EHR303 Performance Management and Work Life Balance

ife balance has become a dream for many in the recent time due to the increasing pressure of work and the benefits that work brings in terms of economy and social life. The focus on improving the lifestyle of the employees has been made not only to create a better work life balance for the employees but the intension is to improve the situation of work for them. This would improve the employee health and reduce the rate of absenteeism in the workplace (Freeburg et al., 2014). In addition to this, it is important that the employees would find some better ways to increase productivity. If the future prospects are taken into consideration, it can be said that the employees might use a number of apps that would eventually help them to improve their work life balance.

There is no doubt that the life without smart phones had ended. People cannot live without it. The smart phones are definitely the friends for the users but their usage is not limited to the calling or gaming but the same can be used to carry out variety of other options as well. In fact, these apps can eventually help to improve the work life balance of the people who are actually struggling to get one (Lyness & Judiesch, 2014). The app that would help in creating a work life balance among the people can be described here. There are apps available at the iStore that would let you know the current position of the person in terms of maintaining the work life balance. The app is named as TimeTune or the ATracker that help you to identify the need of carrying out the work life balance in life. This app shows the exact ratio of time that is needed in order to keep a balance in life. The ratio related to the time spends at work and the time that they devote for themselves (Warren, 2017).

There are stress managing apps as well that helps in monitoring, relaxing and keeping a track of the well being of the people. These tools eventually help in managing stress for the people who the app because it keeps on telling how one feels by sensing the changing activities of the person (Filimon, 2015). The Keep in touch app is another idea that helps in creating a good bonding with the people because it alerts the people who stay nearby and send them signals or messages that a known people is nearby and that one should go and visit them. This is a great application that helps in creating a good work life balance and also helps to create a bonding with others. The plan your time app has the best intension to serve to the people (Oosthuizen, Coetzee & Munro, 2016). This app keeps on remanding that one has to eat or do other things and that work is not the only thing left in their life. Therefore, it can be easily said that there are high chances that the employees would start using apps as a part of their daily routine in order to create a work life balance.

b) The HRM implications –the HR have to operate differently

The changing intension of the people and their better approach towards creating a better work life balance has created an alarming situation for the human resource management practitioners to consider certain aspects that would help them to cope up with the changing pattern of the work and how the people are dealing with the changing pattern. In fact, as commented by Beer, Boselie and Brewster, (2015), that it shall also be the responsibility of the employers to consider the fact that there should be a work life balance for the people who work for their company. As it has been evident that the days might come when the workers would depend on the use of application for carrying out their work life balance in life, it also falls in the part of the major human resource managers to think of better ways that would help them to help the employees to maintain a work life balance (Zikic, 2015).

The HR definitely has to work differently in order to cope up with the changing pattern of work life balance because people who are working in the major firms and organizations are considering their part in creating a better work life balance for the employees. Some of the easily applicable processes that the HR can easily undertake in order to achieve these goals and aims can be stated below:

1. Becoming strict to the working hours: The HR should be responsible for carrying out a monitoring process that would create a strict eye on the working hours of the employees. The employees should not be engaged in work once their duty hours are over (Jackson, Louw & Zhao, 2013). In fact, serious steps like shutting down the server of the organization can also be an approach that major organizations could undertake.
2. Focusing on the culture of the organization: It should be aimed at creating the organizational culture that support work life balance. It is important that the organization should focus on the productivity of the organization but at the same time it is equally important that they shall create a culture that would support the regular life of the employees as well (Greenwood & Van Buren, 2016). It is only when these perspectives are clearly focused, the chances of supporting the work life balance becomes higher.
3. Providing certain benefits like work from home or breaks during work: In order to maintain the balance of life and at the same time if the organization wants to take our better productivity from the employees, the steps that the HR of the organization should undertake should balance both the perspectives (Kaufman, 2016). It is by the means of providing certain facilities like work from home or by allowing breaks during the work shall help in achieving the target of the work life balance.

The HRM implications have to be changed because both the employees and the employers need to focus on balancing the life of the employees and at the same time gaining the productivity of the organization as well. As commented by Budhwar, Varma and Patel, (2016), one cannot be psychologically balanced if the person only has work life and no personal or family life. Therefore, in order to create a psychological balance it is important that the employees should consider the major elements that actually help to create a balance in their life. In fact, as commented by, that the women are more focused towards achieving a better work life balance than the men because women are the ones who are majorly responsible for taking care of the families and the members (Zikic, 2015). Therefore, the HR policies can be made different for the women and the men. Better opportunities can be given to women and that would also help in creating women empowerment as well.

 c) The implications for leaders and managers

The manager and the leaders also need to play similar crucial roles in the organization to maintain a life balance along with carrying out the work at the work place. As commented by Beer, Boselie and Brewster, (2015), that it is right that the competition in the market has increased that has automatically created the need for looking at the work perspective more than the personal life. In addition to this, when one works hard for their company or organization, they are benefitted by certain major terms. For instance, the employees get more amount of money and other health or family care related facilities. However, the managers or the higher authorities are also responsible to check out that the work that the employees do not hamper their personal lives as well. This is when their role becomes extremely important. For the same reason, the managers should also undertake detain approaches to create a better work life balance.

As it has been proposed that in the future the employees would use apps to support a work life balance, the approach that the managers and the leaders would undertake should focus on the similar approach (Goodwin & Graebe, 2017). One of the important perspectives of considering the work life balance is that work life balance is important for maintaining one’s psychological well being. Sometimes, it happens that the employees are given appraisals considering their roles and outcome of the result that they have done for the organization approach (Deepika & Rani, 2014). However, ultimately they are actually snatched out of the better work life balance that they deserve as a part of their appraisal. In such situations, the managers or the leaders could undertake certain approaches that would help them to achieve in order to maintain a work life balance.

Major approach has to be made on the fact that the employees focuses on achieving the target of the work but the managers should be responsible in considering the life activities of the employees. It has to be understood that they are the ones who are responsible for taking care of the employees and that it is on the basis of their order that the employees work (Freeburg et al., 2014). Therefore, it also falls in the implications of the managers to undertake better approach that would create better options for the employees to work for the organization and maintain a work life balance as well. The leaders should be responsible for taking care of the people who work under him because if this would not happen, there might be other situations as well that would eventually lead to the situation that would cause the employees to leave their work and there would be increasing rate of turnover. This would create more problematic situation for both the employees and the organization. Therefore, it should fall under the work responsibilities of the leaders to take care of the work life balance of the employees.

Conclusion:

The analysis made on one of the major issues of debate in the recent time, work life balance among the employees, has created a clear image that although people have become more focused towards their professional and career objectives.  People are making huge contributions for the purpose of gaining a good work that would provide them all the major amenities to support a good life. However, at the same time when they are earning good amount of money and at the same time they are gaining certain advantages in their life, they are definitely losing their personal life. It would certainly create great impact on the psychology of the people because one cannot live only on the basis of the work place but people do need to have a personal life as well. It is for the same reason the importance of maintaining a work life balance is increasing. This situation has certainly created great challenges for the human resource practitioners and that they have to focus on the part of the employees to help them achieve a considerable level of work life balance.

The implications on the employers and the managers of using the apps by the employees in order to create a work life balance have been clear. Keeping this instance into consideration, a number of recommendations can be made here that would help the HR practitioners to carry out certain activities that would help in maintaining a work life balance.

1. Strict organizational policies: The HR needs to come up with strict organizational policies that would restrict the overtime working of the employees and at the same time would also compel them to achieve their respective targets at jobs. This would help both the organization and the employees and that they would be able to maintain a healthy work life balance.
2. Providing certain facilities to the employees: The employees should definitely given the proper amenities of carrying out their work activities in a way that would support their work life balance. For example, they should be given the rights of basic leaves and facilities and other things like work from home options that would eventually help them to maintain a life in the professional way and should have a personal life as well.
3. Web based work: With the advent of the technology there is no doubt that the working nature is shifting and that there is great scope for the people to come up with certain approaches that would help them to achieve their part of work accordingly. Therefore, whatever is possible, that part of work can be transformed into web based that would help the employees to work from anywhere and from any place. In addition to this, as it has been evident that people are moving towards the application based work technology, it is better to come up with the approach that would support work life balance.

References: 

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