By this time, we all know that employees, especially Millennials, expect to strike a reasonable balance between the needs of their personal lives and their professional careers.

They work hard and understand that investing time in their hobbies, health, friends and family is an important part leading to a fulfilled life.

I believe that leaders have a critical role to play.

They should embrace the shift from office work to virtual teams and use work-life balance as a way to attract and retain the best talent.

Open-minded leaders understands that work-life balance is not only good for employees; it is also good for business as it can lead to reduced cost and higher productivity. Where employees work reasonable hours, they are often more creative, motivated, productive and engaged.

The ‘What Workers Want Report 2017’ UK study states that:

• 69% of employees are willing to take a pay cut in order to secure a better cultural fit at work.
• Almost half of the workforce (44%) rate their work-life balance as average, poor or terrible.
• 69% say that they would be attracted to work for an organisation that restricts ‘out-of-hours’ working.
• 84% look at an employer’s flexible working policy when considering the application.

As a leader, you have an important part to play in creating (and keeping) a culture that focuses on the outcome rather than hours spent at the office.

Here are a few ideas how you can support such a culture:

• Be there for your teams. Pay specific attention to the ones that never log off and who don’t draw a clear line between home and work. With technology, most people fail to unplug from work – especially over weekends and when they are on leave.
• Watch out for signs of burnout. Warning signs like frequent absenteeism or a decline in productivity and quality of work can be an indicator that the employee is not coping.
• Consider implementing a policy that employees don’t have to answer phone calls or emails after working hours.
• What if you provide your teams with a choice to work out their own productivity cycle? Imagine what it can do to morale? This will also showcase that you trust your team members to manage their own time and work output.
• Be transparent. Be clear with your teams about what is expected of them both at work and after hours.
• Are your teams working at their desks through lunch and scheduling back-to-back meetings that eat up actual working hours? This is a warning sign. Try and limit unnecessary meetings and introduce collaboration tools like Slack and Skype to discuss a quick matter vs arranging a meeting.
• Employee assistance programmes can be beneficial. Workshops on how to say ‘no’ to a demanding client or colleague can be helpful.
• Arrange “check-ins” with your teams and provide a platform for honest conversations. Talk about their families and their life outside of work. This will allow an opportunity for the team member to share some of the challenges of achieving a work-life balance and how you can help them.
• Lead by example. As most teams are all accessible all the time, there is a false sense of importance on actions. Team members may struggle to prioritise and cope with the barriers an “always-on” approach has to offer. As the leader, be the example and don’t reply to emails if it could rather wait for the next morning. Your teams will feel less pressurised, too.
• Encourage community involvement and projects where they can and want to make a difference.
• Introduce work flexibility. Flexible working hours don’t suit all roles but knowledge workers expect some leeway as to when and where they work.
• Larger companies can consider providing other support such as on-site gyms, yoga, meditation techniques, childcare facilities, healthy food at canteens or services like laundry collection for people that can’t get away from work.

Forward-thinking companies know that happy teams create a healthy culture.

Be mindful of how you can support employees joining your business and help them to lead balanced and healthy lives.

#HighPerformanceCulture #WomenInLeadership #WorkLifeBalance