Maintaining Balance: How Fall’s Shorter Days Can Encourage Better Work-Life Integration

Work-life integration is all about finding ways for employees to blend work with their everyday life so that they can be more productive and feel better fulfilled both in their career and at home. It is an evolution of the concept of work-life balance, which focuses on ensuring that employees have sufficient time away from work to avoid feeling burnt out—which can lead to reduced productivity and a variety of other negative outcomes.

Understanding the Benefits of Work-Like Integration

As the U.S. Chamber of Commerce explains, “[w]ork-life integration and work-life balance are two distinct ways to think about the boundaries (or lack thereof) between personal and professional lives.” As it goes on to explain, “[t]he largest advantage of work-life integration is flexibility.” Rather than maintaining balance by keeping their work life and personal life separate, employees who integrate their work life and personal life find themselves benefiting from a less rigid approach that improves their efficiency while also reducing their overall stress.  

Now that fall is here, and winter is just around the corner, it is a good time for companies to encourage better work-life integration—if this is not already a focus within their workforce. As the days get shorter, having more opportunities to take care of personal needs during “work hours” can give employees the flexibility they need to avoid feeling like work is getting in the way.

5 Tips for Encouraging Better Work-Life Integration

With this in mind, what can your company do to encourage better work-life integration? Here are five tips from the HR consultants at AR Group:

• Make Sure You Know the Difference Between Work-Life Balance and Work-Life Integration – While they may sound similar, work-life balance and work-life integration are not the same. If your goal is to encourage work-life integration, you will need to avoid adopting policies that focus on work-life balance instead.
• Adopt Formal Work-Life Integration Policies and Procedures – Even though work-life integration encourages flexibility, employees will want clear guidance on what is (and, more importantly, what is not) allowed. This means that companies seeking to promote work-life integration will need to adopt formal written policies and procedures.
• Provide Training at All Levels – To ensure consistent application and enforcement of the company’s work-life integration policies and procedures, training should be provided to personnel at all levels of the organization.
• Monitor, But Do Not Micromanage – Monitoring is essential for measuring the efficacy of a company’s work-life integration efforts. At the same time, however, companies must be careful to avoid micromanaging their employees’ schedules or infringing on their privacy.
• Give It Time, and Remember the End Goal – As with any major shift in workforce policy, transitioning to a focus on work-life integration will involve an adjustment period. With this in mind, it is important to give everyone time to adjust; and, if necessary, to focus on making small changes rather than abandoning the company’s efforts to achieve its end goal.

Speak with an HR Consultant at AR Group

At AR Group, we help companies of all sizes develop and implement custom-tailored work-life integration policies and procedures. If you would like more information, please call 720-452-3300 or get in touch online today.