WORK LIFE BALANCE INTRODUCTION AND FINDINGS The demand for work-life-balance solutions by employees and managers is expanding

at an unprecedented rate. As a result, work-life balance is an increasingly hot topic in boardrooms and government halls today. Over the coming decade it will be one of the most important issues that executives and human resource professionals will be expected to manage. This article provides the methods for you to accelerate the implementation of a very successful work-life strategy within your organization. First we cover why work-life is critical to the key objectives of your organization and its executive team. A brief history of work-life efforts follows so you can learn from the trial and error of others and avoid their mistakes. Finally, we describe the two parts of a successful worklife strategy and how you can most quickly and effectively implement them. Lets start with the senior executive concerns and opportunities that work-life affects. Growth and profit impact. Accelerated on and off-the-job stresses and expectations are adversely affecting top and bottom-line growth, unnecessarily driving down productivity. A well-implemented work-life strategy greatly reduces both the real and perceived overwork and out-of-balance pressures that hamper productivity, producing a dramatic positive return on investment. Full Engagement and customer service. A workforce that is out of balance, unnecessarily stressed, or disgruntled greatly reduces full engagement with external and internal customers. Conversely, commitment to the organizations objectives and clients needs rises in direct proportion to the perception that the organization is committed to both the work and life success of each individual. Competitive advantage for talent. Demanding baby boomers--and even more, the smaller pool of younger workers--have increased their expectations of a positive work-life culture. Employees expect their employers to recognize that in addition to having a job, they have a life. This is reflected by the fact that work-life balance issues with the boss or the company are the number-one reason that individuals quit their jobs. Health-care cost solution. The rising organizational cost of health care is driving senior management to become more proactive about employee health. Senior managers view engaging employees in improving their own lifestyle behaviors and creating a healthier workplace as key components to the solution. The way we get the most out of our people is by encouraging each of them to have a life. It is the job of the senior management team and specifically HR to make this happen in ways that are consistent with the organizations business and customer- service objectives. Unfortunately, even as the demand for work-life solutions has skyrocketed, many work-life efforts have fallen short of their promise and potential to deliver the desired results for the individual and the organization. Positive new trends in the field, however, show that results can live up to expectations. In planning your own work-life efforts, be careful to avoid the pitfalls others have stumbled into and focus on implementing the successes. Lets start with learning from the past.

A BRIEF HISTORYTRIAL AND ERROR During the 1960s and 1970s, employers considered work-life mainly an issue for working mothers who struggled with the demands of their jobs and raising children. Throughout this period and into the mid1980s, the U. S. government had the major impact in the field, as reflected by the Presidential Conference on Families, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and the Quality of Employment Survey.

During the 1980s, recognizing the value and needs of their women contributors, pioneering organizations such as Merck, Deloitte & Touche, and IBM began to change their internal workplace policies, procedures, and benefits. The changes included maternity leave, employee assistance programs (EAPs), flextime, home-based work, and child-care referral. During the 1980s men also began voicing work-life concerns. By the end of the decade, work-life balance was seen as more than just a womens issue, affecting men, families, organizations and cultures. The 1990s solidified the recognition of work-life balance as a vital issue for everyone-- women, men, parents and non-parents, singles, and couples. This growing awareness of the central importance of the issue resulted in major growth in attempted work-life solutions during this decade. Numerous studies showed that the generations from baby boomers to new college graduates were making job choices based on their own work-life issues and employers cultures. Unfortunately, although companies were adopting family-friendly policies, employees and managers were not implementing them. Many of the policies put into place in the 1980s failed to have a significant impact on most managers and employees real-world work-life-balance results. Americans still reported feeling even more overworked and out of touch with their non-work lives much of the time. During the first years of the twenty-first century, the disappointing results made human resource and work-life professionals as well as executives at all levels take stock. Karol Rose, author of the soon to be published book Work Life Strategies, comments on these trends in Fortune Magazine s third annual work-life special feature included in the October 2005 issue. She noted that the Work-Life Leadership Council of the Conference Board, a gathering of high-level corporate HR and work- life professionals, drew these conclusions on looking back over the last decade of efforts. Among their concerns were: Stress, overwork, and their negative impact on productivity and health-care costs are real and growing. Competition for talent from all levels and ages will increase Some of the solutions proposed by The Work-Life Council included: Draw from different organizations and departments representing different perspectives to identify key work-life issues, the next big thing, and future best practices. Identify the new trends--which might not be visible now--and develop strategic responses. Create a new language for the work-life field. Maximize the beneficiaries of work-life efforts. What is the next big thing or new trend that will produce successful results for individuals and the organization? How do you implement it with support from across the organization? How do you avoid

past mistakes? How do you create a new language that maximizes value for the most beneficiaries? You start by recognizing the two key components necessary for any successful work-life strategy. THE TWO LEGS OF THE WORK-LIFE STRATEGY Until recently, most organizations have taken a one-sided systems approach to their work-life efforts. Their focus has been on adopting organization policies, benefits, and procedures to solve the work-lifebalance problem. Although helpful, the systems approach overlooks a critical fact: At its core, work-life balance is more an individual issue that affects the organization than it is an organizational issue that affects the individual. The systems approach asks, What can the organization do to create a better work-life balance for the individual? The other half of the work-life strategy, the individual approach, asks, What can individual employees and managers do for themselves to create their own best work-life balance? In the work-life strategy ladder at Work-Life Strategy Ladder, the rungs of the ladder represent your organizations reasons for addressing work-life balance in the first place. You want to climb the ladder, starting out with the recruiting rung. Once new employees are recruited you want positive retention, higher productivity, attitude/morale, great customer service, and ongoing employee commitment, all of which will generate higher revenue and record Profits for businesses or exceptional levels of service for governmental and nonprofit organizations? Keep in mind that anything you recommend and implement must be consistent with the business objectives of your organization. Here are ten options for the systems leg of your strategy. 1. Reinforce through better communications what you are already doing. Most companies work-life benefits, procedures, and policies are isolated from each other. Pull them together and publicize them as your work-life package. At a minimum, post them on your Web site as a package. 2. Abolish internal Friday-afternoon meetings. With full support from management, this policy alone can bring very quick and positive results. 3. Give a half day off on Fridays if the individual has put in the incremental hours earlier in the week and assuming that no outside customer meetings are scheduled. 4. Endorse working from home one day per week. 5. Offer subsidies for off-site exercise. 6. Create and support athletic teams. Consider underwriting part of the expense. 7. Provide one or two days off with pay for approved community involvement. 8. Create and encourage an annual or quarterly bring your family to work day. 9. Establish a disconnect from work vacation policy--no cell phones or laptops. 10. Create a more accommodating on- and off-ramp policy for those who leave the firm, especially if it is to spend time with family. When they show interest in coming back, make it easy for them to get back on where they left. Some of these items can be quick-hit opportunities to reinforce the left leg, systems side of your worklife strategy. But it is critically important for you to remember that. A One-Legged Ladder Wont Stand Up Even with the most comprehensive programs, the systems approach will not stand by itself. With only one leg, your work-life ladder will fall. You wont be able to climb up to the retention, morale, and revenue rungs you were targeting.

As we mentioned earlier, the right leg is, What has the individual done for him or herself to create their own best work-life balance? The lack of a supporting right-leg strategy is why most organizations have failed to achieve the work-like results they desire. The Right Leg of Your Work-Life Ladder-- Individual Differences The right leg is essential because the best work-life balance is different for everyone. The best work -life balance for you is different from that for your coworker , or your boss or your neighbor. For some, working long hours creates value and balance in their lives. For others, it is not a routine they can productively or enjoyably maintain. In addition, the best work-life balance changes for each individual over time. A good work-life balance for someone starting his or her career is different from that for someone getting ready to retire. A good work-life balance for someone who is single with no children is different from that for a single parent with two children. Your own best work-life balance will change, often on a daily basis. As a result, your company or organization cannot create the best work-life balance for you. As individuals, we must find and create it for ourselves. Brad Harrington, the director of Boston Colleges Center for Work & Family, has reflected on past efforts. He says, Work-life balance comes down, not to an organizational strategy, but to an individual strategy. Often organizational programs cost a great deal of money and miss the mark for the individual, or at least most of the individuals. We have built in-house child-care centers that require a large investment in bricks, mortar, and staffing. They create a lot of visibility. But at the end of the day, what about the 9 out of 10 individuals who dont have kids between 1 to 5? Harrington is not saying that these left -leg programs do not bring value. Instead he reflects that what we need now is something that takes it down to the individual level--more help to the individual to help them sort it out for themselves. As a result, for most organizations the key work-life strategy question becomes, What can we do to support that right leg of individual responsibility, accountability, and action that touches everybody? How do we make sure all managers and individual contributors have the skills and a common language to positively sort it out for themselves? The Future of the Individual Approach The solutions to these questions have begun to materialize. Over a decade of research by the Ford Foundation, WorkLifeBalance.com, and others shows exciting results from advancing a dual agenda of improving organizational effectiveness and enabling managers and individual contributors to integrate work and personal life more fully and positively. Research has shown that the relational skills needed for better interactions with family and friends and the skills called for in increasingly team-oriented work environments are very similar. Developed, onthe-job skills in dealing more effectively with internal and external customers are transferable to off-thejob relationships and vice versa. Similarly, time-, project-, and activities-management skills learned on the job are transferable to accomplishing family, personal and community objectives as well. Put another way, developing great off-the-job skills can result in great on-the-job skills. This is true both for leaders and individual contributors. Managers and supervisors who develop skills that work for them as individuals are better equipped to respect the importance of their employees work-life choices and to advise their employees on those choices.

The dual agenda of better organizational effectiveness and better personal work-life balance is made possible by the win-win process of dual-purpose work and life learning. THE NEXT BIG THING: DUAL- PURPOSE WORK AND LIFE TRAINING Dual-purpose learning is education that applies both to learners on-the-job lives and to their off-thejob lives. It has proven to be the quickest way to accomplish the organizations most critical work objectives and the individuals work-life balance objectives simultaneously. We can view dual-purpose learning both as employee development and as a benefit. It is an issue for everyone in the organization, from executives to new hires. It is used in recruiting and for driving productivity. Because of this multifaceted HR and productivity training impact, senior executives at every level have initiated enterprise- wide work-life programs. Implementation of work-life balance training has been steered by vice presidents of HR and HR generalists, chief learning officers and trainers, work- life professionals, and benefits specialists. Human resource managers who implement successful work-life training programs throughout their management ranks accomplish two major bottom-line goals. First, they increase the retention, commitment, and productivity of the firms most valuable people asset, its managers and supervisors. Second, the managers and supervisors reflect a new tool set and language that produce a much more positive view of the organization at all levels. This more positive view has a cascading impact on the attitude, morale, productivity, and customer-service levels of all employees. We can view dual-purpose learning both as employee development and as a benefit. It is an issue for everyone in the organization, from executives to new hires. It is used in recruiting and for driving productivity. Because of this multifaceted HR and productivity training impact, senior executives at every level have initiated enterprise-wide work-life programs. Implementation of work-life balance training has been steered by vice presidents of HR and HR generalists, chief learning officers and trainers, work-life professionals, and benefits specialists. Human resource managers who implement successful work-life training programs throughout their management ranks accomplish two major bottom-line goals. First, they increase the retention, commitment, and productivity of the firms most valuable people asset, its managers and supervisors. Second, the managers and supervisors reflect a new tool set and language that produce a much more positive view of the organization at all levels. This more positive view has a cascading impact on the attitude, morale, productivity, and customer-service levels of all employees. For example, Monsanto conducted a set of baseline surveys on customer satisfaction within their finance department. The conclusion was that employees' satisfaction with their work-life balance was one of the two strongest predictors of customer satisfaction. The other factor was employees general satisfaction with their jobs. With this demonstrated link between employees' assessment of balance and customers' ratings of overall quality of service, Monsanto initiated a global-finance duallearning program. Over the next three years, results exceeded expectations in almost every area in which performance measures had been identified, including customer service quality ratings, problem resolution, timeliness of information, and employee work-life balance ratings. In studies with dozens of corporate and government clients, we have established that dual-purpose learning (work and personal

applications taught together) nearly doubles the retention and utilization rates of specific relationship, time management, and project-management skills learned as measured 60 to 120 days following the learning. The resulting impact on productivity is also clear. In a study of over 5,000 participants using the duallearning approach, 94 percent of learners reported ongoing on-the-job productivity gains from the learning, with an average reported individual productivity increase of 24 percent. For the individual and organization to get the full benefit of developing these dual-purpose work and life skills, you need to make the learning of such skills a part of your organizations stated strategy. Just as we train managers and employees in technical skills necessary to succeed in their jobs, we need to make a commitment to training in work-life skill sets that reinforce the individuals success on and off the job. Important specifics to include in these work and life skill sets are relationship, time management, focusing, and project-management tools as well as practical work and life goal creation and attainment. Once you make the strategy commitment, implementation can be relatively easy. The HR professional can take the role of change-agent champion who secures commitment to the strategy. Or the HR professional can coordinate the implementation or actually deliver the training. You can also bring a solution recommendation to the attention of senior executives or work-life teams who request work-life answers. How to Implement Dual-Purpose Training Here are steps you can take to implement dual-purpose work-life training successfully into your organization. You do not need to implement all of the steps to produce a successful program, but being aware of them can be helpful as you continue your program over time. 1. Search out and evaluate the training alternatives. They include: a. Internal development and delivery of a work-life training program. Do you have the knowledgeable internal resources and time? b. Outsource the training to a proven vendor. Excellent, cost-effective options exist. Be sure to check references carefully and that the firm specializes and has proven success in the field. c. Trainer certification: external content, internal delivery. Certify your internal trainers to deliver and coordinate a proven external work-life educational program. Partnering with a proven provider for certification saves developmental time and costs and helps insures a quality outcome. 2. Make sure the training you plan is dual purpose and practical. The skills that your program teaches must affect job performance and off-the job value and balance. This point is critical. The right leg of your strategy is not just awareness training. It is practical, how- to training that works both on and off the job. A discussion of theories or concepts will not successfully accomplish the objective. The learning should focus on practical tools that produce immediate results during the training, both personal and professional. 3. Find a co-champion to support your efforts. It may be a senior executive. Sometimes there is more pain and thus more demand in pockets such as finance, IT or sales. If so, partner with that departments manager in running a pilot.

4. Run a dual-purpose training pilot. Select attendees from different areas of the company or deliver to your champions group. Address their needs and build a success story that makes the business and budget case for a larger rollout. 5. Secure senior managements full buy-in and support. Expose senior management to the training early and get their endorsement and support. Real support means they will participate in one of the early training sessions, encourage the use of the tools, and lend their signatures to e-mails and notices promoting it. 6. Select and train the trainer(s) to do the rollout. Within your firm, HR professionals, trainers, members of the work-life team, and interested line managers and executives can all be good choices for trainer certification. 8. Start your training rollout with managers. Bosses are the number-one reason people quit, and the top complaints about bosses are work-life issues. As a result, whenever possible, train all your people managers first. Improving supervisors and managers skill sets has the widest and fastest impact 9. . Cascade to employees in a time frame that works for your trainers and budget resources. By delivering the same skill set to employees that you delivered to managers, you create a common tool set and work-life language to get things done more effectively on the job and create more individual value and balance off the job. 10. Put out a monthly work-life newsletter. As part of your ongoing educational program, a monthly newsletter demonstrates more than a one-time commitment to work-life balance within your organization. You can have the newsletter developed and written internally or created and branded by an outside work-life firm. If the newsletter is done internally, each month interview an individual within your organization who is respected for his or her productivity and also reflects a positive balance. Ask him or her for tips. 11. Use multiple delivery venues. Doing so creates and reinforces the common language. Most important, it drives an ongoing positive perception about your organizations commitment to work-life balance. Work-life firms have existing packages to support your efforts. You can run multiple delivery venues internally or externally with very limited administrative time or costs. Delivery venues include: a. Live delivery b. On-demand Web training c. Access to Web training for family members d. Monthly newsletter e. E-mail prompts Work- Life education replaces separate work- training and life-benefit efforts with one approach that delivers key elements of both. The result is that both the work training and the life benefit are implemented more effectively and for a fraction of the costs, greatly expanding the impact of training and benefits budgets. Work-life training is the right leg--the individual side of your work-life strategy ladder. It puts the responsibility and skill set in the hands of each individual to create his or her own best work-life balance. GETTING STARTED--GETTING SOMETHING DONE

There is a big difference between doing things and getting something done. Most work-life efforts by HR and work-life balance teams fail despite lots of doing. The problem is that all the doing didnt get anything done. If you want to get something done that produces strong positive results and feedback, start by taking action now. To ensure success, make sure you have in place both the left-leg systems approach and the right-leg individual training approach. Start by addressing your organizations weaker leg. If that is the left leg of the ladder--your systems approach--pick one or two items from the list of ten left-leg opportunities that you think you can get implemented. Then act quickly to get buy-in and implementation. If you are lacking work-life training, especially for supervisors, then you should focus on the right leg of the ladder, the individual approach. Focus on conducting a training pilot program as soon as possible. Get through step one above, searching and evaluating the training options purposefully but quickly. Then with focused speed, you should move to step 4, a pilot. If your pilot is successful, you are on your way. If it misses the mark somewhat, you have learned something to make the next session right. You will find this direct, get-it-started approach much timelier and more cost effective than unending meetings, analysis, and discussions. Whether you are just introducing a work -life program or making an already great one better, you will be substantially improving your organizations bottom line results and changing individuals lives for the better. This is some of the most important work you can do. You and your whole organization will be proud of the result. Work-life balance is about creating and maintaining supportive and healthy work environments, which will enable employees to have balance between work and personal responsibilities and thus strengthen employee loyalty and productivity. Numerous studies have been conducted on work-life balance. According to a major Canadian study conducted by Lowe (2005), 1 in 4 employees experience high levels of conflict between work and family, based on work-to-family interference and caregiver strain. If role overload is included, then close to 60 percent of employees surveyed experience work-family conflict. Of all the job factors that influence work-life conflict, the amount of time spent at work is the strongest and most consistent predictor. The higher levels of work-to- family conflict reported by managers or professionals often are a function of their longer work hours. Other reasons include: job security, support from ones supervisor, support from co-workers, work demands or overload, work-role conflict, work-role ambiguity, job dissatisfaction, and extensive use of communication technology that blurs the boundaries between home and work. Todays workers have many competing responsibilities such as work, children, housework, volunteering, spouse and elderly parent care and this places stress on individuals, families and the communities in which they reside. Work-life conflict is a serious problem that impacts workers, their employers and communities. It seems that this problem is increasing over time due to high female labour force participation rates, increasing numbers of single parent families, the predominance of the dual-earner family and emerging

trends such as elder care. It is further exasperated with globalization, an aging population, and historically low unemployment. The Negative Effects of Work Life Conflict Long work hours and highly stressful jobs not only hamper employees ability to harmonize work and family life but also are associated with health risks, such as increased smoking and alcohol consumption, weight gain and depression. Work life conflict has been associated with numerous physical and mental health implications. According to a 2007 study by Duxbury and Higgins, women are more likely than men to report high levels of role overload and caregiver strain. This is because 16 women devote more hours per week than men to non-work activities such as childcare, elder care and are more likely to have primary responsibility for unpaid labour such as domestic work. Furthermore, other studies show that women also experience less spousal support for their careers than their male counterparts. Although women report higher levels of work-family conflict than do men, the numbers of work-life conflict reported by men is increasing. Work-life conflict has negative implications on family life. According to the 2007 study by Duxbury and Higgins, 1 in 4 Canadians report that their work responsibilities interfere with their ability to fulfill their responsibilities at home. Employees, especially the younger generation who are faced with long hours, the expectations of 24/7 connection and increasing pressure of globalization are beginning to demand changes from their employers. Also, people in the elderly employee segment are working longer now than in the past and are demanding different work arrangements to accommodate their life style needs. Current Practices Employers are becoming increasingly aware of the cost implications associated with over-worked employees such as: operating and productivity costs, absenteeism, punctuality, commitment and performance. There are five main reasons why companies participate in work life balance programs: high return on investment, recruitment and retention of employees, legislation, costs and union regulations. There are a wide variety of practices currently being used to help employees achieve work-life balance. It is important to note that some work-life balance programs help employees handle stress and otherwise cope more effectively while other programs help to reduce the absolute stress levels by rebalancing work life. A growing number of employers have implemented wellness programs or pay for their employees gym membership as part of a benefits package. Some companies invite fitness trainers or yoga instructors into the office to hold lunchtime sessions. Some companies undertake initiatives to improve employees healthy eating habits. Others offer stress management programs which include stretching, yoga, counseling, as well as bringing in Registered Massage Therapists to work.

Many employers are offering longer vacation times than the mandatory 2 weeks per year imposed by Canadian legislation. Additionally, some companies will offer flex days. Interestingly, sick days tend to go down once some is entitled to three 17 weeks or more a year of holidays. Human resources policies that can be used to increase work-life balance include implementing time off in lieu of overtime pay arrangements, providing a limited number of days of paid leave per year for child care, elder care or personal problems, or having policies around weekend and evening use of laptops and Blackberrys. There are some issues that arise when employees have flexible work hours such as lack of face-time with other staff and not being as available to clients; these issues can be solved by ensuring employees discuss scheduling with supervisor and let clients and other employees know their hours of availability. Sometimes in order to accommodate workers need for work life balance, firms may need to reduce the amount of work given to each employee. To accomplish this, employers can hire new people, reduce time spent in job-related travel, allow for job sharing, or reevaluate the work itself and how it is structured and organized with work process improvements and/or reengineering of work. According to a study by Messmer in 2006, flexible scheduling is the benefit valued most by employees. However, increased flexibility, if implemented without conditions and used to facilitate business ends without provision for worker consent, could compromise instead of enhance work life balance. Work life balance in Public and private sector Public sector: Prior to Independence, there were few Public Sector Enterprises in the country. These included the Railways, the Posts and Telegraphs, the Port Trusts, the Ordinance Factories, All India Radio, few enterprises like the Government Salt Factories, Quinine Factories, etc. which were departmentally managed. The public sector is that portion of society controlled by national, state or provincial, and local governments. In the United States, the public sector encompasses universal, critical services such as national defense, homeland security, police protection, fire fighting, urban planning, corrections, taxation, and various social programs. The public sector overlaps with the private sector in producing or providing certain goods and services. The extent of this overlap varies from country to country, state to state, province to province, and city to city. This overlap is most often seen in waste management, water management, health care, security services, and shelters for homeless and abused people. Sometimes, service providers move 18 from the public sector to the private. This is known as privatization, and has been taking place in recent years on a large scale throughout the world. In other instances, a service may shift from the private sector to the public. This is less common, but health care is one area where some governments are providing or experimenting with services previously furnished by private providers.

Governments routinely hire private corporations to provide goods and services for the public sector, a practice known as outsourcing. Examples include the manufacture, construction, or maintenance of aircraft, military hardware, electronic and communications equipment, computers, roads, freeways, bridges, parks, and recreation areas. Private Sector:The phenomenal growth of private sector of India can be attributed to political will, financial reforms, usage of more advanced technology, young and large English speaking working class. The 7-8 % of annual GDP growth rate India is the one of the highest growth rate in the world. The last 15 years witnessed a phenomenal rise of the growth of private sector in India. The opening up of Indian economy has led to free inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) along with modern cutting edge technology, which propelled India's economic growth. Previously, the Indian market were ruled by the government enterprises but the scene in Indian market changed as soon as the markets were opened for investments. This saw the rise of the Indian private companies which prioritized customer's need and speedy service. This further fueled competition amongst same industry players and even in government organizations. Further, the government of India also divested some of its enterprises to ensure smooth operation of these companies which was otherwise were loss making. It also went further and forged joint venture private Indian companies, especially in sectors like, telecommunication, petroleum, housing and infrastructure. This inculcated healthy competition and benefited the end consumers, since the cost of service or products come down substantially. Public sector Life Insurance Corporation Limited:Insurance is a social device where uncertain risks of individuals may be combined in a group and thus made more certain - small periodic contributions by the individuals provide a found out of which those who suffer losses may be reimbursed. In addition to being a means to protect oneself, the insurance Industry is an efficient conduit for the saving of people to be channeled towards economic growth. In India, the Insurance Industry7 is more than 150 years old. Today, it is monopolized by two PSU's in their respective fields of life and General Insurance. However, with the successful passage IRDA Bill through both houses of parliament in December 1999 the sector has been opened up to private players.This will provided much. Needed impetus to the Industry and will improve the quality of service and products and will also increase employment opportunities. There are still some issues their need to be sorted out, particularly with regard to the status of intermediaries as envisaged by the Insurance Regulatory Authority. acquired almost monopoly power in the solicitation and sale of life insurance policies in India. In addition to the summary regarding the present stature provided at the beginning, LIC has extended its 20

catering to the insurance needs of Non Resident Indians. The enforcement of New Economic Reforms in 1991 coupled with the formation of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act (IRDA) of 2000 (which started issuing licenses to private life insurers ) has diluted the monopolistic attitude commanded by LIC. The only insurance company belonging to the public sector now has to compete with several other corporate entities of its kind which often are heavyweight Indian as well as Multinational Life Insurance Brands in themselves. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited:- Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. formed in October, 2000, is World's 7th largest Telecommunications Company providing comprehensive range of telecom services in India: Wireline, CDMA mobile, GSM Mobile, Internet, Broadband, Carrier service, MPLS-VPN, VSAT, VoIP services, IN Services etc. Presently it is one of the largest & leading public sector unit in India. State Bank of India:- The State Bank of India, popularly known as SBI, is one of the leading banks in India. The bank traces its origin to the first decade of the 19th century. Later on, it was merged with the Imperial Bank. In the year 1955, the Government of India nationalized the Imperial Bank along with the Reserve Bank of India. Ever since that time, the bank acquired its present name that is SBI. The State Bank of India is India's largest commercial bank. The bank has been striving sincerely to adhere to the efforts of providing utmost customer satisfaction to the best possible extent. 21

SBI created a unique method of serving its customers even on a holiday. One can find a floating SBI ATM on a boat in the backwaters of Kerala. This caters to the needs of the customers by providing service round the clock. Besides, the customers can also avail the facilities of online banking and transaction. Private sector ICICI:- ICICI Bank is India's second-largest bank with total assets of Rs. 3,634.00 billion (US$ 81 billion) at March 31, 2010 and profit after tax Rs. 40.25 billion (US$ 896 million) for the year ended March 31, 2010. The Bank has a network of 2,009 branches and about 5,219 ATMs in India and presence in 18 countries. ICICI Bank offers a wide range of banking products and financial services to corporate and retail customers through a variety of delivery channels and through its specialised subsidiaries in the areas of investment banking, life and non-life insurance, venture capital and asset management. The Bank currently has subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Russia and Canada, branches in United States, Singapore, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Qatar and Dubai International Finance Centre and representative offices in United Arab Emirates, China, South Africa, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Our UK subsidiary has established branches in Belgium and Germany. HDFC:- HDFC Bank was amongst the first to receive an 'in-principle' approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to set up a bank in the private sector from Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited (HDFC), in 1994 during the period of liberalization of the banking sector in India. HDFC India was

incorporated in August 1994 in the name of 'HDFC Bank Limited'. HDFC India commenced operations as a Scheduled Commercial Bank in January 1955. 22

HDFC India deals in varieties of products like home loan, standard life insurance, mutual fund, securities, credit cards, etc. HDFC has branch offices in all major cities in India like Calcutta, Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad apart from HDFC Mumbai Accounts, Salary Accounts, Current Accounts, Fixed Deposits, Demat Account, Safe Deposit Lockers, Credit Cards, Debit Cards, Prepaid Cards, Investments & Insurance, Forex Services, Payment Services, Net Banking, Insta Alerts ,MobileAirtel:- Established in 1995 by Sunil Mittal as a Public Limited Company, Airtel is the largest telecom service provider in Indian telecom sector. With market capitalization of over Rs. 1,360 billion, Airtel has 31% of total market share of GSM service providers. Providing GSM services in all the 23 circles, Airtel was the first private player in telecom sector to connect all states of India. Also, Airtel is the first mobile service provider to introduce the lifetime prepaid services and electronic recharge systems. After establishing itself in the domestic market, Airtel is now spreading its wings in US by providing its mobile service under the name 'CALLHOME' to the NRIs. Airtel is listed on The Stock Exchange, Mumbai (BSE) and The National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE). Defining work-life balance We all play many roles: employee, boss, subordinate, spouse, parent, child, sibling, friend and community member. Each of these roles imposes demands on 23 us that require time, energy and commitment to fulfill. Work-family or work-life conflict occurs when the cumulative demands of these many work and non-work life roles are incompatible in some respect so that participation in one role is made more difficult by participation in the other role. Work/life balance, in its broadest sense, is defined as a satisfactory level of involvement or fit between the multiple roles in a persons life. Although definitions and explanations vary, work/life balance is generally associated with equilibrium, or maintaining an overall sense of harmony in life. The study of work/life balance involves the examination of peoples ability to manage simultaneously the multi-faceted demands of life. Although work/life balance has traditionally been assumed to involve the devotion of equal amounts of time to paid work and non-work roles, more recently the concept has been recognized as more complex. There exists three basic aspects of work life balance Involvement balance, meaning the level of psychological involvement in, or commitment to, work and nonhe level of satisfaction with work and non-

This model of work/life balance, with time, involvement and satisfaction components, enables a broader and more inclusive picture to emerge. For example, someone who works two days a week and spends the rest of the week with his or her family may be unbalanced in terms of time (i.e. equal measures of work and life), but may be equally committed to the work and non- work roles (balanced involvement) and may also be highly satisfied with the level of involvement in both work and family (balanced satisfaction). Someone who works 60 hours a week might be perceived as not having work/life balance in terms of time. However, like the person who works only a few hours a week, this individual would also be unbalanced in terms of time, but may be quite content with this greater involvement in paid work (balanced satisfaction). Alternatively, 24 someone who works 36 hours a week, doesnt enjoy his or her job and spends the rest of the time pursuing preferred outside activities may be time-balanced but unbalanced in terms of involvement and satisfaction. Thus, achieving balance needs to be considered from multiple perspectives. Work life and personal life are the two sides of the same coin. According to various work /life balance surveys, more than 60% of the respondent professionals surveyed said that are not able to find a balance between their personal and professional lives. They have to make tough choices even when their work and personal life is nowhere close to equilibrium. Traditionally creating and managing a balance between the work-life was considered to be a woman's issue. But increasing work pressures, globalization and technological advancement have made it an issue with both the sexes, all professionals working across all levels and all industries throughout the world. Achieving "work-life balance" is not as simple as it sounds. Work life and personal life are inter-connected and interdependent. Spending more time in office, dealing with clients and the pressures of job can interfere and affect the personal life, sometimes making it impossible to even complete the household chores. On the other hand, personal life can also be demanding if you have a kid or aging parents, financial problems or even problems in the life of a dear relative. It can lead to absenteeism from work, creating stress and lack of concentration at work. Work-personal life conflict occurs when the burden, obligations and responsibilities of work and family roles become incompatible. Obligation of one can force an individual to neglect the other. Changing & increasing work pressures A decade back, employees used to have fixed working hours or rather a 9 to 5 job from Monday to Friday. The boundary between the work and home has disappeared with time. But with globalization and people working across countries, 25 the concept of fixed working hours is fading away. Instead of just 7 or 8 a day, people are spending as much as 12-16 hours every day in office. The technological blessings like e-mail, text messaging and cell phones which were thought of as tools to connect them to their work being away from their workplace, have actually integrated their personal and professional lives. Now professionals find themselves working even when they are on vacations.

The ever-increasing working hours leave the individuals with less time for themselves and to pursue his hobbies or leisure activities. This hinders the growth of the person as an individual in terms of his personal and spiritual growth. Professionals working in the BPO industry, doctors and nurses and especially IT professionals are the few examples who are facing the brunt of the hazard constantly. Reasons of imbalance: There are various reasons for this imbalance and conflicts in the life of an employee. From individual career ambitions to pressure to cope up with family or work, the reasons can be situation and individual specific. The speed of advancement of information technology, the increasing competition in the talent supply market has led to a "performance-driven" culture creating pressures and expectations to performance more and better every time. Also, many a times, many people find it difficult to say "NO" to others especially their superiors. They usually end up over burdening themselves with work. The increasing responsibilities on the personal front with age can also create stress on personal and professional fronts. Effects Constant struggle and effort to maintain a balance between the work and personal life can have serious implications on the life of an individual. According to a survey, 26 81 per cent of the respondents have admitted that their jobs are affecting and creating stress in their personal lives. The pressures of the work or personal life can lead to stress. According to studies, it has been found to that such situation can take a toll on the person's health both physiologically and psychologically. Heart ailments, cardiovascular problems, sleep disorders, depression, irritability, jumpiness, insecurity, poor concentration and even nervous breakdowns are becoming common among the victims of such imbalance. Pressure, stress or tension in work life can lead to bad social life and vice versa. Why Should Employers Care about Employees Work-Life Balance? Many organizations feel that helping employees balance competing work and non- work demands is not their responsibility. Rather, they subscribe to a somewhat outdated view called the myth of separate worlds that is based on the premise that work is work and life is life and that the domains do not overlap. Such organizations argue that it was the employees choice to have a family so balancing competing demands is their problem not ours. Such organizations also note that they are in the business of increasing shareholder value and serving customers and not helping employees cope with stress. In other organizations, employees without dependent care responsibilities interpret family friendly as favoritism and complain that they are being unfairly or inequitably treated. Such employees feel that their colleagues with childcare or eldercare responsibilities are getting away with less work and that the needs of childless employees are being ignored. This backlash against family friendly makes it harder for organizations who wish to address the issue. Our research debunks the above preconceptions and supports that the inability to balance work and family is everyones problem. High work-life conflict negatively impacts the employer, the employees colleagues, the employee, the employees family, and society as a whole. From the employers perspective, the inability to balance work and family demands has been linked to reduced work performance,

increased absenteeism, higher turnover, lower commitment and poorer morale. Work-life conflict has also been linked to productivity decreases associated with lateness, unscheduled days off, emergency time off, excessive use of the telephone, missed meetings, and difficulty concentrating on the job. Conflict between work and family demands is also a problem for employees and their families. Benefits for employees include: Ability to manage work and individual commitments. Improved personal and family relationships Flexible working arrangements resulting in reduced work overload and stress

BALANCING THE WORK AND LIFE OF YOUR EMPLOYEES Researches indicate that balanced work-life can lead to greater employee productivity. With the progressive shift of the economy towards a knowledge economy, the meaning and Importance of tile quality of work life is also assuming a new significance. The article details the factor$ that should be tuned to attain balance between work and life of an employee. You must have both love and work in your life to make you healthy. Don't you agree? Well, this is what Sigmund Freud had said decades ago for healthy workers. Family is an essential ingredient for the love that exists in the life of the employees. But are the corporate structuring the work patterns so as to ensure the necessary balances? Are the corporate providing opportunities to their employees to spend quality time in their personal lives? Many researchers indicate that maintaining a good balance in work and life has become a priority for the corporate in the developed nations. At the dawn of industrialisation, the needs and priorities of employees were at the lower end of Maslows need hierarchy pyramid. The priority was given more to physical and material security. However, with rapid cultural and economic developments, the priorities outside job became very different. Employees started looking for higher and meaningful quality of life as a result of the outcomes of their work. After all, what are they working for? A good happy and a decent life. With the increasing shift of the economy towards knowledge economy, the meaning and importance of the quality of work life is also assuming a new significance. Today, the connotation of the term 'work' has also become different. It 30 has more to do with the intellectual exercise than physical labour. As a result, the corporates need to streamline and restructure their work schedules in order to bring about a balance in work life of their employees. Understanding and managing the levels and complexities of diverse motivational needs is another area, which requires careful attention from the corporates to bring about work-life balance. Various researchers have pointed out the following. Shifts in Societal Patterns Gone are the days of joint families where you had to care for elders and they, in turn, had to nurture your emotions. Today's nuclear families with both the partners working, have created new dynamics that has become emotionally demanding to the employees. Financial and social obligations have

assumed a different level of significance today. Not only this, the needs of organisations today have also changed. Money is getting accumulated in tiny pockets, among those sections of people who possess the most wanted knowledge. And these so-called knowledge workers are the ones who are in acute need to balancing their work and life. Technological Breakthroughs Tremendous progress in the fields of information technology and communication system has changed our worldview. At the same time, it demands more from todays employees. Strict deadlines, tighter schedules and ever- escalating corporate targets are the natural outcome of it. New Horizon of Expectations Due to the above reasons there has been a total shift in the level of expectations for todays employees and how attitudes towards work and life balance varies from generation to generation. 31

Researchers have pointed out that a balance between work and life is maintained when there is no conflict between work and family demands. Though this seems to be idealistic situation, what the corporates need to remember is that the conflicts should not reach unacceptable levels where it would tend to affect the productivity of the employee and the management recognises the importance of their personal and family life. Striking a balance between work and life is as difficult for the corporates as it is for the employees. The HR managers, along with the functional heads and line mangers, should try to bring in flexibility to the working patterns within the organisations. A trade off between organisational needs and personal needs of the employees has to be worked out. Following are some of the ways in which it cane be done. Though this is in no way an exhaustive list, yet it does provide a starting point for corporates to develop flexible work schedules that can balance work and life. Creating Institutional Support Mechanisms The first and the foremost requirement is to create conditions that will provide organisational support towards maintaining the flexibility of work and life of the employees. These entail the propagation of the culture of work flexibility, HR policies and other organisational regulations that allow the employees to maintain a good mix of personal lives with their career. There is a need to clearly chalk out the connection between maintaining this flexibility and the corporate objectives. For instance, managers at Eli Lilly begin their job in the company with a clear understanding of what the company expects. They undergo a weeklong program, called Supervisor School that blends the business case for work life initiatives. Thus, the management ensures that the flexibility in work is linked with the objectives of the organisation. But this is not enough. What is needed is to ensure and communicate the support of the senior management. The top management of the company must clearly communicate its 32

eagerness and willingness to restructure the work schedules in such a manner that it can balance the work and life of the employees. This will require clear articulation from the company that it values the personal lives of its employees. The employees must understand that their organisation also keeps in mind the value of their life and personal relationship. Such articulation can be done through the companys vision and mission statements. Providing Managerial Support Only lip service towards work life balance will not suffice. Organisations must make sure that there are proper organisational systems of work design that allows employees to have flexible time. This may even require a new look towards HR manual, which the organisation may have. It is also necessary to evaluate such systems of flexibility from time to time. Otherwise, stagnancy will creep into the work schedules, which might create new dimensions of the problem in the work life patterns. To keep pace with the changing patterns of work and life of employees, the organisations can arrange special training programs that will inform the employees about the new working trends. This can be done through sharing successful models of work schedules and real life case studies. Practising What You Preach Above all, the organisations need to execute their flexible work schedules. Flexible work patterns must become a part of organisational initiatives. This will require the creation of a networked environment that can provide a back up system to support work relationship. Essentially this will require employees to become cross functional, so that a temporary emergency or a shortfall in one department can be met by other departments. Thus, the role of HR department 33 needs to be revisited and made more expansive and supportive towards organisational and individual needs. Sustain It Once the organisation follows and internalises the practice of flexible work schedules for its employees, it is very necessary that it sustains it over a long period of time. Such sustainability can e brought about by clear demarcations of accountability and means to measure it. In other words, the focus and purpose of creating balanced work life should be maintained at any cost. This will also call for review and evaluation of the current work environment and make modifications in the schedules accordingly. Several researchers have shown that a balanced work-life creates greater employee productivity. What important is the long-term and not the short-term, which seems to become the focus of many organisations. So, though it may apparently seem that employees are having more leisure, the effect of a balanced work-life will show up positively in the bottom line of the company.

The legal industry is not exactly known for offering work-life balance. Nearly one-third of women lawyers continue to leave the profession. Many women lawyers simply never make it to the partner level because they dont want to give up having a family or pursuing their other interests and life goals. Above the Law, a popular online legal blog, recently published the departure memo of an associate at Clifford Chance, a big law firm in D.C. In her memo, this associate recounted, in minute-by-minute detail, what her typical daily schedule looked like as she attempted to balance motherhood and her legal career. It started with waking up to hear her baby crying at 4 a.m., and ended at 1:30 a.m. after falling asleep at her desk trying to complete the many tasks on her 50-item-to-do-list from work. Unfortunately, this is a typical day not only for this particular associate, but for the many women lawyers who are working incredibly demanding jobs while also taking care of families. The associates schedule resonated with so many women that the memo wound up all over the Internet, including The Huffington Post and The New York Times. Do women really have to leave the law in order to achieve worklife balance? I dont think so. More and more women lawyers are opting out of the old school law firm mentality that require them to make impossible choices and, instead, are using technology to create thriving law practices that fit their lifestyle virtual ones, that is. A virtual law office (VLO) is a law firm, run by a lawyer or group of lawyers, that meets the legal needs of its clients securely over the Internet and through other technological tools. For lawyers, this means that no physical office is required, allowing attorneys to maximize profit while offering flexibility and having the option to work from home or anywhere else. For clients, VLOs provide an incredibly convenient way to take care of legal needs online while working without compromising the quality of the legal representation. And many of the virtual law offices currently open are run by women lawyers. In fact, it was a woman lawyer, Stephanie Kimbro, who developed one of the first pieces of software to run a law office online. While there are still some skeptics, the reality is that virtual law offices are a much-needed modernization that can benefit both lawyers and their clients.

Sound tempting? Here are the steps I took to create my own (profitable) virtual law office: Step #1: Find your niche in the legal marketplace. Choose a unique, narrow niche that fits your personality and lifestyle goals as well as solves a pressing problem for a particular set of clients. Women lawyers are creating unique niche practices such as providing legal services to green business owners or handling regulatory and compliance problems for pharmacies, gas stations and retail convenience stores. Step #2: Set your legal fees for a lucrative practice. Develop a menu of services and corresponding fee schedule that is both palatable to your ideal clients and profitable for you. I do not believe that lawyers who practice online need to offer bargain basement pricing. Besides, who would trust a discount lawyer? That said, you certainly can pass some of the savings of foregoing a physical office on to your clients. Step #3: Establish a credible presence as an attorney online. It is a reality that you wont be able to immediately replace your former law firm salary. Growing a practice takes time, and high overhead is a practice killer. With a secure client portal (which cost next to nothing, thanks to companies like Total Attorneys) and a WordPress website, you can have a polished, professional practice (without the high costs of office space) that gives you and your practice time to get established and grow. Step #4: Convert prospects into paid clients. It wont help to be a great lawyer offering a great, convenient service if no one knows about it. Create a simple and inexpensive marketing plan using blogging and social media that is focused on serving a clearly defined set of clients. Youll also need a basic sales strategy; something as simple as listening, educating and asking for the business works. Step #5: Build a virtual legal team.