Reducing Work-Life Conflict: What Works? What Doesn't?

3.6 How Can Employers Help Employees Balance Work and Family?

The results from this analysis are unequivocal -- family-friendly policies/benefits and flexible work arrangements, on their own, have little impact on an employee's ability to balance work and life. The results also clearly indicate that employers that wish to tackle the issue of work-life conflict in their workforce (especially high levels of role overload) need to focus on the culture of the organization (especially as it pertains to work-time and work-location flexibility) and the behaviour of their managers. Finally, the data support the idea that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the issue of work-life conflict. Employees need to consider the type of work-life conflict when developing their policies and practices.

Dealing with role overload

Above all else, employers wishing to help employees cope with role overload need to increase the amount of flexibility employees feel they have over when and where they work. In particular, they need to give employees more ability to arrange their work schedule to take family concerns into account, and make it possible for employees to interrupt their work day to deal with personal or family matters and then return to work when the issue has been addressed. Other forms of flexibility also associated with an increased ability to cope with role overload include the ability to take one's holidays when one wants, take a paid day off work to care for an elderly dependent, take a paid day off to care for a sick child, be home in time to have meals with the family, and vary one's work hours.

Employees wishing to deal with the issue of role overload within their workforce also need to focus on the behaviour of their managers. Employees who report to a non-supportive manager who has unreasonable expectations with respect to the work to be done, puts in long hours and expects their employees to do the same, makes employees feel guilty about personal time off work, and focuses on hours at work, not output, are substantially more likely to report high levels of role overload than employees who have managers who do not engage in such behaviours. Employees who report to a supportive manager, on the other hand, are less likely to experience high levels of overload, even though hours at work are not related to management support. In particular, employees who have a manager who makes expectations clear, listens to their employees' concerns, are available to answer questions, are effective at planning the work to be done, and who give employees recognition for a job well done are substantially more able to cope with role overload.

What does not work? Offering employees the ability to use alternative work arrangements (role overload was not associated with the use of shift work, flextime, CWW, regular 9-to-5 work day) or implementing a number of benefits that are perceived to be "family friendly." The following benefits, in particular, had no association with role overload: on-site day care, use of elder care referral services, use of flexible work arrangements, tele-work, supportive relocation policies, emergency days off, unpaid LOA, use of paid personal days off work, use of time off in lieu of overtime, and use of short-term personal leave. In addition to the above, child care referral was not substantively linked to role overload when job type was taken into account, and EAP and part-time/reduced work week were not substantively linked to role overload when dependent care status was taken into account.

Dealing with work-to-family interference

How can employers help employees cope with work-to-family interference? Clearly, they need to increase perceived flexibility and the number of supportive managers within their organization. In terms of perceived flexibility, they need to give employees more ability to arrange their work schedule to take personal/family commitments into account, to be home to have meals with their family, to interrupt their work day to deal with personal matters and then return to work, to take time off to attend a course or conference, to be home when their children get home from school, and to take holidays when they want. They also need to introduce paid time off to care for a sick child and/or an elderly dependent.

There is also a strong association between the behaviour of the employee's immediate manager and work-to-family interference. Employees who have a non-supportive manager who has unrealistic expectations with respect to the work to be done, puts in long hours and expects them to do the same, makes them feel guilty for time off for personal/family reasons, focuses on hours of work, not output, only talks to them when they make a mistake, and who puts them down in front of others report substantially higher levels of interference than their counterparts who report to a manager who engages in such behaviours infrequently. Employees who report to a supportive manager, on the other hand, who makes expectations clear, listens to their employees' concerns, are available to answer questions, are effective at planning the work to be done, who ask for input before making decisions that affect the employees' work, and who give employees recognition for a job well done are more able to cope with work-to-family interference than peers who have managers who do not display these behaviours. The fact that hours at work is not associated with management support/non-support indicates that these benefits do not accrue simply because employees with supportive managers work less.

It is interesting to note the association between several of the work arrangements examined in this analysis and work-to-family interference. The data indicate that employers concerned with work-to-family interference will realize few gains by implementing the following work arrangements: flextime, compressed work week, a regular 9-to-5 work day and tele-work. Those employers with a high reliance on shift work can expect to experience more problems with respect to work-to-family interference. Employers that provide the opportunity for employees to work a part-time/reduced work week/job share schedule with pro-rated benefits, on the other hand, will realize a reduction in this form of conflict.

Again, the data indicate that implementation of a number of family-friendly benefits does not help employees cope with work-to-family interference. Specifically, the use of the following benefits were not associated with this form of interference for any of the employees considered in this analysis: on-site day care, child care referral, elder care referral services, flexible work arrangements, EAP, emergency days off, unpaid LOA, paid personal days off work, time off in lieu of overtime, and short-term personal leave.

The suggestions on how employers can help employees cope with work-to-family interference are virtually identical to those provided for role overload. As noted earlier, these two forms of work-life conflict are the most common in Canada at this time and have the largest negative impact on the organization's bottom line. This means that employers can realize very significant gains by focusing their attention on increasing perceptions of flexibility and the behaviour of the managers in the organization.

Dealing with family-to-work interference

There are very few things that the employer can do to help employees cope with family-to-work interference. That being said, we can give some advice to employers concerned with this form of work-life conflict. Specifically, the data suggest that the following strategies may provide employees some increased ability to cope: increase flexibility with respect to work hours and work location (the ability to arrange one's work schedule and to vary one's hours appears to be particularly effective) and the provision of a number of family-friendly benefits, including on-site day care, child care referral, elder care referral, emergency or family days off work, personal days off with pay, short-term personal leave, part-time work with pro-rated benefits and EAP services. In other words, family-friendly benefits that help employees deal with crisis on the home front (e.g. sick child, sick dependent) do provide employees with an increased ability to cope with family-to-work interference. The lack of overlap between things that employers can do to help employees with this form of work-life conflict as opposed to those that are linked to reductions in role overload and work-to-family interference is worthy of note and consistent with our belief that the aetiology of this form of work-life conflict is very different.

Dealing with caregiver strain

There appears to be only one real strategy for employers that wish to help employees cope with the strains associated with the care of an elderly dependent: the implementation of elder care referral benefit packages. While perceived flexibility and management behaviour also have a role to play here, the impact of these factors is not as strong as observed for role overload and work-to-family interference.