Attraction and Retention Series
A focus on people and business
Work, family and life – finding the balance
A guide for managers, supervisors and employees
Resource document 2
Issue 2
March 2007
Table of contents
A guide for managers and supervisors ........................................................... 3
How should Managers approach work and life balance issues in the workplace? .. 3
Some important principles........................................................................................................ 3
Practical ways for managers to implement work and life balance ............................................. 3
Key implementation issues for managers................................................................................. 5
Steps for resolving identified work, family and other life problems ............................................ 6
What Cultural Considerations should Managers take into account? ........................ 7
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people ............................................................................ 7
People from non-English speaking backgrounds ..................................................................... 7
Getting the best from Work and life balance options .................................................. 8
Managing diverse work arrangements ..................................................................................... 8
Guide for Employees on balancing work and life ............................................ 9
Employee responsibilities ............................................................................................. 9
Work, family and life: a guide for managers, supervisors and employees
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A guide for managers and supervisors
How should Managers approach work and life balance issues in the
workplace?
Some important principles
Managers can effectively deal with work and life balance issues by observing the following
principles, which constitute good management practice:
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Treat staff members as individuals by taking the time to understand their different needs
and ways of balancing work, family and other life responsibilities;
Encourage staff to approach you about family concerns which may interfere with work.
This facilitates early, planned, joint resolution of problems and helps to create a supportive
work environment;
Ensure that employees understand that it is their responsibility to suggest solutions to work,
family and life problems, and that there are certain options available;
Take a flexible, creative approach to resolving work, family and life conflicts with workers as
there is no `one size fits all' answer. What works best is tailored to the individual and the
workgroup;
Be fair, consistent and reasonable in making decisions about leave and adjustments to
work arrangements, and help all staff members to understand the rationale and process for
these decisions;
Maintain confidentiality about family and personal concerns which have been disclosed to
you by workers;
Plan for contingencies through multi-skilling, job rotation, and streamlined arrangements for
temporary staff. In this way emergency situations will not result in disruption to work output;
Carefully handle sensitive situations where you have identified a possible work, family and
life problem which affects an employee's work and where you need to raise the matter with
the employee;
Present a committed approach to flexible work patterns such as job sharing or part-time
positions, which sends a message of organisational support for work and life balance;
Apply these principles as part of everyday management practice to create a workplace
environment where there is stronger recognition that family and other life responsibilities do
impact on work, and where staff feel relatively free to raise and resolve work, family and
other life problems.
Practical ways for managers to implement work and life balance
The following are some common barriers which affect the working lives of employees who have
family responsibilities:
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inflexibility in working hours, over the week and the year,
difficulty in obtaining necessary occasional leave,
unavailability of part-time work and job-sharing,
lack of access by part-time workers to training and further education,
gaps in community services, including child care and aged care, and
often unequal division of housework and caring work between men and women.
Work, family and life: a guide for managers, supervisors and employees
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As a manager you could:
Put work and life
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balance on the agenda
Provide access to
information and
services
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Take a fresh look at
work arrangements
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Think about other ways
the work can be done
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Make the best use of
existing conditions of
service
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Stimulate discussions at regular staff meetings about strategies that your
workplace can adopt to assist staff to achieve the balance.
Assist all staff to become aware of all their conditions of service and leave
entitlements and eligibility, such as parental and special leave, leave
without pay and variable working hours.
For more detailed information on flexible work options see the Work,
Family and Life: Finding the Balance Toolkit. For specific advice on
implementing flexible work options in your unit/area contact your human
resources area.
Encourage networking among employees within the work unit or across
the agency for exchange of information and mutual support.
Link employees to Employee Assistance Services where appropriate for
support with complex family problems. Make sure these services are
accessible and appropriate for different cultural groups.
Consider the needs of staff on prolonged periods of leave for family
purposes. Keep them in touch with what's happening at work through
newsletters, announcements of workplace changes, training calendars,
etc.
Support adjustment back into the workplace for employees returning from
extended leave.
Schedule essential meetings at times which accommodate workers with
family responsibilities, i.e. staff meetings that start at or go beyond 5.00pm
may be difficult.
Give a high priority to staff development during normal working hours.
Live-in courses should be considered a last resort.
Where work travel conflicts with family life, weigh up the travel
arrangements in your work unit. How crucial is travel to the outcomes of
the unit? Can some of the work be done by telephone or by other means?
Can travel be arranged to ensure minimal nights away? Can an officer
travelling to another location complete a number of tasks for the rest of the
unit? These considerations can also reduce costs.
Allow reasonable access to a phone as an efficient way for employees to
attend to a family matter without having to leave the workplace.
Before advertising positions, consider whether the job can be done on a
part-time basis as well as full-time, and possibly advertise the job as
available for both.
Make more use of permanent part-time employment and job-sharing. This
can produce quite dramatic increases in productivity and the quality of
service delivery in areas such as direct customer service, where demands
often coincide with peak periods such as lunch times.
Ensure that specific provisions such as emergent leave, which can
legitimately be used for family emergencies, are consistently and
reasonably extended to workers with family responsibilities.
Whilst remaining focussed on achieving the outcomes of the work area,
take a flexible approach to approving leave, including leave without pay,
special leave and study leave, to accommodate the needs of employees
with family responsibilities. (More information on leave conditions is
available from the PSIER website – http://www.psier.qld.gov.au/)
Keep up to date with changed conditions of service which may arise from
enterprise agreements. Remain aware that old and new provisions may
be based on different concepts of 'family'.
Work, family and life: a guide for managers, supervisors and employees
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Take family
responsibilities into
account in workplace
change
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Monitor the workplace
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In any restructuring process, assist officers involved in redeployment to
find positions which suit their current hours of duty, wherever possible,
and adopt a flexible and supportive approach for staff requiring reasonable
time off to make alternative child care arrangements, where redeployment
makes this necessary.
Ensure that workers with family responsibilities are encouraged to
participate in reviews of internal policies, practices and conditions of
service.
In cases of relocation or transfer of workers to other locations, support the
development of agency policy which recognises the specific adjustment
needs of workers' family members. Where family members are helped to
adapt to the new location, workers cope better with relocation.
Monitor trends in stress leave, complaints, workers’ compensation claims,
and turnover in your work unit.
Acknowledge the possible contribution of unresolved work, family and
other life problems to these trends, and be prepared to develop strategies
to remedy the situation.
Key implementation issues for managers
Acceptance
Some groups of workers may not immediately support consideration of others' work, family and
other life issues in the workplace. Some employees with few family responsibilities may feel that
unfair concessions are being made which do not affect them, but which they may have to `cover
for'. Manage this by giving due consideration to the work, family and other life concerns of all
groups when they arise, rather than, say, only attending to the concerns of workers with dependent
children. Remember that employees' family commitments will vary in form and degree over time.
At appropriate opportunities it may be worthwhile to remind staff that not all workers are in equal
circumstances and that some will need access to more flexible work arrangements and conditions
to a greater extent than others. Bear in mind that the productivity of the work unit is maximised
when all workers have access to conditions of service on an equitable basis (i.e. in a way that is
fair and appropriate to their circumstances).
Likewise, you may need to reinforce the message to staff that increased flexibility does not lead to
diminished performance; rather, it offers a different way of achieving the same or enhanced
outcomes for the job.
Generally our workplace culture has encouraged employees (particularly males) to keep work and
life balance concerns to themselves. Some workers may initially be uncomfortable about raising
their concerns; they may feel this reflects poorly on their performance as workers.
You may have mixed feelings yourself about workers with family responsibilities, and your personal
ways of coping may be different from those of your staff. Your job as a manager is easier if the
ways you use to find your own balance between work, family and life are constructive examples
which staff could draw upon if they choose. Studies have shown that many employees regard a
manager's supportive attitude towards work and life balance as more important than the range of
conditions that are formally available.
Work and life balance issues for managers themselves
Staff in management and supervisory positions may have special issues which impact on their
ability to manage work and life balance demands, for example organisational expectations to be
"on call", work outside normal office hours and travel for training or meetings. Managers may feel
more pressure to compromise their own family lives because of the way their work is organised.
Work, family and life: a guide for managers, supervisors and employees
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It should be the objective of workplaces and organisations to organise their work to achieve the
outcomes required, in a way that is in harmony with the responsibilities, including the family
responsibilities, of their staff.
A worker's outputs cannot be measured by the length of time he or she spends at work, although
clearly this is an important consideration for some positions. A more accurate picture of outputs
can be gained from looking at meeting project deadlines, quality of work produced, results of
service delivery, and so on. Not only is this a more valid way of measuring productivity, it also
takes into account the myriad of working styles and arrangements that could be used to achieve
work outcomes.
Not just a women's issue
Both men and women in your workplace have family commitments; often there is shared
responsibility for meeting work, family and other life demands as both partners may be in the paid
workforce. It is unreasonable and unrealistic to assume that one partner will automatically assume
the major responsibility for family care.
Career matters
The traditional `linear' career path is not the only option for employees. Workers with family
responsibilities may pursue careers in a variety of ways at different life stages. Instead of climbing
the progressional ladder, some may prefer to take on new challenges periodically, others to
develop more in-depth experience in a particular area, others to gain a broad range of experiences
at a particular level.
It is therefore important to consider the diversity of career aspirations when managing staff with
family responsibilities, and to ensure that career development opportunities are offered in a way
which keeps a number of possible career paths open, and which do not put workers on reduced
hours at a disadvantage.
Steps for resolving identified work, family and other life problems
When a staff member approaches you with a work and life balance problem or dilemma it is often
difficult to see a ready solution. This is not surprising as in most workplaces such problems have
not been actively approached in a problem-solving way. Consequently there may be few "models"
around to adapt to your workplace.
Similarly, it may be necessary for you to take action where you have identified a potential work and
life balance problem which may be affecting an employee's performance. It is your role as a
manager to ensure that performance standards are maintained through established performance
management systems.
Occasionally an employee may exhibit chronically poor work and life balance management which
affects work performance, and which has not improved with specific assistance. A number of
courses of action may be available depending on the circumstances, including referral to Employee
Assistance Services, changed work arrangements, or utilisation of performance improvement
processes. In such instances, it is important that the supervisor or manager resists making value
judgements about the worker's family circumstances but concentrates on the unsatisfactory nature
of the work performance. A clear understanding of the boundaries of the managerial role is also
necessary. For example, counselling would be more appropriately provided professionally.
In dealing with work and life balance problems raised by employees, it is the manager's role to
work creatively with the staff member to explore all possible options and find the most appropriate
solution.
Work, family and life: a guide for managers, supervisors and employees
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The following process will assist in the resolution of work and life balance issues:
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Discuss the matter with the affected worker in a location which offers privacy and no
interruptions.
Get a clear understanding of the particular work and life balance problem from the affected
staff member, and its impact on the workplace.
Work with the staff member examining all possible and feasible ways of solving the
problem.
Come up with a range of solutions and select the most effective one.
Arrive at an agreement with the staff member about the proposed solution.
Implement and monitor the solution, and make a time to review it in the future.
Keys to good decision-making in work and life balance
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Treat staff members and their circumstances as individuals.
Create a climate where staff can comfortably raise work and life balance issues.
Ensure everyone knows their rights and responsibilities under the policy.
Maintain a consultative relationship with staff.
Maintain confidentiality about family concerns which have been disclosed.
Be flexible and creative.
Be fair and consistent, and help staff to understand the rationale for decisions.
Take all relevant information into account in arriving at a decision.
Communicate effectively.
Avoid assumptions about employees' needs and circumstances.
Adhere to specific policies where they apply.
Comply with anti-discrimination and EEO requirements.
Evaluate the outcomes of decisions regularly.
What Cultural Considerations should Managers take into account?
Managers need to take these cultural considerations into account when assisting staff to balance
work, family and other life demands. Treating staff as individuals is an important way of ensuring
that cultural issues are not overlooked in arriving at solutions to promote work and life balance.
The following general information may also assist.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
The ways that Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders fulfil their family obligations may not be
understood, recognised and therefore not respected by employers or colleagues. The Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander communities frequently have close bonds with extended family, and
have ceremonial obligations or periods of mourning following the death of a relative. These
obligations are usually not specifically recognised in leave conditions.
It is generally true that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities regard their child care
responsibilities differently to non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Often their
responsibilities are seen as not only being for their own biological children, but also for the children
of other kin who are in need. As well, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities regard it
as important that their older people are cared for by relatives.
Women have many roles in Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander families. They are mothers,
grandmothers, wives, aunts, sisters, daughters, nieces and so on. They will more than likely be
expected to fulfil most of these roles consistently throughout their adult lives.
People from non-English speaking backgrounds
A number of factors combine to make balancing work and life demands for workers with family
responsibilities especially difficult for people from non-English speaking backgrounds.
Work, family and life: a guide for managers, supervisors and employees
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These include:
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Lack of recognition of qualifications and poorer English language skills which can mean that
many people of non-English speaking backgrounds are trapped in low status jobs. Family
life often must fit in with long hours or shift work. Often these jobs do not offer flexible
working conditions: part-time work may not be available or a financially viable alternative.
People of non-English speaking backgrounds may have less confidence in negotiating
flexible work arrangements with employers.
Extended family and multi-generational responsibilities as well as less access to services
mean that many workers from non-English speaking backgrounds have a number of care
commitments. For example, looking after parents due to lack of community services and
language problems. Where services exist, they may be culturally inappropriate, or distant
because families of non-English speaking backgrounds are more likely to live in areas
where resources are scarce.
Women of non-English speaking backgrounds often carry a heavier "double load" than
other women (i.e. significant home and family responsibilities on top of their paid work
duties), particularly those with children.
Undertaking further study is frequently necessary to have qualifications recognised, or to
improve English language skills. This is particularly difficult in the context of family
responsibilities.
Time and travel can be an issue as a number of Australians of non-English speaking
backgrounds may have limited travel options and face longer travel times to work. This has
implications for issues such as the length of the working day and ability to use work-based
child care facilities.
Getting the best from Work and life balance options
In considering options in your work unit, aim for:
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INTEGRATION:
The mix of options available to employees should be an integrated
package which will cover a comprehensive range of work and life
balance needs, including planned and emergency situations.
A flexible approach benefits employees, work units and clients, if it
is balanced with sufficient predictability in work arrangements.
To current and projected workforce needs.
Consider the return on your agency's investment.
Low or moderate cost items can deliver sound outcomes too.
Enhancing and improving access to existing conditions of service is
a worthwhile activity alongside new initiatives in work and life
balance programs.
Managing diverse work arrangements
Many workers with family responsibilities will request access to altered work arrangements,
sometimes with reduced hours, at some time in their careers. There is often a perception that
managing workers participating in different work arrangements is more challenging for supervisors.
It is more a case of these forms of work presenting different challenges and opportunities.
Some suggestions for how to make the most effective use of these forms of engagement, including
part-time work and job-sharing, include:
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Aim for a good match between the talents and needs of the worker and the outcomes required
of the job.
Ensure that the job and the outcomes to be achieved are clearly defined, and convey this to
all in the workgroup.
Take into account possible busy times and make arrangements to cover these in advance.
Work, family and life: a guide for managers, supervisors and employees
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When creating part-time positions or job-share arrangements, aim for a splitting of tasks
that makes for a satisfying job design and offers developmental opportunities e.g. a mix of
project work and administrative work.
Be mindful of access to training, staff meetings, and communication and consultation
generally.
Emphasise the integration of part-time workers into the mainstream workforce.
Monitor reactions from full-time staff.
People working reduced or altered hours do not necessarily want to `mark time'; career
prospects need to be built in.
Where a staff member is converting to different hours, try to make the transition as smooth
as possible.
Part-time work and job-sharing are high on the list of family-friendly work conditions for workers
with family responsibilities. The demand for these forms of work is likely to be sustained, and
opportunities to engage in part-time work will improve through the implementation of enterprise
agreements. It is therefore important for managers and supervisors to give serious consideration
to such requests which arise in their workplaces, and to obtain updated information from their
human resource management sections about agency policy and options.
Guide for Employees on balancing work and life
Employee responsibilities
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Think about your work and personal problems so you have a clear picture of what it entails;
what are the possible solutions and which one you believe would best suit your own
circumstances;
Consider the following questions:
o Does this situation require a long-term commitment on my part?
o Is this more of a short-term problem which I need to find a way to work around?
o Is there another family member or friend who can help out at home?
o Are there community services I can access?
o How will this affect my fellow workers?
o What important work tasks will be most affected?
o Who is best positioned to fill my work role in my absence?
o How can this problem be resolved while maintaining the output and causing the
minimum impact in my work area?
Remain flexible. Understand that your manager is responsible for your entire group and
has many factors to consider. Remember that while you have entitlements as an
employee, how those entitlements are enacted is also a discretionary matter for your
manager and your agency.
In considering your requirements, you may also:
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Arrange to meet with your manager at a time and place where you feel comfortable
discussing your work and personal issue;
State all the important facts and your possible solutions;
Ask your manager if they see any potential solutions or problems that you haven’t
considered;
Volunteer other ways of “catching up” on work if possible; and
If you know a co-worker who has faced a similar problem, ask them for advice.
Work, family and life: a guide for managers, supervisors and employees
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