Genuine Work-Life Balance Tips That Will Help Reduce Stress

Burnout rates are rising, and the effects are taking their toll on the work-life balance of employees from an increasingly young age.

While employee burnout can be attributed to many things, the biggest cause is arguably a lack of work-life balance. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, however, as Americans already work more hours than international employees. So, if your company culture ignores—or even discourages—work-life balance strategies, you may see higher rates of absenteeism, turnover, and even reputational damage.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, companies that actively cultivate work-life balance can enjoy a wealth of benefits, from higher job satisfaction, to improved employee retention and an increase in productivity.

Read on to discover ten actionable strategies HR professionals can use to improve work-life balance—and company culture overall.

What is work-life balance?

Work-life balance refers to the balance between time allocated for work and time allocated for your personal life. To be truly satisfied with their lives, people can’t be all work or all play—they need to have both.

Achieving and improving work-life balance is challenging for everyone, employees and employers alike. Trying to carve out time for family, friends, self-care, hobbies, and community can feel eerily similar to having too many tabs open in your brain. Couple that with trying to meet the demands expected in professional life, and the sensation multiplies.

If an employee spends most of their time working and feels like they’re neglecting the other areas of their lives, they often experience frustration, burnout, and unhappiness.

A good work-life balance in the workplace fosters employees’ well-being and helps them to thrive in both their professional and personal spheres.

Are there other terms for work-life balance?

Other terms for work-life balance include:

• Work-life fit
• Work-life integration
• Work-life interface
• Work-life sway

Why is work-life balance important?

When organizations promote good work-life balance strategies, employees are less likely to experience stress and more likely to have a positive outlook on their professional and personal lives overall.

Beyond that, job candidates are more likely to choose your company if you promote a healthy work-life balance. In one survey, 59% of respondents stated that work-life balance was a very important factor when choosing a job.

A good work-life balance for your employees can result in:

• Better health
• Greater loyalty, commitment, and engagement
• Increased productivity

Acknowledging the importance of a work-life balance is a vital part of an organization’s success. If your people are feeling their best, they’ll do their best work.

What causes a poor work-life balance?

Many variables that are both within and outside of an employee’s control contribute to a poor work-life balance. However, here are examples that employers may contribute to:

• Insufficient salaries and wages: Your employees have to keep up with soaring housing prices and the inflating cost of food. If their wages don’t rise with their expenses, they can start to feel stressed.
• Increased responsibilities: Some employers will overload their employees with responsibilities. This causes their work tasks to spill into their personal lives because they don’t have enough time during the day to finish them.
• Long working hours: Employers who schedule employees for copious amounts of overtime can contribute to a poor work-life balance.

What are the consequences of a poor work-life balance?

If employees have a consistently poor work-life balance, any of the following might happen:

• Burnout: Employee burnout can mean someone is too drained to complete their tasks, which affects their engagement and productivity levels.
• High employee turnover: As employees experience burnout and are less happy in their jobs, they may start applying for roles elsewhere.
• Strain on relationships: Some employees who are overwhelmed may feel their tasks are taking time away from their personal relationships. This can lead to even more resentment towards your company.

10 work-life balance tips for HR professionals

There are many ways to help employees avoid burnout and manage their work-life balance as an employer. We’ve compiled a list of tried and tested methods that you can implement with your team.

1. Offer parental perks

As an employer, you’re in a unique position to alleviate employee stress through the benefits you offer. Providing even modest parental perks will go a long way to impress recruits and retain current employees.

From on-site childcare to financial planning services, many companies are setting parents up for a healthy work-life balance.

Here are a few other perks to consider as you work to support parents at your company:

• Paid parental leave
• Flex-time or remote work opportunities
• On-site childcare
• Additional sick days that can be used to care for children
• Counseling programs.

2. Give generous paid time off

The average number of paid days off in the US is 14 per year, but we’re seeing more and more companies innovate when it comes to PTO policies. The number of paid days off is increasing across the board, with many companies going so far as to offer unlimited PTO.

3. Promote a flexible work schedule

Life doesn’t cease to exist between the hours of 9am to 5pm, so it’s unrealistic to expect your employees to handle all events in their personal life outside of regular working hours.

If your industry allows for it, enacting a flexible work policy will go a long way to increase retention and loyalty. This could mean something as simple as a general shift in work hours—allowing employees to come in early and leave early or come in late and leave late.

Working in the office for 40 hours a week can become monotonous and decrease employee productivity. On the other hand, letting your staff work outside of the office or at home can increase satisfaction, boost productivity, and foster creativity, improving their work-life balance.

4. Offer employee wellness initiatives

Contrary to popular belief, health and wellness initiatives are not just good for employees. Studies have shown that incorporating well-rounded wellness initiatives into your overall benefits program can drive down the cost of healthcare, increase productivity, and decrease absenteeism over time—all of which will save your company money.

Perks that can help keep your employees in tip-top shape include:

• On-site gym or gym stipend
• Flu shot clinics
• On-site stock of healthy snacks
• Wellness stipend
• Company-hosted blood drives
• Smoking cessation programs

5. Encourage breaks during the day

One simple work-life balance tip you can offer your employees: take a break. And when we say take a break, we don’t mean eat a snack while you stare at your computer screen.

Studies have found that breaks during the work day can lead to greater productivity and reduce the risk of employee burnout. Here are some ways to encourage your team to take breaks:

• Designate break zones in the office
• Create a lunchtime walking club
• Lead by example

6. Remind your team that it’s okay to say no

Saying no can be daunting for staff. Unsurprisingly, the opinion of managers carries a lot of weight, and when asked to pick up a task, many employees will struggle to turn it down. But setting boundaries is necessary when it comes to creating work-life balance.

You can help with this by encouraging teams to say no when they’re already busy. It’s essential that everyone is on board with this, from senior business leaders to junior members of staff, so that it can be effectively implemented.

7. Separate work from personal life

Improving work-life balance can be as simple as physically separating work and life. Here are a few ways to actively help employees separate their personal life from professional life:

• Don’t require staff to have work emails on their personal phones
• Encourage teams to not send messages or call outside of work hours
• Install office lockers so employees can store their laptops at the office
• Discourage work outside of contracted hours.

8. Set boundaries with your clients/customers

Establish strict office hours when clients or customers can contact you with questions or new tasks. If your business is 24 hours, or requires fast responses, assign a handful of employees to take on requests during evenings, weekends, and holidays. Alternatively, introduce a schedule that evenly distributes working patterns through the team.

9. Make sure people aren’t staying late or working out of hours

If workloads are increased, employees may not have the time to finish their work during the day. To combat this, some employees will stay late or work out of hours in order to get everything done. However, this can disrupt the work-life balance, as workloads eat into evenings and affect personal lives.

To prevent this, you can do the following:

• Use timesheets to track when people are working
• Provide support on time management
• Introduce ‘no distraction’ hours in the day
• Distribute the workload more evenly
• Encourage staff to speak up when they have too much work.

10. Ask employees for their input

One of the best ways to understand the causes of employee stress is to ask staff directly. For the most accurate results, choose an anonymous survey so that staff can speak freely without fear of reprimand.

Try to include open-ended questions to allow staff to express themselves and let them know of the survey in advance to give them time to think.

Next steps: Strike the right work-life balance

It’s hard to encourage a healthy work-life balance for employees when executives and managers are setting the tone by working long hours or not taking much time away from the office over the holidays.

Culture starts at the top, so organizational leaders need to set the tone. Think about it—if executives are coming in early and staying late every single day, how can they encourage their employees to do the opposite?

Make sure that managing work-life balance in the workplace is a significant focus across the entire organization, and that everyone from company executives to individual contributors is leading the way by prioritizing personal lives.