Help your team achieve work:life balance
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Studies abound of the benefits and difficulties of achieving work:life balance, not least of the importance of ensuring we don’t lose talented employees through burn-out or a work environment that rates presenteeism over the quality of contribution. So how can managers help their teams achieve a good balance and retain and develop talent?
What is work:life balance? It will look and feel different for everyone depending on the responsibilities we are juggling and the amount of time we think we should have to relax. So, as a manager, our first step is to know our teams. What are their circumstances and expectations? Help them articulate what success looks like in each aspect of their lives and how much control they feel they have in their careers (this is a major stress redactor). Use this framework to help them assess their current level of engagement at work and what it would take to increase this if it’s low.
What are their career aspirations and the timescales they have in mind for achieving these? Some of your team may be very career focused, wanting lots of stretching assignments to develop their skills and experience and be quite prepared to sacrifice their ‘downtime’ to achieve this. Whilst others may have similar ambitions but with longer time horizons knowing they need gentler stretch goals or need to work part-time for a while. Encourage your team to be realistic without compromising on their overall ambitions. Many talented people need some flexibility at different times in their careers to manage multiple responsibilities. Retain their talents by creating opportunities that allow them to flourish and be happy in what they do. This alone creates a greater sense of balance.
How flexible are you with regard to the hours worked and the location(s) used? How open are you to people working different start and end times, or compressed hours? Do you encourage the practice of working from home or a local office when that’s possible to reduce time spent commuting? Do you endorse job-shares and part-time roles and demonstrate that such flexibility can work at different levels within the team? Leading by example is very important. Recently a senior manager confessed to me that she regularly encouraged her team to leave work on time and not worry about ‘repaying’ time taken for necessary appointments as they worked so hard, yet she didn’t allow herself the same privileges, thereby undermining the message that this approach was acceptable in the wider organisation.
Do you discuss the advantages of downtime with your team, of taking a proper lunch break or going outside for a coffee, of not taking work home in the evenings, or constantly responding to emails out of work hours? Time away from our desks can help us all think more clearly and creatively about work issues we are tackling – and again, do you practise what you preach?
Are you concerned that someone in your team is working excessive hours? If so, check why this is happening. Talented, ambitious people can easily trip-up here by failing to see the value of relaxation and sufficient sleep to keep them sharp and focused when at work. Are they working long hours just for the short-term to gain particular experience or deliver on a challenging goal or do they lack the skills and experience their workload requires? Help them avoid burn-out by helping them to focus on what’s achievable, setting boundaries, ensuring they have sufficient support and a development plan which is sustainable and will develop their talents to the full.
If they are working excessive hours because your team is under-resourced don’t run the risk of people becoming stressed and leaving – better to address the issue with your senior manager and plan how you can retain talented people by reviewing headcount, distribution of workload, or processes and deadlines.
TAKE AWAY
Work:life balance means different things to different people. Being flexible and creative in your approach to talent and career development, valuing the talents of your team members and leading by example when it comes to the ‘how, when and where’ we work are just some of the approaches that will make you a talent magnet and a pleasure to work for.