Seven Boats House Journal

How Important is Work-Life Balance?

It’s important to maintain a healthy work-life balance, not just for your own health, but also because it can improve your employee’s productivity and performance.

 Basically, when people don’t dread going to work every day, they will be more motivated and dedicated employees who are more likely to become advocates for the brand.

Here are some more reasons why maintaining a healthy work-life balance is important:

Fewer Health Problems

When we are stressed and overworked, we run the risk of jeopardising more than just our social lives – our physical and mental health is in danger too.

It’s no secret that when we are overworked, tired or stressed – our health will suffer. A poor work-life balance can lead to a variety of symptoms that can affect our wellbeing.

More Engagement

By helping your people to find the perfect balance between work and home, you will increase their engagement levels. This has many positive effects:

Having an engaged workforce will lead to your people going ‘the extra mile’ for you and becoming loyal advocates for your brand and product.

Fewer ‘Burnouts’

We all get stressed from time to time. It is unavoidable. However, workplace burnouts are avoidable, and you should make efforts to ensure this doesn’t happen to your people. Burnouts occur when we feel overwhelmed and unable to meet constant demands. The negative effects of burnout can affect every aspect of our lives.

More Mindfulness at work.

When we find and sustain a healthy work-life balance, we develop greater control over our focus and ability to concentrate on the task at hand – this is known as mindfulness. Wouldn’t you prefer a team that is fully focused on whatever they are doing, instead of worrying about work/home?

Tips to Improve Work-Life Balance

Encourage Time Off

Vacations are not a luxury, they are a necessity. A break from work will provide you with the chance to switch off and enjoy yourself, it is also a great opportunity to recuperate and recharge.

This is essential to help your people improve productivity and focus when they return to the office.

Implement Short Breaks Throughout The Day:

If taking time off isn’t an option for your people, then it is important to encourage small breaks throughout the day.

The human body was not designed to stare at a bright screen for hours on end. It is not good for our health, or our mental wellbeing.

 Ask Employees For Guidance

If you are struggling to come up with innovative ways to improve your employees’ work-life balance, then why not ask them?

If you notice that your people are struggling to find balance, then find out what changes they think would improve their situation.

 By collaborating with your team, you will get more of an insight into the way they think, and you will be able to work together on strategies more effectively in the future.

Conclusion

It is important to respect the balance and privacy of your team when they are not in the office. This means you should avoid contacting them outside of office hours to allow them to fully switch off, and recharge from everyday work stresses.

Most of us will spend a massive percentage of our time at work. We let it take over and feed into all aspects of our lives. Bearing this in mind it is essential to find the right balance and implement it in your workplace. This will allow you and your people to switch off from work and give your personal lives equal measures of attention too.

By loosening the reigns when it comes to your people’s work-life balance, you will make huge strides towards building an engaged and productive team.