendation.
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Methods: Research Assessment

Because work/life balance is an emerging concern, there is no academic or industry consensus
regarding how an employer can improve an employee's work/life balance or how an employee
can achieve a healthy balance. There are, however, many common practices and strategies that
have been implemented in various businesses and sectors that have proven successful.
This report considers and analyzes information and data about work/life balance from
reputable sources in the fields of organizational behaviour and employee psychology and
satisfaction, and reputable sources publishing on topics in general business matters in academic
journals, business databases, trade magazines, and websites.
The sources have been assessed according to their currency and relevance, their authority and
accuracy, and their purpose in providing this information.
Using these sources, this report seeks to identify and explain the benefits of addressing the
problem of work/life balance experienced by our employees and provide common practices
and strategies we can use to address this important issue.

BACKGROUND: A RATIONALE FOR RESEARCH

The concept of work/life balance is relatively new and has only in the last few decades become
a topic of interest for business professionals.
Key Term: What is Work/Life Balance?
Work/life balance is defined by The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
(2016) as “[t]he ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life”
(par. 1). According to Greenhouse (2003), healthy work-life balance requires the “equal
[emphasis mine] combination of engagement and satisfaction of an individual’s work and family
roles." An employee’s work/life balance is so important to organizational behaviour that
Tulasidas (2015) stated, “an organization is required to develop strategies in order to solve
arisen issues with the balance between work and life to enhance employees’ productivity.”
As Figure 1 shows below, the concept of work/life balance has become increasingly prevalent
since the turn of the millennium, with the number of major publications producing articles that
mention “work-life balance” nearly quadrupling in the first decade of the 21 st century alone.
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Figure 1
Articles Mentioning Work-Life Balance (1997-2011)

Note. This graph represents the yearly total of articles addressing work-life balance between
1997 and 2011. From “How Work Life Balance Can Keep Your Employees Happy and Your
Business Healthy,” by J. Rampton, 2016, Inc. (https://www.inc.com/johnrampton/how-work-
life-balance-can-keep-your-employees-happy-and-your-businesshealthy.html).

Reasons for this shift and increased attention include an increased cultural awareness of the
concept but also the increasing demands faced by employees in all industries in the first few
decades of the 21st century.

Figure 2, below, illustrates that half of American workers surveyed in 2013 and 2014 work more
than 40 hours a week, and that 18% work 60 or more hours a week, indicating a substantial
amount of employees lack quality time outside of working hours.
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Figure 2
Average Hours Worked by Full-Time U.S. Workers, Aged 18+

Note. This figure represents the average amount of weekly hours a typical adult US employee is
reported to work, based on polling data from 2014. From “The “40-hour” Workweek is Actually
Longer – by Seven Hours,” by L. Saad, 2014, Gallup
(https://news.gallup.com/poll/175286/hour-workweek-actually-longer-seven-hours.aspx?
g_source=workweek&g_medium=search&g_campaign=tiles).

These statistics demonstrate that achieving a healthy work/life balance for many can be difficult
to achieve.

FINDINGS: COMMON STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING WORK/LIFE BALANCE

An official consensus among experts does not yet exist, but common practices and strategies
can be identified. Below are four categories that received attention from many of the sources
consulted for this report. The strategies provided below are broad in nature, not necessarily
reflective of the specific conditions of Intelligent Design.

A) Flexible Working Hours and Working-From-Home Potential

To begin with, avoiding situations in which employees are working long hours and are
powerless to set their own work schedules should be an important aspect of organizational
strategy to increase work/life balance. According to the OECD (2016), “Evidence suggests that
long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardize safety and increase stress” (par. 4).
Long working hours can mean a loss of ability to accomplish personal tasks outside of work
hours, which can lead to stress. The OECD (2016) went on to state that “[t]he amount and
quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional
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physical and mental health benefits” (par. 5). Miller (2016) found that “by allowing employees
more flexibility in what hours they work in a given day, employees can better manage their time
around all obligations” (par. 4). Employees would be expected to work the same number of
hours but have room to accomplish tasks normally allocated to out-of-work hours and, thus,
reduce stress. According to Rampton (2016), offering employees these flexible hours will “boost
morale since employees can schedule their work hours around their personal lives” (par. 18).
Working from home is also an important method to increase an employee’s work/life balance.
In addition to offering flexible hours, Rampton (2016) argued that allowing employees the
option to occasionally work from home will allow them to “avoid the rush hour headache,
figure out childcare, or take care of personal matters like visiting the doctor or dentist on those
at-home days” (par. 14). This will allow employees to multi-task work-related and personal
priorities during traditional working hours with the understanding that work matters needing
attention would be addressed during the time traditionally allotted to personal activities.

B) Encouraged Breaks from Work-Related Materials and Devices

Having employees frequently step away from stress-inducing projects and attention-consuming
devices can allow for greater work/life balance as well. Cincotta (2015) suggested that
employers help employees to “embrace the turn-off button” (par. 10) by allowing some respite
from technological devices and the work they facilitate. It is also important employees learn to
pace themselves by knowing how to step away from a project if they become stressed
(Cincotta, 2015, par. 10). Similarly, Gauespohl (2016) acknowledged that “[t]urning off from the
outside world provides time to recover from...stress” (par. 9). By disconnecting from their
devices, even briefly, employees can in fact be more productive and creative (Gauespohl, 2016).
The regularity of breaks in the workday is also part of this process of stepping away from work
stress. Miller (2016) suggested taking frequent breaks at the office, which has “been shown to
actually increase productivity levels. Higher productivity means less need to work late” (par. 4).
Being mindful of the need for respite pertains not only to the daily working environment during
working hours. Both Cincotta (2016) and Guesphol (2016), for instance, encouraged employers
to consider formulating policies that limit the availability of employees after working hours and
on weekends, a protocol many European countries have recently adopted.

C) Increased Vacation and Personal Days

Much research has found that, in addition to encouraging breaks at the office, encouraging
employees to make time for themselves on a larger scale is paramount to achieving a healthy
work/life balance. For Gauespohl (2016), “[a] vacation could be a 15-minute walk around the
block without looking at your phone, or a vacation could be two or three weeks traveling with
family/friends” (par. 12). Similarly, Miller (2016) suggested employers might improve
employees’ work-life balance by increasing employees’ vacation time and giving additional
“extra days as a form of bonus” for completing a certain milestone or goal (par. 4).
Rampton (2016) also argued for more breaks; in specific, he focused more explicitly on
employer-sanctioned time away from the office: “By providing personal days [employees] can
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attend to private or family needs without getting stressed or penalized” (Rampton, 2016, par.
17). Giving personal days will reduce employee stress and allow them to have extra time to
balance work with their personal life, and therefore improving employee motivation in the long
run.

D) Employee-Led Communication and Decision-Making

Finally, the role of the employer in encouraging and facilitating employees’ communication
matters broadly. Importantly, Cincotta (2015) stressed the importance of two-way
communication between employers and employees. Employees, for example, should be
expected to know what is important to their needs and communicate it with managers.
“Employees need to have an open dialogue with their managers,” Cincotta (2015) stated, “and
managers need to understand what works and what is possible” (par. 7). By discussing personal
needs, managers and employers can help employees achieve balance between their work and
lives. In having these conversations, both parties should respect boundaries: “You cannot
achieve your balance if you don’t respect the boundaries you have put in place” (Cincotta,
2015, par. 8). As such, establishing a clearly articulated communication routine between
employer and employee, and maintaining it, is paramount to effectively improve work/life
balance.

Gauespohl (2016) also found that a strong daily routine will help employees stay on track and
create a balance that works for them. Creating strong working habits both in and out of the
office will make employees healthier and happier: “It will reflect in their mental clarity,
emotional capacity, relationships and creativity” (Gauespohl, 2016, par. 10). In fact, “[t]hose are
the traits that make up the greatest leaders and most successful people” (Gauespohl, 2016, par.
10). It is thus important that, whatever form the work/life balance protocol developed by our
firm, it involves the input of our employees and is clearly communicated with them once it has
been finalized.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on these findings above, below are three specific recommendations that should help our
employees achieve a healthy work/life balance with our support. They are not listed in order of
importance or efficacy, and they do not need to be implemented together.

1. Establish a policy allowing for flexible working hours for non-customer-facing

employees and allowing for employees to occasionally work from home up to 20% of
the workday. Flexible working hours will allow employees to have some control over
their working day. This control contributes to increased goodwill, morale, and
productivity (Miller, 2016; OECD, 2016; Rampton, 2016).
2. Encourage two self-directed and unscheduled 10-minute breaks each day to allow
employees occasional respite from their technological devices. Short, unscheduled
breaks should be encouraged as they have been proven to help employees recharge:
disengaging from work-related tasks and technology has been proven to help
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employees be more productive and creative (Cincotta, 2015; Gausepohl, 2016; Miller,
2016).
3. Increase the amount of vacation days and personal days by one each for every three
years of consecutive employment by the Intelligent Design. Increased vacation and
personal days will help to decrease employee burn-out and increase their productivity.
It will also help reduce absenteeism and increase employee retention rates (Gausepohl,
2016; Rampton, 2016).

Implementing some or all of these measures will guarantee some positive impacts on our
employees, and the fact that Intelligent Design is even taking an interest in our employees’
wellbeing will be appreciated. A feasibility study to determine the relation of cost to benefit
should be undertaken before these measures are approved.
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References

Cincotta, C. (2015, January 2). 5 secrets to achieving and maintaining work-life balance.
Entrepreneur. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/235427.

Devaney, E. (2017, August 14). Should you strive for work-life balance?. BlogSpot.
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/work-life-balance.

Gausepohl, S. (2016, September 9). 6 ways to improve your work-life balance today. Business
News Daily. http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5244-improve-worklife-balance-
today.html.

Greenhaus, J. H., Collins, K.M., & Shaw, J. D. (2003). The relation between work–family balance
and quality of life. Journal of Vocational Behavior 63, 510–53.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0001-8791(02)00042-8.

Miller, B. (2016, February 10). How to improve work/life balance for employees. BLR.
http://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2016/02/10/how-to-improve-worklifebalance-for-
employees/.

OECD. (2016, January 1). Work-life balance. http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/topics/work-

life-balance/.

Rampton, J. (2016, February 29). How work life balance can keep your employees happy and
your business healthy. Inc. https://www.inc.com/johnrampton/how-work- life-balance-
can-keep-your-employees-happy-and-your-businesshealthy.html.

Tulasidas, M. (2015). Impact of work-life balance on productivity: an investigative study on

selected small and medium scale enterprises. Intercontinental Journal of Human
Resource Research Review, 3, 35–47. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.906876.

Saad, L. (2014, August 29). The “40-hour” workweek is actually longer – by seven hours. Gallup.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/175286/hour-workweek-actually-longer-seven-
hours.aspx?g_source=workweek&g_medium=search&g_campaign=tiles.