How Can ‘Work-Life’ Initiatives Improve Employee Experience?

At first, there was Technology; then, the generational shift that brought Millennials into the story. Then before we all knew it… COVID happened.

Technology has transformed the way employees work, sure, but with Baby Boomers progressively leaving the workforce, Millennials started having different expectations from their employers compared to previous generations.

These days, the situation developed further: with the spread of Coronavirus keeping the majority of us working from home. Employees now want organizations to adopt technology as quickly as possible and expect companies to value their opinions and voice. This means HR can be left trying to balance legacy organizational processes with the new demands posed by their workforce.

With all these changes taking place, HR needs to become more strategic and focus on tackling the most important issue of all: how to handle the work-life balance of their employees

Human resource managers and company executives often casually consider work-life initiatives, but most of the time they’re considered nice to have oftentimes falling by the wayside when it comes to implementation

So, what can Human Resources professional do for employees to improve this experience?

Here are some top tips!

 

1) Active Surveys Are Still One of the Best Tools To Improve Work-Life Balance

 

It’s hard to diagnose the culture issues in your company if you don’t know what areas need to be improved, added, or addressed. Often, communication is strictly top-down, which limits the number of insights leaders have of the employee experience. But a workplace app creates two-way communication which lets employees express what they need.

Consider using mobile technology to send anonymous digital surveys to get honest employee feedback! You can also present a series of new culture-building initiatives focused on employee engagement to test what would make the most impact on your workforce.

When formulating your survey, make them engaging to encourage participation: be mindful it should be designed to elicit detailed, honest responses from employees! Have you tried gamification to make an otherwise staid survey more fun?

 

2) Offer Flex-Time To Boost Employee Happiness

 

If there’s one business strategy that gets clear engagement results, it’s flex-time. According to a recent study by Staples, 90% of employees said more flexible schedules would boost morale in their companies.

These days, most of us must work from home due to the consequences of COVID-19 but be mindful these tips will work well even when we get back to new-normality.

As mentioned above, the appeal of flex-time has increased due to the changing demographic of today’s employees and their attitudes toward notions of work: Millennials now make up the majority of the global workforce and they have different preferences than past generations. They may take a job which affords greater flexibility than a larger salary for instance!

If you think your executive team will baulk at the idea of a flex-time policy, speak openly to them to consider how it can be used to hire the best talent to your company, improve retention, and reduce the cost of replacing employees. Remind them that today’s workers are more likely to leave a job for a company that offers flex-time options.

As an alternative, you can also institute ‘a use it or lose it’ policy for vacation time. This will further encourage employees to take time off when it is necessary.

Doing so actively incentivizes and demonstrates the importance of self-care for your workforce, which is an essential component of work-life balance!

 

3) Make Work-Life Initiatives Essential to Company Culture

 

Burnout is real, so don’t just leave work-life balance discussions for company handbooks and employee orientations. Schedule monthly meetings, quarterly seminars as an employee engagement activity to help your teams understand the importance of striking such a balance for both them and the company. Use these moments to promote better work and personal habits, and also discuss ways to manage workloads!

A mobile workforce app can further embed your values in your culture and support your employees’ mental well-being by frequent internal communication dedicated to promoting employee experience shows your workforce that you truly want them to thrive in both their personal and professional lives.

The inclusion of company culture content and topics which appeal to employee community, alignment and their values will help to enshrine loyalty and pride, as it’s universally understood that content and materials from the organisation are allowing employees to be informed on the best dietary and fitness practice or how to maximise time with children. All these topics may be more important than ever before!

At the end of the day, people don’t want to go to work to do a bad job, but what they do want is the support and technology they need to do their work and know where they are in their employee journey!

 

Has your current company already tackled this issue? Let us know in the comments below!