Executive Summary

Work-Life Balance
More Business Strategy Than Benefit

Linda Hall Whitman, MSW, Ph.D.
President of Ceridian Performance Partners

April 1997

One of the great ironies of business is that an organization's strength is at the mercy of its most precarious constituent: its people. Human resources are, after all, only human.

The workforce as a whole is by no means unstable, but on any given day at any given hour, employers lose employees to matters once tidily compartmentalized as "personal issues." The divisions that once segregated concerns of the home from those of work are yielding to such societal shifts as dual-career baby boom couples who must serve as caregivers for both their children and aging parents. Internal stressors such as an addiction, depression or financial pressure continue to erode individual ability as well.

Whatever their nature, personal issues come to work with the person. Workplace statistics are humbling, particularly for those in positions of power who aim to be accommodating to the needs of their workforce but whose ultimate accountability to the bottom line must prevail.

Consider: The average American worker misses three to four days of work per year because of family problems (Families and Work Institute, 1993). Seven out of ten employees say stress makes them less productive and causes frequent health problems (Northwestern National Life, 1990). Employees who experience work-family conflicts are three times as likely to think about quitting their jobs (The Partnership Group, 1994). Factors that have nothing to do with job descriptions have everything to do with job performance. Without intervention of some sort, chronic absenteeism, decreased productivity and high turnover can sap an organization of its strength.

At Ceridian Performance Partners we're dedicated to advancing a holistic model that, admittedly, has a trailblazer quality to it. We believe that if employees don't have control over all the dimensions of their lives, they're unlikely-unable, really-to give their full potential to their company's goals. By making available to them the means for balancing life's demands, otherwise distracted employees can come to perform at maximum effectiveness, adding value to an organization, in turn sharpening its competitive edge.

This isn't theory. Eighty-seven percent of employees say they would work harder for a company willing to help them deal with personal problems (Roper Poll, 1996). Seventy-six percent of employers find work-life programs integral to recruiting, and sixty-four percent believe work-life programs increase morale and cut absenteeism (Mercer Study, 1996). No, this is most assuredly a business issue.

For a work-life initiative to become an organizational mentality, employer and employee must support it in deed as well as word. Organizations must embrace it as a business strategy versus viewing it as just another benefit or the latest program.

Ceridian Performance Partners advises clients to first identify their business priorities and the needs of those employees they seek to attract and retain, then determine which work-life strategies resolve the overlapping issues. Strategies adopted, we work with organizations in selecting the range of work-life services to best serve their workforce. Managers, who become de facto gatekeepers to work-life tools and resources, must subscribe to the mindset and its methods. They must make it 'okay'-in fact, desirable-for their people to seek assistance.

Implicit to our model is employee responsibility for the management of their own lives. Work-life isn't about providing handouts so much as lending a hand. It's sending a message to employees that, "We value you and need your top performance. Here's practical help with the pressures you face."

Enlightened organizations recognize that the pendulum has swung: today's workplace must adapt to its workforce and the incessant realities that confront it. Our work at Ceridian Performance Partners places the emphasis on the "human" in human resources, reasoning that an organization's efforts to embolden its human capital are acts that strengthen itself.

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