Work and personal life were once considered to be two separate priorities.

But with the changing times due

to globalization and ever-increasing work pressures, maintaining work-life balance has attracted the
attention of the organizations and employees as well. The employees who devote a crucial period of time of
their entire day at work or sometimes work for extended hours, are faced with the challenge of balancing
their personal lives with the demands of their profession.

The origin of the term Work-Life Balance took place in early 80's, because of a sharp rise in the number of
working women professionals having children in tender age-groups dependent on them. The demand for
maintaining a work-life balance has risen unprecedentedly among the employees and the management has
also acknowledged its importance in the current scenario. In future, work life balance will be one of the hot
topics of debate in the boardrooms and is going to be a major area of concern for the management and HR
professionals which they will be faced with.

Work-Life balance refers to an effective management or striking a balance between the work which is
remunerated and the personal or social responsibilities which an individual is expected to perform. Work life
can influence organizational productivity and also the well being of the employees in different ways. Given
below are some of the areas in terms of opportunities and concerns on which work life issues can have an
impact:

1. Impact on the Profitability and Growth: Excessive pressure of achieving the profitability and
growth targets builds stress, hampers the overall productivity of the employees and disturbs their
work-life balance. A well planned and implemented work-life balance strategy may greatly ease the
work pressure both on the job and perceived work pressures, which in turn will favourably propel
employee productivity and contribute towards a positive return on investment.
2. Employee Engagement at work and Quality of customer service: An imbalance in the work and
life front will adversely affect the complete engagement of the employees at work and hamper the
quality of services delivered to the customers. On the other hand, the quality of service will be
reliable and consistent, if the employees perceive that their efforts or their presence is valued by the
management and also that the organization is committed to ensuring both personal and
professional success of their employees.
3. Talent Acquisition strategy and the Challenges related to it: Increase in the composition of the
baby boomers and relatively a young pool of working professionals, have increased their
expectations for a favourable work life culture. They expect that apart from their work
responsibilities they need to attend to the personal/social responsibilities of their life. In the present
scenario, issues with work-life balance is considered to be the prime reasons for a high rate of
employee turnover which definitely is an imposed cost on the organization. Research reveals that,
Johnson & Johnson was able to achieve a reduction in the rate of absenteeism by almost 50% by
introducing flexi-work options and employee welfare policies.
4. Rising cost of Health Care & Medications: Due to a rise in the level of work pressure and never
ending expectations, a major percentage of the employees are faced with lifestyle related diseases
and major health problems. This has become a serious issue of concern for the organizations
because of the mounting cost of health care and drastic reduction in the ratio of employee
productivity. Such concerns have compelled the management to pay importance to work-life
balance priorities and creating a healthier workplace by implementing several developmental
initiatives.

Work-life initiatives is not a choice but an imperative for the management in the present scenario. It is
because, the employees look forward to the support and concern of the management towards their work-life
related issues. HR today, holds the extra responsibility of implementing a gamut of initiatives for making
their organization an attractive place to work for the employe

Benefits of Healthy Work Life Balance

By understanding the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance, anyone will get motivated to
take the necessary steps for achieving this balance. Work-Life balance is advantageous for the employees
and organization as well. A balance between the work and personal life, helps in improving the employee
productivity, morale and health condition. In fact, work-life balance should be a priority for all of us. An
imbalance in any of the front will make the life difficult and pose several hazards or challenges in terms of
health, happiness and emotional stability.

The benefits of work-life balance are given below

 Fulfillment: People who maintain a balance between work and personal life experience a sense of
fulfillment and contentment in their life.
  Health: A balanced work-life will help in reducing health related complications and the risk of
various serious diseases of heart, hyper-tension, stress or life-style related ailments.
 Improved Productivity: Greater work-life balance will improve the employee productivity and
performance at work.
 Strengthen Relationship: Work-life balance facilitates collaboration in professional and personal
relationship. Conflicts are better tackled or addressed when there is a balance between both.

How Productivity can be increased?

Contrary to the widespread belief that overtime will result in the surge in productivity; but studies reveal that
long working hours will lead to loss of efficiency or exhaustion and ultimately will reduce the overall
productivity. Studies equally reveal that people who work by availing short breaks are comparatively more
productive, than those who work for long hours tirelessly without any rest in between.

Productivity can be increased by following the below steps:

 Taking breaks periodically during the work hours. Meditation, relaxation or breathing techniques
and stretching helps in improving both mental and physical health.
 Spending time on Entertainment during breaks: Studies reveal that, by spending some time on
entertainment such as net surfing and leisure time activities during short breaks, the productivity
level is expected to increase by 9%.
 Taking off: Working exhaustively for long hours is not healthy or desirable as the consequences
may be fatal. One should not miss the chance of planning and distributing their holidays for
vacations, as studies also reveal that people who spend a quality time in vacationing are relatively
more productive than the sloggers.

How to Improve Mental and Physical Health?

Several reaserch studies prove that mental stress due to work related pressures and challenges result in
health hazards. The percentage of youth suffering from stress disorders like depression, mental
breakdowns, heart ailments or hyper-tension has gone up alarmingly over last few years.

Mental and physical health can be improved by the following ways

 By increasing awareness about the potential health risks or hazards which could be the outcomes
of leading a reckless lifestyle.
 On the other hand, a balanced lifestyle is expected to have a favourable impact on the body, mind
and soul. Improves the overall health and balance of the body.

Benefits to the organization from Work-Life Balance culture

 Saving of Employee time: By facilitating a supportive and a conducive work culture, organizations
can achieve higher productivity from the employees and help the employees in planning and
utilizing their time more efficiently by setting clear priorities.
 Retention of Employees: Work life balance initiatives may not only increase the percentage ratio
of employee retention but equally contributes to a saving in the extra cost which an organization
might have to incur due to an employee exit or turnover.
 Improve employee motivation & morale as well as their commitment towards the work.
Studies reveal that motivated employees are more productive and provide best support in the
organization’s professional journey.
 Reduction in the Absenteeism rate: Studies show that work life balance programs if effectively
implemented by an organization, can reduce the absenteeism rate by alomost 50%.
 Helps in Gaining a Competitive edge or an advantage: Organization’s work life balance policies
and prcatices in the form of flexi work options, shift work and a lot more will make the organization
more competitive and addressing the changing demands of the customers as well as help an
organization achieve its strategic mission or goals.
 Strengthen the Reputation of the organization: Work life balance programmes if effectively
planned and implemented, can strengthen the reputation and the image of an organization by being
recognized by the people as one of the best places to work and help in attracting top talent.
 Build a Loyal Workforce: An organization’s employee-friendly policies or programmes which
support the overall well-being of the employees, will definitely help in building a loyal and committed
workforce.
 Reduction in the Conflicts: Offering flexi-work options, will help the employees in restructuring
their schedule to fit in their personal commitments or otherwise work from home, which in turn will
reduce the possibilities of any work-life matters related conflict.
Work-life balance is very crucial for every employee and an imbalance in any one front will result in a lot of
challenges both for the employee as well as the organization. By providing the required support and help in
the form of employee-centric policies and work life programmes, an organization will be able to reap the
benefits of improved employee productivity, reduction in the turnover rate and achieve various cost savings.

Managers should encourage the employees to avail the benefits of company policies and motivate them to
utilise their official leaves. Some organizations have successfully launched wellness programmes, which
equally includes workshops on dealing with stress and work life issues. A lot more have introduced wellness
sites or centres, in order to support and help the employees to

Work Life Balance: Different

Perceptions
Before we try to understand the reasons of work & life imbalance, we need to understand what perceptions
do various people have about the work-life balance priorities and how they strive for attaining a harmonious
balance between their personal life and work life. The causes of work-life balance could be many such as
tedious and long work hours, extra time invested in travelling, changes in the demographics with more
women (especially married women) joining employment and also increasing opportunities in terms of virtual
office set up, work from home opportunities and flexi-work hours.

Work-life balance need not necessarily aim at achieving an equal balance. Giving same priority to every
responsibility by way of proper scheduling and time management may practically be impossible,
unrewarding and quite unrealistic too. Life should be more fluid and each step taken should be governed by
the demands of the situation.

Even work-life balance preferences may differ for an individual during different circumstances at different
stages of one’s personal and professional life. Work-life balance priorities for a married individual may be
different than what it used to be when he/she must have been single. Freshers may have different priorities
for their professional & personal lives, whereas those who may be on the verge of retirment may have
different work & life expectations. Work-life balance priorities are different for all of us and these priorities
change over time. However, the foundation pillars of work-life balance are enjoyment and achievement.

Achievement as well as enjoyment answer the basic question of “Why”...Why do we want to become rich,
buy a new house, need to have a successful professional life and earn good income, etc. Achievement
implies the art of accomplishing something which one has desired for by demonstrating special skills, great
effort and courage. On the other hand, enjoyment does not necessarily mean being happy always, but it is
the state of contentment or satisfaction, pride and celebrating life or it may simply mean a psychological
state of well being.

Achievement and enjoyment are essentially two sides of the same coin, where one without the other will be
meaningless. This explains the reason why extremely rich or successful people may not necessarily be
happy or contended with their life. Work-life balance can be attained if one attempts to strike a harmonious
balance between achievement and enjoyment, which should be our priority for each day.

Work-life balance is not the end by itself, it is a process which keeps evolving over a period of time. It is
based on the notion that both paid work and personal life should not be understood as competing
preferences rather should be considered as complementary aspects for living a full life.

Literature Review on Work Life Balance

An extensive literature review reveals that work life balance is influenced by a gamut of factors. As per
Kopelman et al., (2006) [14], Kossek & Ozeki (1998) [15], work-life program initiatives such as flexi work
hours, policies for leave and support provided by the organizations for helping the employees to discharge
their family care related responsibilities, have an influence on the overall work and life balance of the
employees.

Grover & Crooker (1995) [9], Kossek & Ozeki(1998) [15] and Lobel & Kossek (1996) [17], identified in their
research that work life programs not only help the employees in maintaining a balance between their
professional and family life, but may have a direct impact on the employee attitude, overall productivity at
work, job satisfaction, behaviour of employees at work and may be linked with the attrition/retention rates of
employees.
Ujvala Rajadhyaksha (2012) in her studies revealed that Indian companies focus more on gender equality,
child care, raising health awareness and stress management issues while implementing their work life
program modules. Further, the research work of Reddy N K et al (2010) [27] highlighted that work life
balance of married employees can directly be linked with the overall job satisfaction and performance at
work.

The research work of Baral and Bhargava (2011) [3] suggested that the Indian companies should be
sensitized with the importance of implementing a well planned and integrated work-life program. The
organizations should encourage a culture which supports and promotes work life balance for improving
employee commitment and productivity. Madhurima Das and K B Akhilesh (2012) [19] revealed in their
research that work-life balance depends upon various variables like age, gender differences and
occupational background of the employees.

Reimara Valk and Vasanthi Srinivasan (2011) [28] highlighted in their research that work-life balance is
influenced by six main variables like family influence on life related decisions or choices, multiple
responsibilities which a person is expected to deal with, professional identity and perception of self,
challenges in attaining a work-life balance and strategies for addressing the challenges, organizational
procedures & policies and the support from the society.

A careful review of the literature on work-life balance indicates that work-life balance has got a strong
association with the salary and age. It was also identified that work-life balance has a strong impact on the
overall employee commitment towards their work and job satisfaction.

We strive hard for meeting our needs and fulfilling our passion by engaging in various activties and since
these needs/desires cannot be the same forever but change with the passage of time, we must assess our
needs & passion periodically in order to ensure that the balance between the personal life and work front is
not disturbed.

In a nutshell, we can conclude that work-life balance is influenced by various interdependent and
interrelated variables, besides this it has also been analyzed that certain conducive conditions
facilitate achievement of a balance between the work and life demands. We have equally learnt that
the work-life balance is influenced by the perceptual differences and various other variables.

The Two Legs of Work Life Strategy

Most of the organizations adopt a systems approach towards maintaining work-life balance. The systems
approach primarily lay too much of stress on procedures, policies of the organization and benefits for
addressing the issues related with work and life balance. But the system’s approach has its own limitations,
as it ignores several important criticalities since work-life balance is more of an individual concern instead of
systems perspective. The primary objective of systems approach is what best the organization can do to
improve the work-life balance of the employees. On the other hand, the “individual” centric approach
focuses on what best the individual employees can do to achieve a balance between the work and life front
for having an improved quality of life. If we place an organization in the work-life strategy ladder, we would
be able to find out that the main goal of any organization will be to climb up the ladder and probably be in
the topmost rung of the ladder. For being in the topmost position, the organizations strategically take care of
the recruitment functions; achieve continuous improvement in services and superior productivity by way of
employee retention, motivation and commitment for delivering the best possible outcomes at work.

The Systems Approach or The Left Leg of Work and Life Strategy
The Systems approach is the left leg of the work life strategy, where the focus is on the organizational
initiatives for retaining and developing a team of motivated talent pool. The support could be in the form of
health insurance, flexi-work programmes, vacation benefits and periodic breaks from the work, sponsoring
employees for the higher education or specialized certification programmes and a lot more other benefits for
promoting a healthy balance between their work and life priorities. What should be kept in mind is while
implementing these benefits or conceptualizing the key highlights of a work-life programme, the programme
objective must be consistent with the ultimate business objectives. The efforts of the company in this
direction will be reinforced by following the strategies which are provided below:

 The benefits of a well-planned work life programme can be reinforced by way of effective
communication and publicity of the programme as an all encompassing package. The key highlights
 of the work-life balance programmes can be posted attractively on the website of the company as a
package.
 Allowing the employees to work for Half-day over the weekends if they have already devoted their
hours of work incrementally earlier in the week and more so they don’t have any scheduled
commitments.
 Offering subsidies to the employees on off-site exercising.
 Creating athletic teams and supporting them in their endeavours.
 Allowing 1 to 2 days off on a paid basis for community interaction and socialization.
 Conceptualizing and introducing “Bring Your Family to work” day either annually or quarterly.
 Implementing a vacation policy or “No Work Period”, no use of cell phones or system.
 Enforcing a slightly flexible “on and off the ramp” policy by way of which the employees who take a
break or leave work because of personal reasons may find it easy to join the organization back
without too much of hurdles.

By following the above procedures or suggestive initiatives, an organization can strengthen its left leg,
though just one side of the leg alone may not be of any help in serving the purpose, as it will be very difficult
to stand just by balancing on one leg only. Let’s understand the importance of Right Leg of the Work Life
strategy or the individual approach.

Right Leg of the Work-Life Strategy or the Individualistic Approach

The right leg of the work-life strategy acknowledges the importance of individual differences and also that
each individual has a different priority and their independent ways of addressing their day to day personal
and professional commitments for achieving a work-life harmony. Apart from this, it may be appropriate to
say that the work-life interpretations or preferences change for an individual over a period of time. For a
fresher, the work-life priorities will be different if we compare with someone who may be on the verge of
retirement. The priorities for each of us at an individual level keep changing almost on a daily basis; hence
one should try to create a personalized work and life schedule in order to maintain this balance.

Futuristic Road Map

Extensive research has shown evidences that a dual-centric approach has benefitted the organizations in
achieving the desired profitability growth and enabled the individuals in delivering the best of the outcomes
at work by balancing their work and life fronts more positively and holistically. Research has also proven
that the relationship management skills which are required at the individual level for interacting with family
and friends are equally required by the employees who need to work in a team environment. Moreover, time
management, project management and on-the-job working skills can equally be used for meeting the family,
friends and personal commitments at the individual level.

Thus, it can be concluded that the left and right legs of the work life strategies should complement each
other and work alongside for ensuring the achievement of both individual and organizational goals. One will
work towards improving the organizational effectiveness and will help in propelling business profitability.
While, the other will improve the quality of life at an individual level and promote a better work-life balance.

Triggers or Signs of Work-Life

Imbalance
An imbalance between the personal life and work life can have serious or adverse effects on the health and
well-being. This imbalance usually occurs when the boudaries between the professional life and personal
life are not clearly demarcated and followed with a discipline. Work-life imbalance leads to emotional stress,
depression and anxiety.

Extensive studies and research on Work Life Balance reveal that, more than financial pressures or family
problems, work-life imbalance affects the health considerably and may trigger serious complications if left
ignored.

Let’s analyze the Symptoms of Work Life imbalance

 Exhaustion: By working for long hours tirelessly and regularly, you may run the risk of being faced
with both mental and physical exhaustion, end up messing up with all the fronts of the life due to
confusion and tiredness. An exhaustive schedule if followed for a long time, may build up confusion,
increase the susceptibility of mistakes at work and affect the overall productivity. Several problems
occur such as lack of hand-eye coordination, poor reflexes, problems with concentration and the
 risk of accidents, injuries, liability or professional upsurges are few other hazards of an imbalance in
the work life schedule.
 Absence: Work-life imbalance increases the pressure of fulfilling professional commitments within
stringent deadlines, as a result of which you may miss out on crucial events of the family such as
anniversaries, birthdays or special moments of get together with the loved ones. Absence may
badly impact the relationship with the loved ones and build up instabilities or pressures in the
personal life.
 Staying Away from Friends: Friendships are required to be nurtured by spending quality time with
close friends. By dedicating a major chunk of the time to your career, you may end up being a loner.
Friends are an integral part of our life and they act as the support system by being there during
moments of stress or testing times. By having the support of the friends and loved ones, one can
experience a sense of contentment and lead a satisfied life. But, for the friends to remain by your
side for life-long, quality time needs to be dedicated and frequent communication must take place.
 Increased Level of Stress: Work-life imbalance can add to the level of stress and increase the risk
of various health hazards or lifestyle diseases like cardiovascular diseases, compromised immune
system, Headaches & Migraine attacks, Backaches, Acne, Stiff Muscles, Nervousness, Irritability,
Depression, Mood Swings, Weight Gain, Fatigue, Poor Self-Esteem, etc.

Let’s understand some of the signs of stress

 People experiencing stress may find it difficult to control their emotions or deal with it.
 Stress can lead to lethargy.
 Increased stress can create problems with concentration or focusing, resulting in restlessness or
hypersensitivity.
 Anxiety can be the outcome of prolonged stress.
o Obesity: Obesity is one of the harmful side effects of Work-Life imbalance problem, which
occurs when we fail to pay attention to our dietary or exercise schedule in order to stay fit
and health. Obesity is directly connected to the possibilities of heart disease or many other
serious health problems.
o Increase in the rate of Employee Absenteism: Work life imbalance always increases the
risk of triggering major health related complications, and therefore, employee absenteism at
the workplace which is a compounded cost for the employers and a challenge which may
be difficult to be addressed. An employee’s absence involves many direct or hidden cost to
the organization. Employees avail sick leave for which they are paid even in case of
absence from work for certain days by providing a legitimate reason. Sick leaves are a
direct cost to the organization. Apart from this, there will be a loss in productivity due to the
increase in the level of absenteism in an organization.
o Symptoms of Burnout: Research studies so far reveal that the employees who tend to
overwork, eventually are subjected to burnout. Burnout can be expressed as psychological
responses or may be expressed by way of physical responses. It increases the cost of the
company because of its direct linkage with the employee turnover ratio.

How to understand that Burnout has taken place

 Interest Loss: Employees experiencing burnout will not be able to focus on their work and will not
give adequate attention to their work.
 Emotional Upsurges: One experiences emotional upsurges or exhibits inconsistent emotional
responses while facing the burnout issues.
 Motivation Loss: People who are burned out will be less motivated to take charge of the
challenges at work or will lack the passion to deliver their best.
 Possibility of Depression: Burnout can make people more depressive and reach a stage of
hopelessness or despair.
o Increase in the Body Pain: Increased anxiety and stress can lead to an aggravation in the
pains across various parts of the body in the form of chronic headaches, shoulder and neck
pain. By making a change in the daily routine and paying attention to self-care, one can
tackle this problem. By taking warm shower in the morning, treating yourself with aroma
therapies or spa and taking a break from the hectic schedule may help in many ways.
o Never Finishing the Projects: Various reasons could be there to explain why people never
finish their projects within their scheduled deadlines. Few have been mentioned below:
 Lack of Self-Confidence
 Threat of Failure
 Weak Gut Feeling
 Lack of Goal Clarity
 Perfectionism and Procrastination

One can overcome stress or at least keep it under check by practising yoga, breathing techniques,
maintaining a routine for walking or exercising. Moreover, burnout issue can be addressed by grabbing
ample sleep and taking breaks from the monotonous schedule. By having a hobby in life and experimenting
with new hobbies periodically will also help in combating stress and burnout issues.

The Role of Employers in Promoting

Work-Life Balance
Employee happiness is not a choice for today’s employers but it is a need which may directly impact the
organization’s topline and bottomline profitability. Employers who have realized the importance of work-life
balance are more profitable and successful, as such organization’s tend to have employees who are more
happy, creative, love to take challenges fearlessly and deliver results in a much better manner without any
fear of being reprimanded for making mistakes or compulsion from any authority. In a way, it can be implied
that organizations that pay attention to the work-life balance goals, have better performers and deliver
positive ROI.

To start with, it is important to analyze the causes of burnout or employee unhappiness before selecting and
implementing the work-life balance strategies. This burnout could be due to lack of motivation, emotional
turmoil or depression and lack of interest. Research investigations reveal that burnout is directly
proportional to the employee turnover ratio; higher the burnout, higher will be employee turnover.

Employee burnout can be tackled by the following measures as given below:

1. Increasing employee control: Earlier, the employers used to enjoy all the authority and the
employees were simply expected to act or work as per the decisions of their employers, which used
to add to their frustration level and hence burnout. By providing them the authority and autonomy to
deliver results within the stipulated timelines and resources, will help the employees to work better
and increase their loyalty towards their organization.
2. Employee Suggestion Programs: Employees may have some of the best ideas on work-life
balance strategies which may go a long way in establishing the reputation of as organization as the
best places to work. Lot of times, these ideas are either not being communicated to the right person
in the right time, as a result of which vital employee suggestions are missed out. By strategically
planning and implementing employee suggestion scheme, employee participation and involvement
in the organizational decision making will enhance and quality of decisions along with the outcomes
will improve. Few aspects which should be considered for successfully implementing employee
suggestion programs:

 Defining a simple process for giving suggestions, as complications will unnecessarily stifle
creativity and negatively impact the quality of decisions.
 Maintaining a positive approach and responding to their suggestions with their suggestions
will be considered and worked upon.
 Thanking each employee who take part in the suggestion scheme.
 Rewarding or recognising those employees who come up with useful suggestions.
3. Rewarding Exceptional Performance: Rewards reinforce positive behaviour and improve
employee performance at work. Employees, who feel that they have been appreciated and
recognized for their contributions, are likely to be more confident and committed towards their work.
These rewards can be in the form of a monetary reward, promotions or a public appreciation of the
hard work or may be in the form of a simple get together.
4. Ensuring Consistency in Communication with the Employees: By keeping the employees
informed will make them feel more valued and make them more accountable as well as improve
their sense of responsibility or commitment towards their assigned jobs.
5. Employee Assistance Programmes: These days employers hire EAP counsellors for helping the
employees to fight out stress and maintaining their work-life balance. Employer’s sponsored
Employee Assistance Programmes will make the employees feel that they are valued and also that
their concerns are given importance and listened to by the professionally appointed counsellors.
Such counsellors are trained to handle various stress-related crises which could be both personal
and professional nature.

Besides the above factors, given below are the strategies by way of which Employee Work-life
balance can be promoted:

1. Allowing Flexi-Work schedules: Flexi work schedule should be planned in such as way so that
the organizational productivity is not hampered and the employee happiness can be achieved. The
employers should clearly spell out the policy framework for flexible work hours and communicate
their expectations accordingly. The best examples of flexi work schedule could be telecommuting or
four days work in a week.
 2. Paid Time Off: Paid time off will support the objectives of a work-life balance programme of an
organization. Employees who take Paid Time off are neither probed nor questioned on the reasons
for their absence or how their time was spent.
3. Modelling the Work-Life Balance Practices: The actions and the behaviours of the managers or
the senior leaders are watched and heard by the employees. By responding to e-mails even during
the Paid Time Off, employers set forth precedence before their employees on their work-life
preferences, which in turn will affect their personal preferences for balancing their work and life
fronts.
4. Setting Clear Expectations that a Time Off or a Break from work should be treated as a Time
Off: Setting clear expectations that it is okay to break free from the day to day monotony or
pressures of work while being on leave. It is perfectly fine, if the official mobile phones are switched
off or mails are not being responded during this period.
5. Allowing the Employees to Avail Unpaid Leave for meeting the Contingent Situation
Demands: Several employers allow their employees to avail unpaid leaves under the following
circumstances:

 Nursing a parent who is seriously ill or bed ridden since a very long time and require
personal care as well as attention.
 Premature birth of the baby who is expected to be in the hospital for an extended period of
time.
 Extending the period of maternity leave by some more weeks.
 Assisting the employees to explore the possible options of resettling in a different location
or household.

Work balance means a lot to the millennial employees who are crammed with the day to day challenges at
work, complex responsibilities and bugged by the pressure of responding promptly to the emails or different
forms of electronic communication. Organizational policies, rules and well planned initiatives can help an
employee in being most productive and happy in the workplace scenario.

Time Management and Goal Setting for

Work-Life Balance
Ideal Work-Life Balance involves an efficient management of professional commitments and responsibilities
towards the family as well as society. In a 24/7 schedule of the day, one should ideally work for 8 hours and
dedicate 8 hours each to sleep and recreation. But, hardly any of us live in this ideal scenario. Instead the
millennial employees spend more than 12 hours at work with little or no time for recreation and minimum
possible sleep.

Many of us keep cribbing that we hardly find time for doing those things which we would love to do or hardly
have time for taking care of the personal commitments because of the pressures or demands at work. Does
it mean that we have very little or no time for such commitments? It talks about nothing but our poor time
management skills. We usually face the dilemma while being encountered with the situation of choosing
between urgent and important assignments, because of the issues with prioritization. An efficient time
manager would be able to juggle between the urgent and important assignments seamlessly.

Before understanding about the various strategies for effective time management and work-life balance,
let�s first understand the time management matrix.

Time Management Matrix

Eisenhower is the key proponent of Time Management matrix, by way of which he has been able to
differentiate between urgent and important tasks. As per him, urgent tasks require immediate attention and
can set a person into action both physically and mentally. Such assignments may take the forms of urgent
e-mails, important phone calls which may demand an immediate attention, pressing assignments involving
close deadlines, meetings, huddles, appointments or catching a flight, train or a bus, etc. On the other hand,
important tasks are those which need not be urgent in nature but may have long term implications.
Important tasks should be handled by paying utmost attention and taking time for arriving at certain
decisions related to strategic or crucial matters.

According to Stephen Covey, we should devote less of our time to tasks which not so important regardless
of their urgency, but focus spending a quality time on those tasks which may not be urgent but are high on
the importance parameter. Planning out time in this manner will perhaps reduce the perils of poor time
management. Let's analyze the four quadrants individually and the strategies which should be followed for
ensuring effective time management:
  Quadrant I: Tasks which are Highly Important and Urgent: Tasks which are highly important and
urgent are deadline driven assignments and daily chores. The outcome of such handling such
assignments is burnout, stress and crisis management.
 Quadrant II: Tasks which are Important but not Urgent: These activities are not urgent but
important in nature. Such tasks usually require careful planning, preparatory work in advance,
anticipating crisis and dealing with the prevention strategies and tasks which are not driven by
stringent deadlines but are of relevance from the futuristic perspective. Such tasks can be dealt with
a proper vision, perspective and discipline.
 Quadrant III: Tasks which are Urgent but Not Important: Such tasks include meetings, attending
to the drop in visitors, receiving phone calls and answering to the mails which need not necessarily
be productive in nature. One, who operates in this quadrant, may be subjected to the feelings of
victimization, will not be able to focus on long term goals and may suffer due to broken
relationships.
 Quadrant IV: Tasks which are Neither Important nor Urgent: Such activities are mostly
unproductive in nature or fall under the category of time wasters, junk mails and few less important
phone calls, are all a part of the fourth quadrant.

Activities which fall under the Quadrant I category are highly critical and must receive the top priority.
Spending a lot of time on activities which come under the quadrant I category, may lead to increase in the
stress levels and burnout. By focusing more on activities in the Quadrant II, one can reduce the burden on
quadrant I in the long run and avoiding the unimportant or time-wasting activities in Quadrant III and
Quadrant IV.

Techniques for Achieving Work Life Balance by Managing Time

Effectively
1. By increasing the Effective Time Spent at Work: Concentrate on how effectively the time at work
has been spent and not the number of work hours, as a lot of us may spend long hours at work but
fail to the deliver the required outcomes. For tracking how effectively the time is being spent, time
logs should be prepared and followed religiously and focus on spending quality time at work by
addressing the time wasters and avoiding procrastination.
2. By way of prioritization: One must make sure about the importance or relevance of the task in the
priority matrix and accordingly deal with the high priority tasks before working on the tasks which
are of low priority and more fun. Work-life balance can be achieved by setting clear priorities and
gaining more control on time.
3. By way of Planning: One should set smart goals or plans before working on a project. A well
developed plan will help in reviewing the performance periodically and implementing corrective
actions. Proper planning should meet the following criterions:
 Should be deadline driven
 Should help in achieving or realizing the Long term goals
 Should be flexible, reviewable and must provide the scope for improvement.
4. Make Efforts for Curtailing Long Hours of Working: One should apply Parkinson�s Law at
work, by paying attention to more urgent and important tasks by setting strict deadlines at work.
This will help in creating a sense of urgency around high priority tasks and effective time
management at work.
5. Spending Quality Time with Family
6. Practising a Healthy regimen by paying adequate attention to the four pillars of good health
i.e. Proper nutrition, good sleep, exercising routine and relaxation techniques like Yoga,
Meditation, etc

Flexi-Work Options for Work-Life

Balance
Many organizations in the contemporary scenario have realized the importance of work-life balance for the
employees, so that they remain healthy and happy, which will directly reflect on their productivity at work
and overall job satisfaction. Research has proven that by compelling the employees for achieving higher
targets/production, may yield results in the short run but might lead to long term complications or challenges
such as high employee turnover and discontentment with the job.

Organizations have now come up with creative ideas and appreciable measures for fostering a sense of
belongingness amongst the employees in the workplace. One of the best ways is by providing ample
freedom and control to the employees for dealing with their work assignments, which will make them feel
valued. Various initiatives from the company's end in the forms of flexi-work options, flexible timings, project
contracts, work from home, telecommuting, job sharing, sabbaticals, unlimited vacations, etc, have helped
in strengthening the employee-employer relations immensely.

Flexible work options has gained importance recently, in terms of improving employees work-life balance
and overall productivity at work by reducing their stress level and providing them a sense of flexibility to
carry out their work from any geographical location and as per their convenient time. By curtailing the time
spent on commuting for reaching the workplace, employees can dedicate quality time on strategic matters
and address work related issues much more efficiently. Apart from this, flexible work options equally
contribute to environmental conservation, resource optimization, pollution control and reducing the evil
effects of greenhouse gas emissions by controlling time and expenses incurred in transportation from one
geographical location to another. Flexible workers have a better opportunity to stay healthy by finding time
for exercising and maintaining a disciplined health regime, they can take required breaks during the work
hours to move around and stretch a bit instead of remaining glued to the seats for long hours. One more
benefit of flexi-work options is family bond and relationships grow stronger as a result of which employee
motivation and involvement in work will definitely increase.

The organizations in the contemporary scenario may follow diverse work strategies or solutions.
Each strategic alternative is described below:

Unlimited Vacations: Companies like Mammoth HQ, Netflix, LinkedIn and a lot more adopt this flexi-work
strategy. Unlimited vacation is based on the principles of mutual respect and trust. If the organizations
select and hire the best of the talent pool by conducting an extensive review of their talent and personality
traits, such employees can prove to be assets for company and need less interference or stringent
regulations to ensure higher productivity. Such employees work for the benefit of the organization and also
take care of their personal interests. Unlimited vacations will suit such organizational conditions, where the
employees are self-motivated and have a clear idea about their accountabilities and work expectations.
Unlimited vacations on the other hand can have many benefits for the employers as well by saving on the
cost spent on each employee, reduce the absenteeism cost and improve organizational productivity as a
whole.

Results-Only-Work-Environment: The main proponents of this strategy were Cali Ressler and Jody
Thompson and their work was published in the book �Why Work Sucks and How to Fix it�. As per this
method, an employee’s performance is evaluated in terms of their contributions towards the realization of
the organizational goals and in meeting the desired results or output, which should be measurable. Mere
physical presence at work or number of hours worked isn’t the focus, but only measurable or quantifiable
outcome is given due importance by the employers. Organizations like Mindtools, departments of Gap use
ROWE to accomplish their work related goals and promote maximum employee productivity.

Remote Working: The employees work entirely away from the office premises. Since the employees can
operate remotely and need not visit the office at all, they can work from any part of the world by depending
heavily on the tools like video conferencing and virtual communication methods regularly. Remote working
strategy can be effective if adequate attention is given to strengthening of relationship with the employees,
using various technologies for remaining connected, by providing training and development opportunities,
setting clear goals and aligning performance with rewards and recognitions.

Job Sharing: Organizations like Qualcomm and a lot more depend a lot on Job sharing programs in which
two or more than two professionals collaborate on some mutual agreement to perform one job. It can be
interpreted that the professionals engage in a part-time engagement by working for 2-3 days a week, which
is then carried on by the other professional accordingly for another 2-3 days of the week. But they handle a
full time job by working as part-timers and based on their mutual understanding plan or allocate their
working hours.

Condensed Workweeks: This is also one of the flexible working options in which an employee can plan
and distribute his work hours for few days of the week. A professional may prefer working for long hours
(approx. 10 hours) for around 4 days of the week, instead of distributing the 40 work hours around the
whole week. But care should be taken for implementing this kind of a work schedule for the employees by
assessing the feasibilities and acceptance from the employees or new hires.

Work Hours Customization: As per this method, the employees are granted complete freedom to choose
their preferred hours for working. This provides the employees ample opportunity to schedule their time
accordingly, decide upon their most productive hours for working by choosing their own personal hours for
work (example 3pm-8 pm), deal with their personal commitments, health and profession too.

Part time opportunities: The biggest limitation of this kind of work option is most of the employees
do not continue a job or quit because of salary issues or perks limitations.
About company

TSDDCF seeks to usher in an era of rural property in Telangana State through organized commercial
dairying based on the principals of cooperatives. To transform itself in to an instrument and vehicle for
development of village based dairy sector integrating the milk producers at the village level with the
consumer in the urban markets and metropolitan markets. TSDDCF should facilitate seem less linkage
of the milk producer with the milk consumer. The milk producers should own and manage the systems
and institutions of procurement, processing and marketing. A dairy farmer owning two or three animals
should be in a position to find his livelihood through dairying alone. Dairying to develop as an
independent economic activity capable of sustaining the livelihood of the farmers on its own. TSDDCF
to become an inherent regulator of prices of milk & milk products in market, providing
remunerative prices to the farmers.
Dairying in State - History at a glance
1960-1972- Integrated Milk Project - IMP o Started dairying in the organized sector; o Emerged as
dependable major subsidiary occupation to Agriculture
1972-1974-Dairy Development Department o Emerged as single agency under Organized Sector o
Expanded dairying in the State; o Developed dairy infrastructure
1974-1981-A.P Dairy Development Corporation Ltd. Under Indian Companies Act 1956 o APDDC Ltd
became functional from 2-4-1974 with authorized share capital of Rs. 5 Cr. & asset value of Rs. 7.17 Cr. o
Built strong marketing network under popular VIJAYA brand (next to Amul) 1981- A.P Dairy Dev. Coop.
Federation Ltd. Under APCS Act 1964 o Implemented 3-tier cooperative structure. 5 th-May-2016-The
Telangana State Dairy Development Cooperative Federation Ltd is registered .

Telangana State Diary Development Co-operative Federation Limited(TSDDCFL) is an enterprise

of farmers for Dairy Development. It has its genesis in 1981 with a three tier cooperative structure.
Govt. is committed to distribute milk produced in rural area in various cities. For this purpose Govt.
has developed infrastructure for procurement, transport, process, packaging and distribution of
milk. A chain is formed from village level to Govt. milk processing dairy. This chain includes
Primary Milk Co-op. societies at village level, Mandal level, District level which supply milk to
Govt. TSDDCFL provides mechanism for regular and timely pickup of milk and ensures minimum
support price to the farmers. Vijaya dairy ensure availability of milk and milk products at
reasonable price.
Bibliography
https://www.managementstudyguide.com/introducing-work-life-balance.htm

http://www.tsdairy.telangana.gov.in

https://tsddcf.cgg.gov.in/mainPage.do