In today’s fast-paced world, it can be hard to juggle everything and get a good work-life balance, but it’s an important thing for staff and employers to get right!

A poor work-life balance can lead to health problems and burnout, with increased sick leave and unproductive and disengaged staff, who are more likely to look for another job.

So in this blog, we’ll look at ways to encourage a good work-life balance to create a supportive work environment that values staff wellbeing. Which will you try first?

Flexible working hours

Offering your staff flexible working hours is a big perk and goes a long way to getting a good work-life balance.

Whether it’s part-time, reduced hours, or flexible start times, it will mean staff can work in ways that best suit them. It could be to avoid a stressful commute, work around school drop offs and pickups, or have more time to fit in a hobby, or learn a new skill.

LeavePlanner takes the stress out of managing flexible working hours, absences and leave with easy to use timesheets and rotas to ensure the right staffing levels for your business.

Offer support and wellness programmes

Employers have a great opportunity to create a supportive workplace culture and promote staff wellbeing.

Providing workplace mental health workshops, wellbeing sessions and access to counselling services or advice, will encourage open communication and help staff deal with stress and any issues that may be preventing them from achieving a good work-life balance.

Employee benefits

Having the right parental, adoption or sick leave benefits, can provide the time and flexibility your staff need to focus on personal and family needs.

This can reduce stress, promote wellbeing and lead to increased engagement and better productivity on their return to work. Using the right absence management software makes it easy to keep on top of different types of leave.

Promote exercise

There are numerous health benefits associated with exercising, including boosting mood. Encouraging regular exercise is a great way for employers to improve staff’s wellbeing and promote a healthy work-life balance.

Introducing flexible working arrangements will allow staff to exercise more and focus on their wellbeing.

New initiatives, like setting up exercise equipment in your workplace is a great way to maximise staff’s downtime. Taking part in cycle to work schemes and offering discounts on bikes and equipment, will also encourage regular exercise and reduce your business’ carbon footprint.

Work from home or hybrid working

Regularly working from home, or hybrid working, gives employees great flexibility and makes it possible to have a good work-life balance.

With LeavePlanner it’s simple to manage rotas and working from home, or hybrid schedules.

Encourage regular breaks

Encouraging staff to take regular breaks throughout the day will improve productivity. It’s really beneficial to create a breakout area where staff can de-stress and relax.

Staff should also be reminded to use their annual leave. As regularly taking annual leave reduces stress, burnout and long term sick leave.

A big factor for staff feeling unable to take holiday, is fear of putting added pressure on the remaining staff. Ensuring workloads are manageable will make it possible for staff to use their annual leave.

With LeavePlanner you can keep on top of how much holiday allowance is left to use and remind staff to use it regularly, as well as use shift timetables to arrange any necessary cover to keep operations running smoothly.

Arrange your free trial today, for easy to use absence management software, call Steve on 01252 636 070 or email support@leaveplanner.com

Pssst! Check out our new all-in-one system, HR Planner, which incorporates an easy-to-use leave management solution, designed specifically with SMEs in mind.