Nandan Joshi Vijay More

Background
Company ABC Ltd. Recently carried out a climate survey On most of the parameters (job satisfaction, rewards & recognition etc.) company did very well On Work-Life balance company scored minimum points 55% employees mentioned that they are looking out for another job because of poor work-life balance they are experiencing in this company

Management Dilemma

Improving Work-Life Balance of our employees

Management Question

How to improve the Work-Life Balance of our employees?

Research Questions
Should we allow employees to work from home?

Should we allow flexible working hours in the office?

Should we grant paternity leaves to our employees?

Investigative Questions
External Does implementing the flexible work arrangement is working for other companies? Does having flexible work arrangement improves performance of employees? What types of jobs are well suited for flexible work arrangements? What is the current scenario in other companies regarding granting paternity leaves? Internal Should we provide these flexible work policies to all the employees? Do employees have infrastructure required to perform the job from home? Will we be able to keep track of performance for employees availing these benefits? Will implementing these policies will reduce or increase the cost?

Mgmt Question

How to Improve the work-life balance of our employees?

Research Questions

Should we allow employees to work from home?

Does implementing the flexible work arrangement is working for other companies? Does having flexible work arrangement improves performance of employees?

Should we allow flexible working hours in the office?

Should we provide these flexible work policies to all the employees? Do employees have required infrastructure to perform the job from home?

Should we grant paternity leaves to our employees?

What is the current scenario in other companies regarding paternity leaves?

Investigative Questions

1) 2) Measurement Questions 3)

For how long paternity leaves are granted? Will the paternity leaves be granted for each child? What is the time period around the child birth to avail the paternity leave?

TCS offers 3 months paid paternity leave Infosys 5 days

5th pay comission since 1997, 15 days leaves for central government employees Granted to male Railway employees (including Apprentices) with less than 2 surviving children. Granted for 15 days. During the period of confinement of wife of a Railway employee . Can be availed in the period between 15 days prior and 6 months after the date delivery of the child. Can availed only in one spell. If not availed it will be lapsed. It is not to be debited against leave account. Maybe combined with any other type of leave as in Maternity Leave. Leave salary equal to pay drawn just before proceeding on leave. Paternity Leave may not normally be refused. May be granted to Casual Labour who has temporary status for 15 days.

Accenture has started an "hours of work" policy, wherein an employee can donate his leave to his/her fellow colleague in case of a personal problem or a medical emergency. "It is a great concept and the kind of environment we are living today, colleagues at office are becoming like an extended family. This is a wonderful concept and will boost employee morale and camaraderie," Manpower Group India Associate Director Namr Kishore said. Another such innovative policy is adoption leave policy wherein corporates are treating adopted babies at par with biological babies and are offering leaves just like maternity leave. Country's leading tech players Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Wipro are believed to be offering adoption leaves to its employees. According to sources, TCS offers three months paid maternity/ paternity leave for employees for biological and adopted children. However, it could not be independely verified with TCS. "All these policies help in retaining people. Because there is talent shortage and good people are available only at premium. Hence companies have to find out innovative methods to retain and attract talent," Ma Foi Randstad MD and CEO E Balaji said. Balaji added that "it is a method by which you can increase the motivation of employees, which in turn boosts the productivity of the firm as happier employees are more productive." Meanwhile, some of the overseas companies also offer free elder-care service or a baby-sitter, flextime options like cramming a five-day workload into four days, among others. "We are still lagging behind, but we are progressing and moving in the right direction," Balaji added. According to a recent survey by a leading provider of flexible workspace, Regus, a majority of companies surveyed believe flexible working hours have increased productivity. According to the survey, 87 per cent of Bangalore respondents have said that they work more flexibly, both in terms of time and location than they used to. In New Delhi only 79 per cent respondents said they work more flexibly followed by Mumbai (75 per cent) and Chennai (73 per cent), the survey which covered 600 senior business managers across the nation said.