Overtimes have long been associated with working hard. However, while employees spend long working hours, they are sacrificing time that could be spent on their personal lives. This disrupts their work-life balance. And according to various studies, when there’s no work-life balance, there are a lot of consequences. To prevent yourself from suffering and to provide better work-life balance to your employees, here’s a secret—it starts with your managers.
How to Achieve Better Work-life Balance by Starting With Managers
Because disruption for work-life balance mainly stems from excessive working, there are a lot of misconceptions on how to solve it. Some common solutions are providing flexible hours, more paid leaves, or remote working. However, while these options do give more options to your employees, they can also have unintended results. For example, flexible working hours may give more pressure for your employees to “stay connected” despite being off work. There’s also the risk of higher rates of absenteeism and lower work commitment.
Both employers and employees are responsible for work-life balance. Still, your support as the employer goes a long way in helping your employees achieve their desired work-life balance. This is where managers (and supervisors) come in.
While policies may come from the top management, the ones closest to your employees are their direct managers and supervisors. They are also the ones responsible to enforce and implement the company’s policies to their team members. There have been numerous cases where employees can’t take advantage of the company’s policies because of the expectations of their immediate superiors. That’s why it must start with them.
3 Tips to Achieve Better Work-life Balance
Educate and train them
Just creating formal policies is not enough to help your employees achieve a better work-life balance. It’s also important that their managers and supervisors know why you have those policies and how they can affect the performance of their team and the company. That’s why you have to educate them and train them. Allow your goals and purpose to resonate with them. When your leaders know the importance of a healthy work-life balance, they will support you with what you want to achieve. They’ll also be able to make better decisions when it comes to the welfare of their team members.
Lead by example
Many employees are ashamed of leaving earlier than their immediate supervisors. After all, if they’re already leaving despite their manager or supervisor still working, won’t it come off as if they’re not working as hard? What if they’re viewed as lazy because they don’t work overtime? Sometimes, it’s not just about getting off work on time. Some managers and supervisors can be unnecessarily strict whenever an employee wants to use their leaves.
Some overtimes are necessary. But if it’s on a regular basis, there’s bound to be a reason behind it. The best way to make your employees achieve better work-life balance is to lead by example. If their managers are practicing more productive schedules, then the team members will follow.
Set realistic expectations
One possible issue why your employees struggle with work-life balance is because of the set expectations. Could their managers be setting unrealistic expectations for them? Remember that these things should be SMART–Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Bound.
Here are 6 steps to set realistic expectations with employees according to a post from Inspire Human Resources:
- Make expectations crystal clear.
- Tell your employees why.
- Set up for success.
- Measure success.
- Carve out the time.
- Listen.
A better and healthier work-life balance is important for your employees. It’s essential that you, the employer, and your managers and supervisors support your employees in this aspect. Because when you do, you’ll not only get financial and productivity benefits, you’ll also gain your employees’ trust and loyalty.
