how can you improve the work-life balance of your employees?

While life is slowly returning to normal, the pandemic has permanently altered workers' priorities. According to our research, 37% of today's employees consider flexible work schedules a top motivator for changing jobs. Another recent study found that:

• 84% of Canadian workers admit to struggling with burnout during the pandemic. 
• More than 30% of these workers rated their level of burnout as high or extreme. 

Employers must provide a healthy work-life balance to preserve employees' physical and mental health, maintain low turnover, and set boundaries between professional life and personal time.

Keep reading to learn more about:

• what a healthy work-life balance is 
• why it's so important
• how to help your employees make it a reality

what is work-life balance?

When the pandemic hit, workers faced extraordinary challenges, such as shifting to remote work, caring for aging parents and homeschooling children. 

These added pressures often blur the lines between work and life responsibilities. A significant imbalance between these two roles can cause undue stress on team members.

This is why maintaining a healthy work-life balance is essential. The process consists of managing and scheduling work and personal tasks to ensure one aspect doesn't dominate or interfere with the other.

why is maintaining a healthy work-life balance important to your company and employees?

It can help ease stress and improve your workers' physical and mental well-being. However, your workers aren't the only ones likely to benefit from this balance. Check out some of the ways empowering your employees to maintain healthy work-life balances can help your company: 

1. avoid employee burnout and improve productivity

A healthy work-life balance is one of the best ways to help avoid employee burnout. Giving your employees time to deal with personal issues can improve productivity. According to a recent study, 78% of employees believe that flexible work options make them more productive.

2. improve retention

Companies that offer policies that help employees maintain healthy work-life balances have 25% lower turnover rates.

3. attract potential talent

Given that more than one-in-three Canadian workers list flexible work schedules as a top motivator for changing jobs, adopting such policies can boost your employer brand reputation. Highlighting these benefits on your job postings and career pages can improve your talent attraction capabilities.

4. minimize the risk of a bad reputation

Flexible working options are popular, and not offering them can damage your company's reputation and make it more difficult to attract skilled talent.

tips for implementing work-life balance policies and benefits

Your company can go a long way in helping employees maintain a healthy work-life balance by implementing the right policies and offering relevant benefits. Take a look at the many steps your company can take today based on our latest Cracking the Talent Code research.

reconsider time off

Our research shows that 59% of Canadian workers want greater flexibility and autonomy over their work schedules. Letting your hybrid workers choose which days they come into the office and which days they work from home can provide such flexibility. Alternatively, our research shows that nearly one in four workers would take a slight (up to 20%) pay cut to maintain a four-day workweek.

enforce minimum vacation time

As an employer, you already know that offering employees extended vacation days doesn’t mean they’ll use them. Consider implementing a policy for tracking employee time off. This can encourage those who haven’t taken at least the minimum number of vacation days by mid-year to schedule them now.

encourage breaks

Studies show that employees are more productive when taking short breaks throughout the day. You can encourage these valuable break times. Send out friendly reminders periodically throughout the day to get both in-office and remote workers to stop working and take a break.

increase support for family care

Our recent study shows that more workers prioritize eldercare subsidies (33%) over childcare subsidies (28%). Rather than strictly offering one or the other, allow your workers to choose which benefit best fits their needs. This strategy will allow each generation to prioritize the type of leave it wants.

flexible time off

An astounding 60% of Canadian workers want flexible paid time off options. Restructure your paid time off policy to combine sick pay and standard paid time off. Allow your employees to take time off for any reason, whether it be appointments, school meetings or sick days.

Go further: what does ‘workplace flexibility’ actually mean to workers?

rethink employee benefits

Now’s the time to re-evaluate your benefit offerings and adjust your package to meet your employees' current needs. For example, in addition to standard benefits, such as supplemental health insurance, offer your employees fun benefits and rewards like free snacks at break time or a casual Fridays policy.

Want to review your employee benefits? Visit our ‘Cracking the talent code’ page for several guides on implementing some of the most sought-after employee benefits today.

And, as you already know, the most important benefit to talent is salary. If you're interested in an overview of the average wage in Canada or want to offer more competitive salaries, get the salary guide.

develop a right-to-disconnect policy

Mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, make it easy for workers to remain connected 24/7. However, this constant communication without breaks can quickly lead to employee burnout. You can help your employees avoid this issue by implementing a right-to-disconnect policy that allows them to put their mobile devices down for a set period.