Key Points:

• Employees' social and professional lives are interconnected.

• Implementing work-life programmes often involves cultural and mindset changes in the way companies view productivity.

• The benefits of work-life programmes may be measurable and include intangible aspects but they may not necessarily be attached to a dollar value.

• Companies can develop different appraisal and measurement systems to keep opportunists and abusers at bay.

Many companies are, quite frankly, sweatshops. They oblige their employees to ride in packed trains in order that they be in by 9am - the earlier the boss sees an employee get in, apparently, the better. Lunch hour (and don't be gone a minute extra!) is set one hour between 12 and 2, forcing employees to mark their seats in the food court with tissue packets. Eager to wring every last drop of "productivity" from employees, many firms still adopt the outmoded practice of having staff come in on Saturday mornings, squashing an employees' potential for a relaxing weekend away, but (from their point of view) adding about 26 workdays a year. One wonders if these firms are 26% more profitable.

"I hate working Saturdays," says Albert, an executive at a local healthcare company.  "Weekends are precious. There's really nothing urgent to do in the office and the work could wait until Monday." He says everybody whom he knows works on Saturday finds it a waste of time.

Smart companies realise that an employee is not just a cog in the wheel, a faceless unit that performs at top capacity at designated times, but an individual with a life and interests alongside his career, be it a family, a sport, or a basic need to have fun and be entertained. They realise that giving employees a balance between their work and their life is crucial to creating harmony and increasing productivity. Happy employees who feel their employer goes the extra mile for them will be more inclined to do the same for their employer, a good return on investment for any company. 

"Work-life programmes are simply good business," says Dr Richard Vosburgh, a board member of the Human Resource Planning Society and vice president of human resources for Hewlett Packard Asia Pacific/Japan. "They help differentiate your culture and your brand, and therefore allow you to attract and retain the best talent. At different points in their lives, people have different needs. It is all about being respectful towards people and they will more than pay you back for that respect. The organisation still must get all it's work done, but it is amazing how well people will respond with performance when they are treated with respect."

Competitive edge

Georgie Antony, Nokia's human resources director, South & Southeast Asia, says employers compete in an environment where there is a diminishing talent pool, increased competition and globalisation, with employees increasingly making choices about their workplace. Part of their decision includes whether they can harmonise work and family demands when needed. Without policies and practices that allow employers to attract and retain the best manpower, organisations will face serious challenges to their viability as an attractive place to work. Antony feels this is crucial as companies try to attract both local and foreign talent.

"From a macro viewpoint, we talk about "work-life programmes" as what an organisation does to help its employees harmonise work responsibilities with family and personal commitments and needs, while still ensuring that business goals are met," says the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). "Work-life programmes are a win-win proposition for both employers and employees and a key component of quality workplaces. Aside from work-life programmes, organisations that value work-life harmony also put in place a supportive and flexible workplace infrastructure and culture."

The MOM, a staunch proponent of work-life balance in the Singapore workplace, notes three systems companies should consider to help employees achieve work-life balance. They are part-time work, "flexitime," and "flexiplace." Aside from the obvious benefits of such systems for employees, the MOM says employers benefit in a number of tangible ways. Having part-time workers lets a company accommodate changes in the business cycle and "generates a new recruitment pool." Flexitime, the MOM states, reduces tardiness, absenteeism, and costs little to implement. As for flexiplace, which includes telecommuting and working from home, it allows for the "best use of equipment, resources and office space. Flexiplace can assist employees with disabilities, and can be used equally for long and short-term projects." 

Other work-life programmes favoured by the MOM include leave benefits such as compassionate leave, marriage leave, maternity and paternity leave and family leave. There is also the Employee Support Schemes, which include child or elder care facilities/subsidies, financial assistance, health and wellness programmes, family relocation/orientation, lactation rooms, medical/insurance coverage for family members, as well as time-saving services like grocery/laundry delivery and catered meals. The MOM adds that corporate culture plays a role and recommends practices such as scheduling meetings during core business hours and not early or late in the day in consideration of employees with children.

Nokia, says Antony, has several work-life programmes in place. Its staff work five days a week and the company offers quarterly talks on work-life issues like stress management and personal health, a confidential helpline employees can call to discuss issues, flexible benefits, and home-working and flexible time for female employees with small children. 

Investment bank Credit Suisse Singapore is keen to maintain itself as a fun place to work, says Didier von Daeniken, its head of private banking Southeast Asia. He says the company has a corporate fitness centre across the street that employees can use and it offers a range of fun activities like movie nights and speeches by external speakers.  

At desk equals productive?

"One misconception about work-life is that if people are not at their desks, they are not productive," says von Daeniken. "I think that's entirely wrong. I prefer to have people who are passionate about sports and leave the office early once a week, and have stamina and passion when they are at their work. Then I think work-life programmes are an excellent investment."

Although almost everyone agrees that work-life programmes are a good idea, organisations have to overcome certain obstacles before implementing them. Foremost among these is knowledge about work-life programmes themselves and the benefits for the company, says the MOM. To help with this, the government has set up a $10 million Work Life Works! (WoW) Fund. The Fund facilitates the development and implementation of work-life strategy in the workplace, especially flexible work arrangements. There are regular briefing sessions on the Fund and the benefits of work-life harmony. 

Flexible work arrangements, says the MOM, are considered the most challenging to implement, since they cannot be outsourced and have a broad effect on when, where and how employees work. Once an organisation implements a flexible work arrangement, line managers usually worry that their staff's performance will suffer. This concern can be eased by putting in place an outcome-based performance management system that alerts managers once performance depreciates. Also, line managers without flexible work experience themselves may be uncomfortable dealing with variations when their staff report for work or interacting with a telecommuting staff through email and telephone. To resolve this, MOM recommends training managers on how to implement and manage flexible work arrangements. 

One challenge, says Nokia's Antony, is changing the company's culture in regard to work expectations. "Today there is more trust given to employees to manage their time and work offsite. The focus has shifted from amount of time spent in the office to results produced on time. In order to bring about this cultural change, it is essential to have a change management plan in place. Also, it is absolutely essential to define clear outputs and quantified objectives for different roles."

Another challenge is putting the right technology in place. Antony says the business needs simple, user-friendly technology solutions that do not compromise corporate information security needs, yet allow for productivity when employees are on the move or working remotely. It's also necessary to establish a clear business case for the programme. "Work-life programmes need to have a clearly defined business case with a quantified cost benefit analysis applied. The programme needs to be a business-led initiative, and not seen as an HR activity."   

Is it really working?                          

A vexing question is how may a work-life programme's ROI be measured. Through sales figures? Turnover? Employee Surveys? The MOM shares an anecdote that begs the question that perhaps ROI shouldn't even be a factor. At a recent work-life conference, a discussion about the importance of work-life ROI occurred. One well-respected HR manager said that having to justify the existence of such programmes - beneficial to employees and organisation alike - was a new and undesirable thing, brought on by the economic downturn and subsequent obsession with counting every penny. "We used to be able to just do what's right," she said, drawing considerable applause.

"If you have to present a formalised ROI case then your battle is probably already lost," says HP's Vosburgh. "Any such ROI case would depend on lots of assumptions about the numbers, and if you are presenting it to sceptical people who have already made up their minds then no set of numbers will convince them. People get convinced in many ways, and often times emotional or personal, as with family members who are juggling many responsibilities or who have special needs." He adds that one issue that needs to be addressed is if the organisation is paying 100 percent benefit costs for someone who may be working only a portion of a work week. "Then it can become too costly," he says.

"The moment you try to justify work-life on a cost basis, you've already lost half the battle," says Credit Suisse's von Daeniken. "Of course you have to look at the bottom line (it makes no sense to throw money away) but we view that as an investment in the future, in the company and in the people. "

Credit Suisse gauges the success of its work-life programmes not by looking at the numbers, but by assessing its reputation in the market as an employer. It asks new hires, for instance, whether "soft factors" like work-life were part of their decision to come aboard. "Work-life involves soft factors that are mostly intangible," adds von Daeniken.  "If you have satisfied staff, you will have a lower attrition rate, and you can expect your clients to be better serviced by happy staff, resulting in more clients...it's close to impossible to measure this with black and white figures." 

Nokia conducts an annual survey that specifically measures employee satisfaction with work-life balance. In addition to evaluating employees' work-life balance, its annual Employee Opinion Survey focuses on discussing specific problems encountered by employees in specific departments and functions. The appropriate staff members discuss the problem in detail and formulate action plans. The expected end result is better employee motivation, which should lead to better retention and help keep Nokia as an employer of choice. 

MOM says that whilst many organisations measure the results of their work-life programmes through mechanisms such as employee opinion surveys and regular dialogue sessions, such measures are sometimes criticised for being mere indicators of employees' attitudes and not of employees' performance. Some organisations go beyond this and document the expenditure involved in operating the programme and comparing this cost with benefits - usually reduced staff turnover and improved employee productivity.

It points out that costs are different for different organisations, so employers should devise their own measures to attach a dollar value to their turnover and productivity figures. Examples of possible questions an employer can ask himself are: How much does it cost to replace an employee in X position with Y years of experience? What training would the replacement have to undergo, and for how long? How much will it cost to advertise for the position? How many man hours will it take to interview all the candidates for this position?

MOM notes, however, that it can be "difficult and unconvincing" to attribute reduced turnover or improved productivity to a particular work-life programme. "There are simply too many factors that can affect turnover and productivity," it says. "Paradoxically, this is why measurements are crucial: once instituted, they will indicate over a period of time if a work-life programme is having the desired effect. Without such measurements, one would never know for sure."

Perhaps, but if employers want to live up to the cliché that "people are our most important asset," they had better start thinking about their employee's work-life balance  if they haven't done so already. Adding insult to injury, Albert's company recently moved from its convenient location in the heart of town to an outlying office park, doubling his commute on weekdays and on Saturdays. "At least before I was in town when I knocked off, now I'm in the middle of nowhere," he complains. His company's managers, no doubt, are pleased with the money they're saving on rent, but Albert says the rank and file are very unhappy. Increased staff turnover in what looks increasingly like an employees' labour market isn't, one reckons, good for profits.

Top work-life programmes' misperceptions

• Employees' personal and professional lives can and should be kept as distinct entities - "Whether employers like it or not, an employee does not shed his role as a parent, son or spouse the moment he logs in," says the MOM.

• Implementing work-life programmes is too costly for a company that is grappling with day-to-day issues - Many employers would consider reducing turnover and improving employee motivation and productivity day-to-day issues, says the MOM. "Moreover, many work-life programmes are not costly: flexible work arrangements such as flexitime and compressed work schedules typically cost an organisation only the man hours required to develop relevant policies and processes.

Companies institute work-life programmes just to be nice - "Most businesses want to cultivate a good reputation and be seen as an employer of choice," says Nokia's Antony.  Nonetheless, a successful work-life programme must not only keep employees happy, but also ensure productivity is kept at a high level to compete in today's global economy. The policy should also benefit the business by driving better motivation and morale among employees, which leads to better employee retention.

• Management will lose control if it gives employees too much flexibility. A day of telecommuting could merely be a code name for a self-declared holiday - "Loss of control is a reasonable fear, but it need not exist," says the MOM. It says that with an outcome-based performance appraisal system in place, management would know if a telecommuter, for example, is not delivering results or meeting deadlines.
• Work-life programmes are primarily meant for women, with women benefiting the most - "The rise ofdual-income familiesto meetescalatinglivingexpenses means that any work-life plan must consider both sexes equally," says Nokia's Antony.While working mothers benefit from work-life programmes, says the MOM, they are certainly not the only ones who do. "As the population ages and the "sandwich generation" grows, every worker is a potential user of work-life programmes, especially flexible work arrangements."