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Employees want to balance work with the rest of the activities they wish to pursue in life. There are increasingly more workers who care for children or elderly family members, manage work and study, seek graduated retirement or balance demanding work and life commitments. It is especially important to our millennial employees who are used to cramming their days with diverse activities and hours of electronic communication.

Businesses providing flexible work options immediately gain a competitive edge in the labour market by becoming ’employers of choice’, and also benefit from improved worker morale and commitment.

Susan M. Heathfield is a Human Resource expert and member of SHRM. Here are some of her most important Work-Life-Balance suggestions for businesses.

1. Offer a flexible work schedule. A flexible schedule does not mean that employees can come and go at will. In many workplaces, flexible starting and ending times are easy to implement. More sophisticated flexible schedule such as a four-day work week or telecommuting require more planning, but flexible work schedules are a cornerstone for work balance.

2. Paid time off. Offer paid time off (PTO) in lieu of traditional paid sick leave, paid personal days, and paid holidays. A paid time off (PTO) approach treats employees like adults who are capable of making decisions about how, when, and why to use the paid time off supplied by the employer.

3. Holiday email rules. Managers and senior managers need to model the work balance they’d like to encourage for their employees. When a manager responds to emails while on holidays, this sends a powerful message to employees about whether they need to respond to their work emails while on holidays.

4. Unpaid leave is OK. Allow employees to take unpaid leave as needed for life cycle needs. Employees have serious, life-changing events, emergency family needs, and desires to explore life and career opportunities.

5. Build relationships. Sponsor employee and family events and activities monthly to encourage team building, friendships among employees, and inclusion of families in work events. Provide babysitting at the event or elsewhere, if it will encourage employee attendance.

6. Reward employees. Expect employees to work hard, work long hours, and weekends, but not ALL of the time. It’s okay to expect employees to work occasionally long, hard hours during the push for a timely product release, for example, or at a trade show but reward them afterwards with free time.

7. Job share or part-time. Offer the opportunity for employees to job share or work part-time. With the appropriate two people, job sharing can also work effectively for employees who you want to retain while they start families or home school, for example.

Create the freedom and support employees need in their quest for work-life-balance. Need help? Let Synergy Consulting Australia assist you with all your business growth requirements.

Synergy Consulting Australia provides a large range of business consulting services which includes Legal, Accounting, Marketing, Project Management, Migration services and many more tailored business solutions. This also includes a full market research and feasibility report before investing. www.synergyaustralia.com.au

Synergy Consulting Australia is led by Ilona Solinska. Ilona has over 15 years’ national and international business consulting experience. She has coached hundreds of businesses in the area of Marketing, Finance, Legal, Compliance, Operation, Change & Project Management and is a highly sought-after presenter on a wide variety of business topics.