More Related Content Similar to fileChapter 8 Work life balance.ppt (20) 1. Gender and Work Life
Balance
Kate Sang k.sang@hw.ac.uk
Enterprise and its Business
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2. Learning outcomes
• To understand how changes to workforce
demographics affect organisations
• To understand the measures that
organisations can take to support the WLB
of members
• To understand some of the effects of
these measures
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3. Work-life balance
• Well-being at work (part of H&S?)
• Intensification of work (longer hours, more
intense work)
• No set definition – often (paid) work-family
(childcare) interaction
• Part of recruitment and retention efforts
Enterprise and its Business
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4. Work life balance practices
• What are some of the steps that
organisations can take to support the work
life balance of employees?
Enterprise and its Business
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5. Work-life balance practices
• Flexible working
• Number of hours
• Timing of hours
• Location of hours
Part time, flexitime, compressed week, annual hours, term-time
working, job share, self-rostering, shift swapping, unpaid leave,
unpaid sabbaticals, working from home, informal flexibility
Torrington et al Enterprise and its Business
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6. Benefits of WLB
• Performance
• Retention
• Discretionary effort
• Outside skills feeding back into workplace
Enterprise and its Business
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7. Barriers to WLB
• Take-up gap (changing employer)
• British labour market rigid
• Costs
• Reactionary rather than strategic
• Professional part time – really??
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8. Gender and work-life balance
• Requests for childcare viewed more
favourably
• WLB – ‘ghettoised’ – for women with
children who don’t really want a career
• ‘Special privileges’
• Lacking commitment
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9. Women & WLB – is it the same for all?
• Crompton and Lyonette (2011)
• Women professionals working part time
• Career limiting
• Marriage and family career/pay benefits for
men
• Crowding into family friendly, but lower
prestige specialisms
• Forson (2013)
• Self-employed black women have to negotiate
societal structures for WLB
Enterprise and its Business
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10. CIPD survey 2013
• 96% employers offer some flexible working
(more prevalent in larger organisations, but just
for some employees)
• 75% employees take up flexible working (mostly
part time). Greater uptake from women
• Those in smaller companies report fewer
barriers
Flexible working – provision and uptake
https://www.cipd.co.uk/binaries/5790%20Flexible%20Working%20SR%20(WEB2).
pdf
Enterprise and its Business
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11. British Gas case study (CIPD)
• Service to customers, attracting and retaining
talent, want a ‘diverse workforce that reflects our
community and customer base’
‘We believe that happy, committed employees
lead to a successful, flourishing organisation.
Offering benefits such as flexible working builds
mutual trust between employer and employee.
In return, our people reward us with great
service and commitment to the business and our
customers.’
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12. Conclusions
• Changing demographics – organisations
must respond
• WLB – range of measures affecting timing
and location of working hours
• Demand greater than uptake
• A woman’s issue?
• Recruitment and retention, meeting
customer needs
Enterprise and its Business
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13. Reading
• Cassell, C., Nadin, S., Gray, M., & Clegg, C. (2002).
Exploring human resource management practices in
small and medium sized enterprises. Personnel
Review, 31(6), 671-692.
• Guo, C., Brown, W. A., Ashcraft, R. F., Yoshioka, C. F.,
& Dong, H. K. D. (2011). Strategic human resources
management in non-profit organizations. Review of
Public Personnel Administration, 31(3), 248-269.
• Torrington, D. (2008). HALL. L.; TAYLOR, S. Human
resource management, 5.
• http://odi.dwp.gov.uk/disability-statistics-and-
research/disability-facts-and-figures.php#imp
Enterprise and its Business
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14. More reading
• Forson, C. (2013). Contextualising migrant black
business women's work-life balance
experiences. International Journal of Entrepreneurial
Behaviour & Research, 19(5), 460-477.
• Crompton, R., & Lyonette, C. (2011). Women's career
success and work–life adaptations in the accountancy
and medical professions in Britain. Gender, Work &
Organization, 18(2), 231-254
• CIPD, 2013. Flexible working, provision and uptake
Enterprise and its Business
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Editor's Notes The take-up gap – far greater demand than take up – availability of flexible working is a significant predictor of switching employers
British labour market does not have the flexible jobs (i.e. relies on an ideal worker model)
Setting up home working can be expensive (although costs usually offset by increased productivity)
Organisations often react to work-life balance needs – firefighting – rather than planning and aligning to the organisational goals.
Part time professional workers often find themselves working full time hours but just being paid for part time work. Forson: some women with financial resources can buy in childcare and other domestic labour – for others, taking children to work, getting up at 5am to cook meals for the day. Black women lack access to the broader social networks which might help facilitate work-life balance. Please note – the reference to ‘black women’ is made within the study and you can delete this and make a reference to suit you own local context.
Important to note the effects of class and occupation type See Vision for the full report and further details of the case study.
