Critical Review of Work-life Balance Initiatives

Question: Given the recent economic downturn critically review whether Work Life Balance initiatives are no longer feasible. Critically examine the role that technology can play in the recruitment and selection process. Women now make up almost half of the labour market but continue to face barriers to their career progress. Debate why gender discrimination still exists in the UK despite equal opportunities legislation. Answer: Critical Review of Work-life Balance Initiatives Work-Life balance is a concept where the balance between work and lifestyle has been prioritized. A healthy work place takes into consideration a more holistic aspect such as the spiritual, physical, environmental, emotional, intellectual, mental health and occupational aspects of the employees. Health and Welfare Committees are created by more and more organizations that are responsible for creating safety and health concerns for the employees and to identify solutions. Studies have shown that investing in work life balance can reduce absenteeism, it can improve working and morale relationships, it can increase productivity, decrease stress, and helps retain current employees and also attract new employees. In todays economic downturn, employees search for and try to find out organizations that provide them with a balance between work and personal satisfaction(Acas.org.uk, 2015). The work- life balance initiatives are based on employee needs, so there should be initiatives to understand what can be the way to increase their work life balance. In organizations that are small this could involve a one to one discussion while in large scale businesses this needs to be done through a formal survey. Work life balance include two main organizational risks: Cultural And structural factors. There are mixed consequences of work life balance for organizations and individuals. The concept of wok life balance is relatively new as it was first coined in 1990. The term is more inclusive, broader and gender neutral. Lewis et al (2000) has said that this term is applied to both men and women who have family commitments. Moreover, it is also applied to young adults who do not have family engagement by simply wants to enjoy life beyond their work life. Numerous studies have been carried out on work life balance. The work life balance is mainly disrupted by longer working hours (Beinkandescent.com, 2015). 60% of employees experience work life conflict. Todays employees have much duties such as children, work, house-hold work, spouse, elderly care and volunteering and this increase stress for families, communities and individuals. This problem is increasing at a higher rate in todays world due to the increased participation of women labor force, the dominance of dual earner families, the numbers of single parent families and emerging trends such as elderly care. Moreover, it has now been extended due to globalization, low employment rate and aging population. Highly stressful jobs and long working hours hampers the employees ability to harmonize family life and work and are also involved with health risks, such as alcohol consumption and smoking increase , depression and gaining of weight. Work life conflict has been associated with many mental and physical implications of health. According to a study done by Duxbury and Higgins in 2007, Women are more sub jected to work life conflict than men. This is because women devote more time to non work activities such as elder care, childcare and have devoted much time to unpaid work such as domestic work. They also experience less spousal support for their career than their male counterparts. Still the number of work life conflicts for men is on a high rise(Commons.lbl.gov, 2015). According to this study 1 in 4 Canadians complain that their work responsibilities are interfering with their contribution towards family life. The 24/7 expectations and increasing pressure of globalization are demanding more and more from their employees. The elderly people are now demanding more different work arrangements to accommodate their work life balance. The reason because of which companies participate in work life balance can be stated as below. They are: recruitment and retention of employees, costs and union regulations and high return on investment. There are varieties of practices that organizations undergo to initiate work life balance nowadays. These work life balance practices help employees to stress handling and to cope up with the increasing workload. A good number of organizations have contributed towards wellness programs for the employees and also pay for the gym membership as part of the benefits package. Some companies invite yoga and fitness trainer to hold a session in lunchtime for the employees. Some companies also take initiative in managing healthy eating habits of the employees. Other offers stresses on managing programs which involve yoga, counseling, stretching and also sending for professional message therapist to work. Many employers are also offering longer holiday period while others are offering flex days. Sometimes, to accommodate the employees need of work life balance the employers have o reduce the number of tasks given to the employees (Dulski, 2014). To accomplish these employers might hire new employees, allow for job sharing, reduce time spent in job related travel or re-evaluate the work itself. According to the study of Mesmer in 2006, the benefit that is valued by most of the employees is flexible time. The problem with work life balance is that it cant be balanced. There is a trade off that one side must be up while the other side must be down. W spend 1/3 rd of our lives working and work is also a part of life which should be cherished. So when a person is working he/she should forget his/her family life and vice versa. The most difficult job is that of the senior executives. Their works make it very difficult for them to attain work life balance. Trying to attain equal number of working hours and to balance personal activities is usually and unrewarding. The right balance for a particular employee will vary with time. The work life balance which he will be looking for while he is single will be different from when he is married with kids, when h will be starting off a new career and when he will be approaching retir ement. The best work life balance is different for all individuals as all have different lives and priorities. Enjoyment does not only mean happiness but it means satisfaction, pride, celebration, happiness and love. It means to have a sense of well being. Enjoyment and Achievement are two synonymous terms where you cant have the one without the other. One cannot get the full value of life without both achievement and enjoyment (Lebowitz, 2015). Without clear boundaries, it is difficult to achieve work life balance. In a world where achieving work life balance is becoming more and more tough Eric Barker have given some useful tips in Time Magazine. The key to this is to stop trying to do everything yourself. There should be a list of the most important things to do today that needs priority. If a person does fewer things he is better in that one particular work. The most important thing in the list should be done first which would provide beneficial for the employees. Employees should do work which only they a do. The rest of the work should be delegated to the other employees (Loder, 2014). The recruitment and selection process is important for established and new businesses alike. The HR department has the assistance of employee specialists who help in hiring of managers and to make sure that the leaders and company are making right decisions of hiring. There are many phases of selection and recruitment process and they are candidate sourcing, conducting interviews, tracking candidates, reviewing and selection for hiring. Recruiting employees is a very costly affair. When a company selects the proper candidate for the job, train them properly and treat them with courtesy these candidates produce productive results and also most likely to stay with the company for longer. An organization may have all the latest technologies and best resources but it needs appropriate work force to get the task done. This is true for all spectrum of business like hospitals, schools, restaurants, legal practices, airlines and diesel engine manufacturers(K, 2010). In todays world, more and more firms are relying on technology to deliver the right selection of candidates. It cannot be denied the growing importance of technology in recruitment and selection process of candidates. More and more interviews are conducted via online platforms and video interviewing, which allow companies o sit comfortably with candidates regardless of their location. Connectivity rather than technology is changing the way companies communicate with their employees. The first experience for a candidate comes from technology where they apply for jobs online via a career site and by filling up an online application form. This then sets up eventually all the face to face interviews that might take place. The advent of computers has made it easy for employers to scan international and national applicant qualification. United Kingdom employment equality law is a body of law which legislates against prejudiced based actions in the work place. UK labor law states that it is against the law to differentiate employees on the basis of age, gender, disability, marriage and civil partnership, religion, , sex, sexual orientation and belief. The term equal opportunity states that everyone in the organization should be subjected to fair treatment and should have equal chance of promotions and recognition, to have equal pay for equal work, and an equal chance of trained and being promoted. In UK there are series of anti discrimination legislations to fight against discrimination because of the struggles that the earlier generations have to undertake to get rid of these unfair acts (Ec.europa.eu, 2015). Most of the women in UK are less paid than men in the same type of job. One of the main causes behind this is the way women roles are given value rather to mens jobs, experiences qualifications are underpaid and poorly evaluated when they are being done by women rather than men in organizations. For example women cashiers in super markets are less paid than men who are responsible for physical tasks such as stacking the shelves. The evaluation of performance and the pay level is also biased in regard of men and women. The gender pay gap is also prevalent by the differentiation in the labor market. Women and men basically does different jobs at the same sector also women are predominant in lower paid and lower valued occupations. Female workers work in areas where usually they are given low pay and their work is lower valued than those dominated by men. In health sector alone 80 % of the employees are predominantly female. Moreover, women are mainly employed as shop assistants, admini strative assistants or unskilled and low skilled workers. More and more women are working in low paying occupations for example care and cleaning work. Women are generally not promoted in senior or managerial positions. Women represent only 17% of board members in the biggest companies within EU; there are only a third of women engineers and scientists around the globe. Consequently, there are a very few women working in technical and scientific (Tutor2u.net, 2015). Moreover, women find it challenging to have work life balance in their life. As women have to take care of domestic works, of children and elderly people they find it more difficult to concentrate on their official work and as a result only 65.8 % of women with young children are working in the EU compared to 89.1% of men. More and more women are taking recourse to part time jobs to find a work life balance. There is also proof of a gap in pay in earnings that is hourly counted of part time and full time workers. Across UK only 32 % of women work part time. Women working part times earn 38.4 % less than men performing equal manner of task (Hawks, 2008). For workers who are working full time, the gap is 17.2 % compared to 42%, 30 years ago. There are few reasons behind why after thirty years of sex discrimination act in UK; women still have to face such discriminations. Some of the situations that women have to face that they are forced to resign when they get engaged, most of them are terminated as soon as they get pregnant, there is a lot of pressure from in-laws for married women, They have been forced to work in such environments where they have to face blatant sexual harassment. But these behaviors are clearly illegal now and women can appeal to the tribunals for justice against such harassment. In conclusion it can be said that work life balance is the reality of todays world where it has become inevitable for employees to give their hundred percent to their work. Studies have shown that investing in work life balance can reduce absenteeism, it can improve working and morale relationships, it can increase productivity, decrease stress, and helps retain current employees and also attract new employees. Technology has played a vital role in the recruitment and selection of organization .Nowadays recruitment can happen over video conferencing, emails and other online platforms which enable employers to contact he candidates despite of their varied locations. In UK, despite of the presence of sex discrimination law, the discrimination against women have been in a high toll where gender pay gap is the highest and women have to work for less pay in same kind of job like men. References: Acas.org.uk,. (2015). Sex discrimination | Acas advice and guidance | Acas. Retrieved 23 February 2015, from https://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1814 Beinkandescent.com,. (2015). BeInkandescent: Striving for Work-Life Balance: Is It Feasible?. Retrieved 23 February 2015, from https://www.beinkandescent.com/articles/1996/march-hiring-barb-mitchell Commons.lbl.gov,. (2015). Telecommuting -- Work-Life Balance - Human Resources Human Resources. Retrieved 23 February 2015, from https://commons.lbl.gov/display/hr/Telecommuting+--+Work-Life+Balance Dulski, J. (2014). Theres no such thing as work-lifebalance. Fortune. Retrieved 23 February 2015, from https://fortune.com/2014/10/14/theres-no-such-thing-as-work-life-balance/ Ec.europa.eu,. (2015). What are the causes? - Justice. Retrieved 23 February 2015, from https://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/gender-pay-gap/causes/index_en.htm Hawks, M. (2008). Life-work balance. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries. K, R. (2010). Recruitment management. Mumbai [India]: Himalaya Pub. House. Lebowitz, S. (2015). A Much Better Way to Think About Work-Life Balance. Greatist. Retrieved 23 February 2015, from https://greatist.com/happiness/work-life-balance Loder, V. (2014). Work - Life Balance -- Is It Even Possible?. Forbes. Retrieved 23 February 2015, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/vanessaloder/2014/08/01/work-life-balance-is-it-even-possible/ Tutor2u.net,. (2015). Discrimination in the labour market. Retrieved 23 February 2015, from https://www.tutor2u.net/economics/revision-notes/a2-micro-labour-market-discrimination.html