Work-life balance in this new normal is a new challenge I’ll be sharing with you tips on how to make that happen. But before I get into that, let’s first set the context right.

We work to create a lifestyle for the people we care about but we end up giving bits and pieces of ourselves to them. This is because striking a balance between work, family and personal activities is hard. But when done, it creates happiness and overall well-being to an individual.

As the world, time and technology evolve, so has performance in the workplace. This is mainly because of the transition from the office setting to working from home. For most employees, the usual 9 – 5 job routine has suddenly been replaced by the unlimited hours of working from home. And because of working from home, top leaders and employees are having a hard time to put a beginning and an end to business or work hours.

Depending on what you chose to settle with, the rapid evolvement of technology has to a certain degree transformed the concept of work. That is either in a positive or negative way.

That is to say, as long as one has access to the internet, they are able to access their emails on their hand held phone (smart phone) and laptops. This leads to people constantly receiving work emails past business hours as late as 1:00 am. With an exception of individuals that are in different countries and have different time zones.

Working overtime has an effect on workers or employees. They get burnt out (a state where you can’t deal with anything that’s related to work anymore) and become less productive at work.

Out of the office, working from home has also come with a whole new level of pressure. On top of the irregular working hours that have cropped up, employees are now being pumped with endless virtual meetings that tend to overwhelm them.

It is important for employers to encourage a healthy work life balance. Employers should know that there’s more to work-life balance than just working shorter hours. It also comes with polishing up or bettering the overall experience of the employees. Something that gives them the zeal and enthusiasm to look forward to working the next day.

Notwithstanding, an employer is still in a position to create a favorable working environment for his or her employees by practicing the following;

Encourage leave days and time off

This gives employees the opportunity to spend a minimum or desired amount of time away from duty which increases employee retention and reliability. This is because they return with rested and clear brains.

Consider productivity and not the working hours

Other than looking at the number of hours spent sitting behind their tables or desk, look at how much has been done. Chances are high that employees will at times sit at their tables and have their eyes glued onto the screen but doing nothing related to work. Therefore push and ask people to account for what they have produced much more than how many hours they have worked.

Empower your employees

Sponsoring team activities like trainings on teamwork, self-improvement, and stress management helps employees to manage their lifestyle in a healthy way. Stress management also helps to reduce on the lapses in productivity. Letting stress take a toll on individuals eventually harms their mental health. This in turn harms their wellbeing, personal relationships, and relationships of people around them.

Reduce the never ending meetings

At times this when people are working from home, meetings are so many. Employers need to understand that flooding employees with long meetings gets hectic. The more meetings held, the less productive employees become. Usually because after a two hour meeting or more they are drained and either have little accomplished or none at all.

Employers should also explore other ways of holding meetings. For example:

Invite only those that are part of and not the greater part of the team. This is because not everyone will contribute to this meeting. Other than having the whole team, let the key parties attend and have the rest continue with their work.

Explore other convenient alternatives to hold meetings other than using long online (virtual) calls. You could opt to send detailed emails and have only the relevant people copied in, make a phone call or mini conference call.

Time value

How do your employees spend their time? Encourage your employees to spend time on things and areas that add value to them and their work. And to spend as little time as possible on those that take a lot of time and don’t add value.

Delegate responsibilities

Delegation of tasks comes at a risk but is one that is worth it. Assign tasks and responsibilities to employees that have potential and a proven record of success in any given field. They should also have the capabilities of hitting the tasks they have been given.

It gives employees the opportunity to gain other skills and attain leadership experience. In the end, this rewards both your company and employees with fulfillment and a sense of direction in their careers.

Clarity of goals

As an employer, put in the effort to follow up on whether your employees are performing or not. This can be done by following up with them or keeping track to ensure that they set goals that are achievable.

Have a clear direction on what you expect from them and ask them to seek clarity where there’s a need. With your guidance, they will focus more on their goals thus increasing increase productivity.

Attach small rewards

Motivate employees by rewarding them once in a while. Give special recognition to employees that have worked exceptionally well. Then, you could also share the success to the rest of the team because it would motivate the rest of the team to work even harder.

You could also offer personal incentives like free lunch or awards depending on how you stand financially. The team will be forced to improve on their performance since they have their eyes on a prize and are working towards achieving it.

At the end of it all, no specific amount of money or reward is more valuable than the physical health and mental well-being of your employees. So make it a point to help your employees maintain a healthy work-life balance. This way, you’ll have both your company and employees thrive in all aspects.

To access more resources to help you get better as an employer, as well as increase your team’s productivity, we have conducted webinars to help you access on the link below https://success-africa.com/freewebinars/

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Reflection question: What are you going to do differently as a result of having read this article?

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