The time when we had to separate our personal and professional lives has probably ended. Employees free to live in both these daily spheres perform better than those without it. Take a look.
Work schedule adapted to lifestyle
“I don’t think the 9-to-5 is the still the solution,” Philippe Mast highlights straightaway, Certified human resources professional (CRHA) and associate at CORTO.REV—a headhunting and organizational development consulting business. “To me, employees should welcome work in their personal lives while ensuring their schedules respect their biological cycle.”
He explains: the day when employers offer this flexibility is the day they favour their work teams’ happiness. He notes an increase in productivity and commitment. “Ultimately, results matter,” he adds, “I advise sceptical businesses to test a pilot project to assess the ensuing performance and innovation.”
This way, according to him, everyone—no matter the reality (a single mother, a triathlete training twice daily, a father from the sandwich generation, or even a young, efficient night-time programmer)—has the possibility of adapting their work to their lifestyle and optimizing their productivity without guilt.
The HR counsellor asserts, “Especially in domains with labour shortages, businesses all have an interest in adjusting if they want to attract the next generation that prioritizes freedom and control over their life.”
Furthermore, with the omnipresent new technologies, it has never been easier to work from home, in a café, or abroad, without losing colleague and client contact.
Work-family conciliation: an increasingly necessary balance
Caroline Tétrault, career counsellor for Montérégie’s Action Emploi and involved with the Comité Conciliation travail-famille, fully agrees in the same sense: “Employees benefiting from work-family conciliation measures are less stressed, more motivate, more inclined to perform at work, and remain employed, because they feel taken into consideration and engaged. It’s a win-win situation.”
She and her team, in collaboration with many partners, devised the Guide de l’employeur conciliation travail-faille (CTF). Where the main social transformations associated with the evolution of CTF, the impacts of instability on work and family, the CTF’s advantages for businesses, and the main steps to put in place such as program are discovered.
This guide outlines, among other things, that the right conditions offered by CTF have a positive impact on a business’ economic health such as less turnover, less professional exhaustion, and decreased absenteeism. Consequently, less costs related to employee health problems.
Philippe Mast concludes, “To keep a balanced quality of life, before everything else, we must find love for the job and the freedom and capacity to take time at work for personal life and vice-versa.”
Study
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/04/27/0018726716636204.abstract
Guide de l’employeur conciliation travail-famille (CTF)
http://cldbm.qc.ca/common/documentsContenu/Bo%C3%AEte%20%C3%A0%20outils%20-%20WEB%20-%20FR.pdf