PLEASE VISIT OUR SPONSORS

Viewpoint

Published November 2007

Weighing In On Work-Life Balance

Siobhan Cummins

Never before has a generation of workers been more connected — and disconnected — than today's increasingly global workforce. The issue of work-life balance is headline news, drawing attention to companies' policies and employees' practices for drawing that fine line between the personal and professional.

Employee Equilibrium

Several recent research studies conducted by ORC Worldwide examine the impact of work-life balance for domestic employees and international assignees. When employees work excessive hours and suffer disruption to their personal or family lives, the outcomes are clearly felt.
 
The effects might be even more pronounced on international assignments, when it is common to work long and unsocial hours. Stress is the most widely experienced effect, most often resulting when employees feel unable to cope with pressures on the job, disruptions through communications across time zones and frequent international travel.

Another outcome relates to how employees perceive their employers. Employees' unwritten psychological contracts are damaged through weak work-life balance management, resulting in employment dissatisfaction. This can lead to poor performance and, ultimately, to premature departure. For international assignees, there is also the compounding factor of family dissatisfaction — research has shown that a family settling into a foreign environment is critical to assignment success.

What are companies and their HR executives doing to help keep the equilibrium?

Stabilizing the Work Environment

There are many compelling reasons for employers to take work-life balance seriously. First, employers have a duty to care for their employees' mental and physical health with policies that address this issue. Second, employee turnover costs are high. Finally, personal lives are important — there is life outside the office, and unhappy families or a lack of personal satisfaction can create stress for employees and affect their engagement on the job.

International assignees are known to face even greater pressures in all of these aspects, and the typical assignee costs four times more to employ than a domestic employee.

According to ORC Worldwide's 2005 International Survey of Work-Life Balance Policies, 66 percent of HR executives felt having a work-life balance policy for international assignees was sufficient to help their employees achieve this balance. ORC's 2007 Expatriate Work-Life Balance Survey showed something different, however — 82 percent of international assignee respondents said such a policy makes no difference to them. At least half of respondents were unaware such policies even existed.

There are no easy solutions to reduce stress, foster engagement and guarantee work-life balance, but employers can take steps to help employees relieve stress by encouraging them to take time away from the job and routinely engage in physical activities.