Employee Engagement and Work-life Balance

 

Overview

Work life balance is a balancing point between personal life and working life (Karthik,2013). Managing work and home responsibilities became more important amongst almost all employees around the globe (Jones, Burke, and Westman, 2013). According to Armstrong (2006) “work life balance is concerned with the scope for employees to balance their office work with responsibilities and interests and merge the competing statements of work and home by meeting their own needs as well as their employers.”

According to surveys Job sharing, Compressed work week and Telecommuting are the three aspects within work. Work-life balance can be viewed from both organizational perspective or employee perspective.

• Organizational perspective - An organization provides employment to individuals and at the same time they allow them to spend time with their family and to take care of family matters and responsibilities (Galea et al,2014).
• Employee perspective – An employee feel balance when he or she senses balance from work and family roles in their life (Greenhaus et al, 2011).    

Agarwala (2009) argued that employees in organizations that give attention on work life balance are more efficient at their work place and also more engaged with their families. Due to limited time and work pressure, it is difficult to engage employee with work place. (Iqbal et al,2017).

Researches has found that having a balanced Work-Life Balance is beneficial for both organization and its employees. To increase employee satisfaction and productivity, organizations can give workplace flexibility, internal information which employees have rights to know, and financial assistance (Jyotsna, 2010)

According to Build Remote Research, the following are the 10 companies with the best work-life balance.

Source: Build Remote (Available at : https://buildremote.co/companies/best-work-life-balance/#companies )

Conclusion

Maintaining the relationship between work life balance and employee engagement is very important to organization development as well as the individual development of the employee. Every organization should develop a supportive work environment for their employees that will help to maintain a balanced work life.

References

Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice, 13th edition. 13th ed. London: Kogan Page, pp.193-202

Bhatnagar, J. Shanker, T (2010). Work Life Balance, Employee Engagement, Emotional Consonance/ Dissonance &Turnover Intention. Avaialbe at : https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260024950_Work_Life_Balance_Employee_Engagement_Emotional_Consonance_Dissonance_Turnover_Intention#fullTextFileContent Accessed Sep 11 2022.

Galea, C., Houkes, I. and De Rijk, A. (2014). An insider's point of view: how a system of flexible working hours helps employees to strike a proper balance between work and personal life. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(8), 1090-1111.

Greenhaus, J. H., & Allen, T. D. (2011). Work–family balance: A review and extension of theliterature. In J.C. Quick, & L. E. Tetrick (Eds.), Handbook of occupational healthpsychology (2nd edition). Washington, DC: American Psychological AssociationGroner, E. S. (2018). The Effect of Organisational Culture on Work-Life Balance.

Iqbal, I. Zia-ud-Din, M. Arif, A. Raza, M. Ishtiaq, Z. (2017) Impact of Employee Engagement on Work Life Balance with the Moderating Role of Employee Cynicism: Impact of Employee Engagement on Work Life Balance with the Moderating Role of Employee Cynicism. Available: https://hrmars.com/papers_submitted/3068/Impact_of_Employee_Engagement_on_Work_Life_Balance_with_the_Moderating_Role_of_Employee_Cynicism.pdf, Accessed Sep 11 2022.

Jones, F., Burke, R. J., & Westman, M. (2013). Work-life balance: A psychological perspective.Ontario: Psychology Press

Karthik, R. (2013). A study on work-life balance in Chennai port trust, Chennai. Advances in Management.

Santa-Cruz, F.G. Guzman, T.L. Sanchez. S (2013) Analysis of Job Satisfaction in the Hotel Industry: A Study of Hotels in Spain ; Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism. Availableat: : https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271938094_Analysis_of_Job_Satisfaction_in_the_Hotel_Industry_A_Study_of_Hotels_in_Spain . Accessed Sep 07 2022.