What’s holding you back? When it comes to creating a work-life balance, it’s time to go all in! Learning to let go will pay dividends in building a dedicated, motivated and inspired staff. Encouraging a work-life balance can prevent your employees from working exhaustive late nights and becoming part of the 68% of employees who consistently work on the weekend. (That’s a fast track to employee burnout!)
It’s a real problem. Employers, if you don’t address your overworked employees, you risk a staffing shortage and losing your top talent to competitors.
About The Ultimate Work-Life Balance Initiatives Checklist
First things first. It’s time for a hard look in the mirror. Use our employer checklist to see what work-life balance initiatives you’re using – assess your strengths and see where you can improve. We’ve laid out the basic categories of work-life balance initiatives so that you can see where you need the most help. You’ll have to download the checklist to see our expert recommendations of the best work-life balance initiatives in each category!
In This Checklist, You’ll Learn
- Why work-life balance is important to your employees and the success of your business.
- How to self-audit your company’s current work-life balance.
- The 9 basic categories of work-life balance initiatives with a checklist of common initiatives.
- The top initiatives to achieve the best balance.
- the 5 steps to successfully implement work-life balance initiatives.
- The #1 secret to creating a successful work-life balance.
Here’s a sneak peak at what’s inside
The Basics of Work-Life Balance Initiatives
Work-life balance initiatives fall under the following basic categories:
- Health and Wellness
- Child Care
- Parenting
- Eldercare
- Workplace Flexibility
- Development/Training
- Time Off
- Workplace Culture
- Financial Support
Health and Wellness
If your employees spend most of their time sitting in front of a screen, encourage them to get moving! Work can be overwhelming and it’s only healthy to break away for a bit. Finding ways to get your team more active is a great example of a strong work-life balance initiative. Does your company sponsor any health initiatives?
Child Care
When it comes to the best work-life balance initiatives parents are looking for in a new job, child care benefits are taking the top spot. Take a pulse on your support for working parents. Check their schedule and hours. You need to make sure that you’re giving them enough time to focus on their #1 priority – their children. Do you offer any child care initiatives?
Parenting
Jobs that offer generous parental leave have a leg-up when competing against those companies that offer none. (In the benefits arms race, parental leave can be a big selling point!) Providing better or equal benefits for maternity, paternity, and spousal leave will ensure that you’re supporting your whole staff the best you can. Your competitors looking to steal your top talent will shudder at our suggested benefits.
Eldercare
More workers will see sudden needs for backup elder care as the country’s population ages. There’s a clear and growing need for elder care support in the workplace. But this benefit is often overlooked!
It can be difficult to reach doctors and providers while at work, adding to the stress and making it hard to focus on—or remain at—work. Helping your employees through this difficult time shows them how much you care. Eldercare benefits can help boost productivity, bolster loyalty and retention. Check if you offer your employees any Eldercare initiatives.
Workplace Flexibility
Workers value employers who empower them to manage their own time. You should encourage your employees to have the freedom to choose how they work—including their own schedules and work locations. Audit yourself. Do you offer any initiatives that can help your employees know you’re there for them?
Development/Training
It’s a win-win. With proper training and development, you can turn your employee’s weaknesses into strengths and your employees can excel. They’ll appreciate you helping them level up their skills. (More personal growth please!) Plus developing your employees allows them to gain a new perspective on a project, be more productive, and be more in tune with their colleagues and managers.
Time Off
Your employees are balancing a fulfilling job and personal life. By offering your employees PTO, you can show them how much you truly care about their well-being and the future of your business.
It’s up to you to encourage your staff to take time off so they can destress. It allows them to refocus themselves and be at their best when they return to work! Check how your PTO policies square up by downloading our checklist.
Workplace Culture
Activities that involve your whole team encourage team bonding. Even simple events, like hosting a staff lunch, builds trust and improve performance. Casually talking with your employees is actually incredibly important. (Did you see last night’s game?) Team events and small talk effectively tighten your employee’s team cohesion and make the bond strong.
Financial Support
It’s the little things that make employees feel special. Sure, you’re giving your employees financial support. (And who doesn’t love the biweekly paycheck?) But it’s the little perks like making sure your employees know their retirement plan options, saving best practices, and financial wellness assessments that make them want to stay. Small actions like these let your employees know you’re in it for the long haul. (Because hopefully, they are too!)
The Next Steps
Our checklist holds the #1 secret to creating successful work-life balance initiatives. Download the checklist to see how you can take employee engagement to the next level.
5 Steps to Successfully Implement Work-Life Balance Initiatives
To achieve the best results from work-life balance initiatives, we’ve listed the most important success factors. We hope this checklist allows you to see where you’re lacking, and how to enhance your business.