Work-Life Programme - Are they worth the money?

The present work-life programmes was originally known as the Work-family programme. Cascio in his book (Managing Human Resources: Productivity, Quality of Work Life, Profits published by McGraw-Hill) defines the work-life concept that recognizes the reality that employees do face family issues and those issues invariably affect their performance at work. The Work-life programme includes all employer sponsored benefits that assist employees to manage their work and non-work demands in a more meaningful manner.

The 21st century business firms recognise the need to manage the well-being of employees from a broader perspective. They recognise that unless the employees are well taken care of, their engagement in the work will not be a whole-hearted affair. The work-life approach and practices are seen as a win-win situation.

The Ministry of Manpower, Singapore (www.mom.gov.sg) , lists a number of benefits arising out of work-life strategies, including the following:

• Increased productivity;
• Improved recruitment and retention;
• Lower absenteeism rates;
• Improved customer experience; and
• A more motivated, satisfied and equitable workforce

Cascio, citing the researches carried by others list the work-life programs into five broad categories. They are:

• Child benefits
• Flexible working conditions
• Leave options
• HR policies
• Cultural issues

The author lists a number of benefits arising from employer sponsored child care services on site. The benefits of this practice include the following:

• Reduced employee absenteeism
• Increase in the availability of staff to get things done
• Reduced tardiness

A good work-life programme should result in financial savings to the company.

The reduction of the number of days missed by parents following the implementation of onsite child care services is the major reason as to why business firms adopt the practice. When some USA business corporations started providing elder care services, their labour turnover dropped significantly. Less employees were quitting their jobs to provide elder care responsibilities for their parents. Considering the cost of labour turnover, this is a cost saving to these business organisations.

Business corporations that provide supportive policies aimed at allowing employees to manage their stress experienced a far less employee burnout and stress. The HR policies and practices make it a little easier to manage and solve their personal problems. Cascio citing the research evidences (p.61) offers the following as the ‘drivers of retention’:

• Career development opportunities
• Confidence in the future
• Feelings of accomplishment
• Amount of joy at work
• Sense of job security

The MOM website documents the outcome of work-life program adopted by Changi General Hospital. The hospital offers the following services to its employees (source: www.mom.gov.sg) :

• Health and wellness programmes, including annual health screening, weight loss management programmes and health talks. The families of staff members are also encouraged to participate in healthy lifestyle activities such as walkathons and to make use of CGH's in-house facilities to monitor their own health.
• Convenience services such as courier pick-up services, referral services on dependent care and school holiday enrichment programmes for the children of staff members
• Organised peer support programme to provide psychological support to staff who are affected by cumulative stress in the healthcare environment, helping them to cope with emotional problems at wor.
• Workplace childcare center
• Fitness center
• Organised talks and seminars on family issues”

The site lists the following as the benefits of the above measures (source MOM website – www.mom.gov.sg) :

• “An improvement in its employee satisfaction index - its biennial Employee Opinion Survey shows scores significantly better than the Singapore norm
• Its health and wellness programmes have resulted in a drastic drop in the percentage of staff with conditions such as hypertension and high glucose levels, leading to a 25 percent decrease in medical expenses per staff between FY2002 and FY2003
• Lowered attrition rate - fell by half from 26.64% in 1997 to 13.44% in 1998
• Flexi-hour take up rate is 4.1%, higher than the national average of less than 1.5%”

Robbins and Judge in their book ‘Organizational Behavior’ (12th edition) lists a number of work-life initiatives (p.565). As part of time based strategies organizations offer flexitime, job sharing, part-time work, leave for new parents and telecommuting. Business firm, such as Lucent, Marriott, Merck and Xerox offer culture-change strategies focused work-life program with the following initiatives:

• Training for managers to manage their conflicts
• Compensation based on employee satisfaction

Despite the benefits of Work-life initiatives, Cascio do emphasize the need to be cautious in making the business case for work-life programs (p. 62).

• Understand that no one set of facts and figures will make the case for all firms.
• Don’t rely on isolated facts to make the business case.
• Don’t place work-life initiatives under an unreasonable burden of proof.

Managing Diversity in the Workplace

While diversity is a problem to most organizations, successful corporations learn to manage to their full advantage. By adopting new structure and work practices that are radically different from those traditional minded management, these organizations managed to acquire a competitive advantage in the global market place. The whole purpose of managing diversity is to bring out the best of employees Talent, Abilities, Skills and Knowledge for the benefits of individual employees as well as the well-being of the corporations. When workforce diversity is well managed, no employee in the organization feels disadvantaged.

Business firms are beginning to recognize the power of workforce diversity as a competitive tool. Cascio in his book 'Managing Human Resource: Productivity, Quality of Work life, Profits (published by McGraw Hill in 2006) recommends asking the following questions in order to justify that diversity is, in fact a competitive factor:

• How can diversity help business corporations expand their operation into global market?
• How can diversity help to build and sustain brand equity and improve consumer spending?
• How does workforce diversity enhances an organization's HR strategies?
• How does the diversity element build corporate image among the consumers?
• Does diversity improve operational efficiency?How?

Cascio citing studies done by several researchers, answers each of the above question with examples to make a business case for diversity. In the process of discussing the business case for diversity, the author want the readers to ask an important question – 'What steps can you take as a manager to become more effective in a work environment that is more diverse than ever?”.

Workforce diversity should be seen in terms of age, gender. Race, ethnic composition, religion and nationality. Successful 21st century corporations no longer view diversity as a problematic issue. They view diversity as an opportunity that can be utilized to compete more effectively in the local and global markets.

According to Cascio (2006, p.119) managing diversity means aiming for a 'heterogeneous workforce' that is capable of achieving its potential in a non-discriminatory, fair and just work environment.

What are the reasons for diversity being considered as an important activity in managing the human resources? Cascio lists the following 5 reasons as to why diversity has become an important activity:

• Shift from manufacturing to a service economy
• Globalization
• Innovative business strategies that demands teamwork
• Mergers and Alliances
• Changing labor market conditions

Unlike the jobs in the manufacturing industry, service industry (banking, financial services) job holders need to maintain close and constant contact with their customers. Service industry employees are required to understand the needs and expectations of their customers. With increased customer base that is diverse, no business firm has the luxury to ignore the customer groups. To take full advantage of the opportunity corporations need to bring employees who understand and can relate to the diverse customer base. This is to ensure in the words of Cascio “workforce should mirror their customers”. This enables a smooth operations and more cordial interactions between the business firms and their customers.

Recognizing the limited market locally, more and more corporations look at the global market for sustaining and enhancing the market share. With the Globalization of markets, business corporations should learn how to manage the workforce diversity. Successful corporations try to learn from their colleagues around the world. This will enhance corporate performance. That would not be possible without a system to manage diversity.

In their attempt to cope with the problems and challenges facing their corporations, managers realize the limitations of the traditional forms of organizational structure. The strategies that need to be put in place can no longer be managed by the traditional hierarchy based command and control system. For these strategies to work you need team effort. Teams basically means diverse labor force. Successful team management is about successfully managing workforce diversity. To emphasize the usefulness of teams, Cascio (2006, p.123)quotes the words from Ted Childs, vice president, IBM Global Workforce Diversity: “When a company's vision includes the growing mix of the talent pool and the customer base, then the real argument for diversity is the business case”.

Mergers, acquisitions and alliances are becoming more common then ever before. When two business corporations decide to pool their expertise and other resources following mergers, acquisitions and alliances know the difficulties they will face, if they do not have an effective system in place to make them work together. The cultures of merged companies differ. The strategic partner's way of doing things may be different. The values, beliefs and the norms may not be an 100 per cent match. To avoid culture shock and clash of culture, organizations should put a system in place, so that employees at all level understand and accept their differences, while working towards taking full advantage of diversity that came about following mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliance. Here the focus is on seizing the opportunities arising out of diversity and being proactive in managing the diversity related issues. To make this work, managers at the top level must be convinced of the competitive advantages of workforce diversity.

The labor market is changing rapidly. More women are entering the labor market and they continue to remain in the labor market for longer period of time. Business corporations should adopt appropriate measures to meet the unique needs of the women. Balancing work and life appears to be the main focus, when it comes to managing female workforce. Cascio's Managing Human Resources: productivity, Quality of Work Life, Profits lists the following six ways that corporations may adopt to take the interests and well being of their women employees:

• Alternative career paths
• Extended leave
• Flexible work scheduling
• Flexi-time
• Job sharing
• Tele-working

Organizations need to train their employees about diversity and its usefulness to the well being of the corporation. Diversity training is a critical part when managing diversity. According to Cascio (p.124) employees need to 'understand and value' the differences among them. The acceptance of differences in a positive manner is critical if the corporation is keen to enable innovation thorough creative thinking in the workplace.