Why should managers care about work-life balance?

Without understanding it properly, it’s easy to feel like the obsession with work-life balance is woke nonsense for people who are allergic to hard work. But that’s not necessarily the case.

So what is work-life balance really, and why should managers care about it?

What is work-life balance?

Let’s start with what it’s not. Work-life balance isn’t about pizza parties, office ping-pong tables and half-day Fridays. It’s about people being happy in their work.

I recently chatted to Richard Newstead, Managing Director of Rinew Legal, about this topic. To me, he summed it up perfectly when he said that work-life balance is “about actually being happy in what you’re doing. It’s being happy on a Sunday evening that you’re coming into work on Monday.”

Why does it matter?

If you’re really old school, you might wonder why happiness at work matters anyway. People are getting paid to work, why should happiness come into it at all?

Aside from the more obvious points about workplace wellbeing and mental health, the fact is that happier people are more productive. 13% more productive, according to some research.

Plus, happy people stay put. They know where their bread’s buttered as it were. And with the cost of recruitment, you can’t put a price on the power of people staying put (well you can actually: it’s around 15x their monthly pay).

How can you improve work-life balance for your team?

Set clear expectations

Employees are happy when they know what’s expected of them (they’re not so different from kids in that way!).

If they can go home at the end of the day and know they did everything that they needed to as part of their role, with no uncertainty, then that’s a big marker of a good work-life balance.

Have regular performance reviews

Gone are the days of annual tickbox reviews. To be an effective tool for work-life balance, you want to be having one-to-one check-ins with your team at least quarterly, if not monthly.

Through this regular communication, your team will have a clear picture of how they’re performing, where their strengths lie, and where there’s room for improvement. Again, this removes the dreaded uncertainty that plays havoc with workplace happiness.

Provide plenty of development opportunities

As Personal & Business Coach Tony Robbins puts it, ‘progress equals happiness’. As humans, we want to find ways to continuously improve – it’s essentially a psychological need.

In the workplace, that means opportunities for coaching, attending training courses and webinars, shadowing senior team members, reading great books and listening to podcasts (like Yorkshire Business Focus). Investing in your team’s development can help meet their needs and boost their happiness.

Work-life balance and workplace happiness aren’t just ‘fluff’ that you can brush off. When they’re high up on your agenda, they keep your team motivated, productive and even healthy. 

For support in improving your team’s happiness and productivity, take a look at my 12-Week Management MasterCLASS here.