As health care and retirement benefits costs continue to soar, employers find that offering a work/life balance provides value to employees without necessarily incurring higher costs.
According to the recent Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) “Benefits Trends and Employee Satisfaction” survey, employees ranked “flexibility to balance life and work issues” 3rd among the top 10 “very important” aspects of job satisfaction. Compensation/pay and job security ranked #1 and #2, respectively. Factors such as “feeling safe in the work environment,” “autonomy and independence,” and “opportunities to use skills/abilities” fell further down the list.
Why work/life balance is growing in importance:
- In-demand, younger workers are not interested in following their parents’ career path. They don’t want to put in 60-hour weeks sitting behind a desk. They seek positions that allow them the flexibility to pursue both personal and professional desires.
- Many Baby Boomers plan to continue working past retirement age. They don’t want to work full-time hours; rather, they seek positions that offer greater flexibility.
- Fields dominated by women – education, finance, professional services and health care – are incorporating work/life programs as a way of holding on to this vital demographic market.
- As the rising costs of other benefits such as health care and retirement become more difficult to guarantee to all workers, more emphasis may be placed on work/life balance and flexibility to offset the dissatisfaction and reductions in other benefits.
- As industries affected by skills shortages intensifies, greater efforts are being made to offer flexible work arrangements.
Forward-thinking employers are taking employees’ wishes to heart. By proactively creating positions that embrace a work/life balance, employers are able to offer an unparalleled tool that attracts new hires as well as retains current workers.
Until next week...
Ilyse Shapiro, Founder, MyPartTimePRO.com
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