There’s been a lot of talk about work-life balance over the years, and it’s a topic that has become especially pertinent to people working from home, where there is little physical distance to help one separate work from life functions. However, there’s been a bit of talk in wellness circles that stress the importance of work-life wellbeing the traditional work-life balance.
According to the State of Work-Life Wellness report from Gympass (there’s a sign-up required to access the full report), it appears as though the mentality towards what employees expect out of employers has shifted. The survey was conducted amongst five thousand employees across nine global markets to ascertain what employees value the most in an employer.
Looking at the numbers:
- 96% of respondents said they seek employers who prioritize wellbeing,
- 93% view wellbeing as important as pay,
- 87% may leave a company that does not focus on employee wellbeing,
- And the vast majority said that sound physical and emotional wellness benefits productivity and satisfaction at work.
Meanwhile, bosses and senior staff reported better wellbeing overall than lower-level employees, with 91% reporting as taking time for wellbeing compared to 66% of non-managers. What constitutes time for wellbeing isn’t specified, however.
Is Work-Life Balance an Outdated Concept?
One point stands out in the survey, however, and that is a growing disillusionment with the concept of the work-life balance and a growing preference for wellbeing. According to the study, many employees have come to find the concept of “juggling two separate worlds” exhausting.
The other factoid highlighted within the survey is that employees who felt as though they were “mismatched” in their position said they were twice as likely to feel “unhappy” at work. This then leads to more stress, less sleep, and lower emotional wellbeing, according to the study.
Recently, I had the good fortune of attending both the Azione Unlimited and HTSA fall events, and between the two of them, there was a lot to take in. Particularly, however, at Azione’s, there was a distinct wellness element to the discussions against more technical talks of business operations and the encroachment of new technologies like AI. And managing the work-life balance was one of them.
Kris Kuester, Director of People, Learning and Development at Nationwide Marketing Group had a very similar framing of the concept as he gave his discussion at the conference. Among integrators, there is an admittance that having a strict time to terminate work is, well, difficult. However, his interpretation of the work-life balance and achieving better employee wellbeing came down to openness and discussion between leadership and the employees.
Work Life Wellbeing Should Focus Just as Much on How the Work Gets Done
Rather than focus on applying a broad interpretation of a work-life balance, he instead suggested focusing on individual workstyles to find the best approach for everyone’s wellbeing, giving multiple examples from dealers present within the room.
As one example, a dealer had worked with one employee to shift their schedule to encompass a more agreeable timeframe for the employee, as opposed to sticking to the traditional 9 – 5, Monday – Friday. The result, according to the dealer, was that the employee was able to get far more work done within the adjusted timeframe. In another example, a dealer stated he had shifted his team over to a four-day workweek after many discussions, and to great success.
The key takeaway, Kuester stressed near the end of his talk, was maintaining openness and communication with employees and being proactive in the matter.
Statistically, he said, a person works for roughly a third of their life. Combine that with the fact that people also sleep a third of their life, and you have only a third of their life remaining for the actual “living” part of the equation.
By his math, drawing a hard line between work and life isn’t going to fix all problems; instead, it’s about getting the work part of the equation right for the employee so they can feel better about themselves and the work that they do.
Takeaway: Work-Life Wellbeing Means Being Open and Receptive to Your Employees
Workplace wellness (and wellness in general) is traditionally equated to baubles and perks to be handed out to employees. However, I think a lot of people tend to forget that the definition of ‘holism’—one of the guiding principles of wellness—is to understand the whole of the issue and approach its solution from every angle.
The cost of poor wellbeing is staggering for both employees and employers. According to a Gallup poll analyzing the cost of poor wellbeing, 75% of medical costs accrued are mostly due to preventable conditions. Additionally, $322 Billion dollars are lost globally, each year due to employee burnout.
Don’t get me wrong: I think everyone can universally agree that spending more time working than living your life is a miserable concept. But if integrators are to take anything from the survey, it’s that a greater focus on ensuring the employees can work the way they are the most comfortable with working is the key to success, and sometimes, that may involve taking a non-traditional stance to work.
