1-5 September is ‘Work Life Balance Week’, so to get you thinking about work-life balance issues, we’ve provided you with a round-up of HR Zone’s recent work-life balance related features, news items and community questions. You can add your own work-life balance questions in the Any Answers area of the site.

Features

Feature article: Work-life balance: the challenge for line managers and HR
Claire McCartney, Researcher at Roffey Park and author of Work-Life Balance: A Guide for Organisations, offers guidance on effective work-life balance practices and highlights examples of different initiatives that have been implemented in organisations, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, BT and Ford Europe.
Read the feature here.

Feature article: Search for the elusive work-life balance
Susanne Tietze of Nottingham Trent Business School advises employers not to launch into blind action without thinking! Organisations must question whether their culture will actually support or hinder new flexibility initiatives and whether there is a marked difference between rhetoric and reality.
Read the feature here.

‘Any Answers’ forum questions

Work-life balance and training patterns
Any Answers question: I am looking at the need for my training department in a Government organisation to meet the differences in working patterns to achieve a work-life balance for staff…
View the responses.

Annualised hours
Any Answers question: We are looking to introduce annualised hours – does anyone have any experience, sample contracts or policies on annualised hours which they would be kind enough to share?
View the responses.

Working away from home
Any Answers question: I’m being asked to go and work away from home for a month, at a time when I am fostering. I’ve been told that if I cannot do this, I’ll have to leave the project I have been seconded to. Any advice?
View the responses.

News

Managers “sell” excess holiday
40% of managers are unable to find the time to take their leave and one in ten even “sell” excess holiday time as part of flexible benefits packages, found a Chartered Management Institute survey.
A seperate survey by youatwork found that a fifth of workers feel they would be more motivated if only they could improve their work-life balance.
Read on for practical suggestions to achieve a better work-life balance.

Flexible training “essential” to future of NHS
A BMA-led working group is calling for more flexibility and work-life balance for all doctors since half the UK’s 39,000 junior doctors would like to work part-time in future.
Read the working party’s recommendations.

Managers express caution about homeworking
Managers and professionals are more likely to work from home than other staff yet management attitudes can prevent other employees from being able to adopt the same flexible working option.
Click here for more findings.

Free seminar on implementing workplace childcare solutions
The public, private and voluntary sectors have come together to educate businesses on childcare solutions and flexible working.
Find out more.

Job-seekers hunt for homeworking opportunities
A recent survey reveals that UK job-seekers are more likely to choose a job offering a homeworking option. However, a paranoia exists amongst many UK homeworkers – who admit to e-mailing or telephoning a colleague first thing in the morning to prove they are working.

Firms urged to reduce stress
TUC research suggests that workers exposed to stress for at least half their working lives are 25% more likely to die from a heart attack and are twice as likely to suffer a fatal stroke.

HR should “take a lead” on corporate social responsibility
“HR can give substance to company aspirations to be – and be seen to be – a good employer by championing policies on diversity and work-life balance…”, claims a CIPD report.

Flexible benefits improve employee retention
2002 saw the largest increase in organisations implementing flexible benefits for the past decade.
Read the survey results.

UK holiday entitlement amongst lowest in Europe
UK entitlements to statutory annual leave and public holidays are amongst the lowest in Europe, according to
recent statistics.

Flexible working being backed by bosses, says DTI
The DTI Work-Life Balance 2003 survey
found that many employers had already introduced work-life balance arrangements, with over a quarter of all employees in the companies surveyed working flexitime.

Women continue to miss out on training
Twice as many women as men have missed out on training due largely to domestic demands or because they only work part-time.
Read the survey findings.

If you’ve been involved with a work-life balance initiative and you’re happy to share your experiences with HR Zone members then do get in touch – mailto:dspalding@hrzone.co.uk.