This study examined whether work-life balance training is effective for IT employees. It surveyed 207 employees across software companies on their expectations and satisfaction with factors like salary, work location, leave, etc. before and after receiving work-life balance training. The results showed significant gaps between expectations and satisfaction for most factors before training. Statistical tests revealed the training significantly improved participants' emotional maturity, hardiness, and work-life balance, but did not significantly impact their self-concept. The study concludes that work-life balance training can be effective in improving certain personal factors and achieving a better work-life balance for IT employees.

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Dr. R. Rajkumar, “Work Life Balance Training – Does It Works For It Employees” - (ICAM 2016)
WORK LIFE BALANCE TRAINING – DOES IT WORKS FOR IT
EMPLOYEES
Dr. R. Rajkumar
Associate Professor
Department of Management Studies,
Annai College of Arts & Science, Kovilacheri, Kumbakonam
ABSTRACT
In IT Sectors were knowledge is the key and workforce of IT companies is an important
strategic asset which needs to be managed and retained. This work details the results of a
survey administered to 207 employees across various software companies. It is a
Experimental study, which assesses the work life balance before and after training, given to IT
employees It also gathers data on the effects of training initiatives on factors that influences
work life balance. IT Employees were chosen for this study as they embody the new
“knowledge based working group which operates in an economy where information is very
vital providing an competitive edge”. This work reveals whether training actually helps in
better work life balance.
Key words: IT Employees, Training, Work Life Balance, Self Concept, Emotional Maturity,
Hardiness
Cite this Article: Dr. R. Rajkumar. Work Life Balance Training – Does It Works for It
Employees. International Journal of Management, 7(2), 2016, pp. 572-577.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJM/index.asp
INTRODUCTION
Over the past few decades, a dramatic change has occurred in the labour market and Human Capital
Management has become the buzz word and companies are working on various strategies to retain their
workforce. Work life balance is a serious issue today because of the quality time we plan to spend for
our family and for personal pursuits are being stolen by long working hours. Globally, the corporate
world is waking up to this reality and lot of intervention strategies are being proposed and implemented
to overcome this.
IT Companies are now having the policy of “Employees first and customer second” by believing
that happy employees can keep customers happy. There is increasing awareness of the benefits of
providing more flexible HR strategies, reflecting increasing recognition of the fact that work and other
life commitment cannot be separated. As the IT organizations move towards more participative and flat
structures in which employees are expected to manage increased workloads, there is an increase in
demands from the working environment and maintaining the balance between the demands of the
environment and maintaining the balance between the demands of a career and life responsibilities,
becomes more difficult.
From the Corporate point of view training and development of company employees are essential
for organizational development, maintaining their operation, and organizational enhancement. From the
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT (IJM)
ISSN 0976-6502 (Print)
ISSN 0976-6510 (Online)
Volume 7, Issue 2, February (2016), pp. 572-577
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employee’s perspective, training is crucial and critical for developing their skills and for career
advancement. Retention of employees, and the retention of valued skills, were important for continued
business achievements (Mak and Sockel, 1999). The success of retaining employees helps organization
to preserve the knowledge within the organization (Cappelli, 2000). High employees attrition will
weaken the competitive edge corporate have over their competitors.
ROLE OF TRAINING IN AN ORGANIZATIONAL
For any training program dedicated support of top management is a must (Motwani, Frahm et al.,
1994), otherwise the training provided will not meet its core objective. Organizations provide training
based on employee and organizational needs (Mann, 1997), and provide the required training at the
appropriate time. However, not all companies have the same emphasis on, or show the same
commitment to employee training (Roberts and McDonald, 1995; Hughey and Mussnug, 1997).
Companies which work hard to recruit the best talents, yet spend relatively little effort to retain them
once they are inducted in the organisation. There is enough evidence to prove that benefits accrue to
organizations that are committed to employee training (Wills, 1994).
Organization that value training as an important factor shows commitment in deploying adequate
resources to manage the training process. They allocate time for their employees to get the training
program that is most appropriate for them to their existing IT skills. Such firms are most successful in
maximizing their employee’s effectiveness through their training programs (Huang, 2001).
Organizations that commit effort and finances to training programs and employee development do so
with the objective of a pay-off in terms of increased skill-sets, motivation and knowledge
transformation (Pate, Martin et al., 2000), more positive psychological and organizational dynamics, as
well as a measurable competitive advantage.
METHOD OF STUDY
This study tries to find out whether Work life Balance Training works for IT Employees personal
factors such as Self Concept, Emotional Maturity and Hardiness thereby helping the employees to have
a balanced life and perform better in their work place.
As there is a wide range of need for work life balance it was planned to measure IT professionals,
training needs on work life balance. By considering relaxation and leisure, ten factors has identified as
the most contributing factor to balance one’s work and life. The factors chosen are Salary, location of
work place, holidays, interest in job, career development opportunities, leave arrangements, flexible
working hours, training opportunities, job security, and friendly environment.
To find out the need for work life balance, all the selected respondents were asked to mark their
level of expectation and the level of satisfaction. From the analysis we can infer that for majority of
factors, there existed a significant gap between the expected level and their level of satisfaction. From
the study it is clear that respondents of this study also faced higher levels of work life imbalance which
need to be addressed immediately.
Table 1: Relationship between level of expectation and satisfaction for Salary
Salary N Mean
Standard
Deviation
Z value Sig.
Level of
expectation
207 4.4671 0.65281
15.366 0.001
Level of
satisfaction
207 3.7945 0.78337
Table 2: Relationship between level of expectation and satisfaction for location of work place
Work place N Mean
Standard
Deviation
Z value Sig.
Level of
expectation
207 4.1766 0.75927
10.388 0.001
Level of
satisfaction
207 3.6565 0.82806

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Dr. R. Rajkumar, “Work Life Balance Training – Does It Works For It Employees” - (ICAM 2016)
Table 3: Relationship between level of expectation and satisfaction for holidays
Holidays N Mean
Standard
Deviation
Z value Sig.
Level of
expectation
207 4.061 0.68479
3.92 0.001
Level of
satisfaction
207 3.8299 0.81383
Table 4: Relationship between level of expectation and satisfaction for interest in job
Interest in job N Mean
Standard
Deviation
Z value Sig.
Level of
expectation
207 4.0819 0.53016
8.779 0.001
Level of
satisfaction
207 3.7159 0.66699
Table 5: Relationship between level of expectation and satisfaction for career development
opportunities
Career
development
opportunities
N Mean
Standard
Deviation
Z value Sig.
Level of
expectation
207 4.1477 0.71773
11.158 0.001
Level of
satisfaction
207 3.5265 0.84613
Table 6: Relationship between level of expectation and satisfaction for leave arrangements
Leave
arrangement
N Mean
Standard
Deviation
Z value Sig.
Level of
expectation
207 3.9663 0.66648
3.303 0.001
Level of
satisfaction
207 3.8475 0.78625
Table 7: Relationship between level of expectation and satisfaction for flexible working hours
Flexible
working hours
N Mean
Standard
Deviation
Z value Sig.
Level of
expectation
207 3.7159 0.96291
7.37 0.001
Level of
satisfaction
207 4.0321 0.84045

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Dr. R. Rajkumar, “Work Life Balance Training – Does It Works For It Employees” - (ICAM 2016)
Table 8: Relationship between level of expectation and satisfaction for training opportunities
Training
opportunities
N Mean
Standard
Deviation
Z value Sig.
Level of
expectation
207 3.8539 0.94861
5.636 0.001
Level of
satisfaction
207 3.6549 0.96131
Table 9: Relationship between level of expectation and satisfaction for job security
Job security N Mean
Standard
Deviation
Z value Sig.
Level of
expectation
207 3.4944 1.00299
5.017 0.001
Level of
satisfaction
207 3.7047 0.86338
Table 10: Relationship between level of expectation and satisfaction for friendly environment
Friendly
environment
N Mean
Standard
Deviation
Z value Sig.
Level of
expectation
207 3.9085 0.8077
7.044 0.001
Level of
satisfaction
207 3.5281 0.90128
To find out the need for work life balance, all the selected respondents were asked to mark their
level of expectation and the level of satisfaction. From the above Tables 1 to 10, it is very clear that for
majority of factors, there existed a significant gap between the expected level and their level of
satisfaction. From the mean value, it is observed that for the factors of salary, location of work place,
holidays, interest in job, career development opportunities, leave arrangements, training opportunities
and friendly environment, respondents, expectation was found to be more than their level of
satisfaction. For the factors of flexible working hours and job security, their level of satisfaction was
found to be more than their expectation. The obtained z-values and their corresponding p-values
indicated that there was statistically significant difference between respondents, level of expectation
and their level of satisfaction. Senthilkumar (2012) conducted an empirical study on Teaching
Professionals' Work-Life Balance in Higher Learning Institutions, in order to bring out the satisfaction
level of teaching professionals in balancing the work and personal life. The results of the chi-square
test illustrated that there was a close relationship between the demographical variables taken for the
study and the level of stress in balancing work and personal life. It is inferred from this analysis that
majority (90%) of respondents were not satisfied with their work life balance. In this fiercely
competitive world, to be successful, it is mandatory for any organisation to provide work-life balancing
programs to their workforce to balance their work and personal life.
From the above study it is clear that respondents of this study also faced higher levels of work life
imbalance which need to be addressed immediately.
Table.11: Distribution of respondents on the basis of their opinion about work life balance
Work life balance Frequency Percent
1 01 0.3
2 15 7.1
3 52 24.7
4 80 38.3
5 59 28.2
6 0 0
Total 207 100

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Dr. R. Rajkumar, “Work Life Balance Training – Does It Works For It Employees” - (ICAM 2016)
The table 11 shows the distribution of respondents on the basis of their opinion about work life
balance. None of the respondents comes under the category of “always”. From the overall score for
work life balance, respondents who scored four and below, were taken as population 148 which should
undergo the training program on work life balance. Their responses were collected after the training
program.
Table 12: t-test between pre and post training for self concept.
Self concept Mean
Standard
deviation
t-value Sig.
Pre test 1.7143 0.45212
0.063 0.95
Post test 1.7159 0.45135
Paired sample t-test was carried out to find out the impact of training on self concept. From the
mean value, it is noted that there was a slight variation in their self concept. From the observed t-value
of 0.063 and its corresponding p-value of 0.950, it is concluded that there was no significant change in
the participants, level of self concept before and after training. This may be due to the fact that the
concept about one self is formed in the childhood itself.
Any change in one’s attitude and behaviour will not happen suddenly and it will take a long time.
May be providing more number of exclusive training on concept formation and change could bring
about significant change in participants, self concept
Table 13: t-test between pre and post training for emotional maturity
Emotional
maturity
Mean
Standard
deviation
t-value Sig.
Pre test 3.5907 0.86242
4.08 0
Post test 3.7624 0.89734
Paired sample t-test was carried out to find out the impact of training on emotional maturity. From
the mean value, it is noted that participants, opinion about emotional maturity after training was found
to be high when compared to their assessment before training. From the observed t-value of 4.080 and
its corresponding p-value of 0.001, it is evident that there was significant difference in the participants,
level of emotional maturity before and after the training. Darwin Nelson (2005), in his research on
"Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Maturity", says that if we want our children to be emotionally
mature, we must focus on their early childhood education, which affects certain level of social and
emotional maturity. Proper education and training can help the person to be more mature.
Table 14: t-test between pre and post training for hardiness
Hardiness Mean
Standard
deviation
t-value Sig.
Pre test 3.3291 1.014
9.357 0
Post test 3.6597 0.59723
Paired sample t-test was carried out to find out the impact of training on hardiness. From the mean
value, it is noted that participants opinion about hardiness after training was found to be high when
compared to their assessment before training. From the observed t-value of 9.357 and its corresponding
of p-value 0.001, it is concluded that there was significant difference in the participants, level of
hardiness before and after the training. Kobasa (1979) observed a personality known as Hardy
Personality that was effective in coping with stress. Hardy persons are those who believe that they can
control the events they experience and view life change as an exciting challenge for further growth

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Dr. R. Rajkumar, “Work Life Balance Training – Does It Works For It Employees” - (ICAM 2016)
instead as a threat. Increase in hardiness ie., increase in resistance towards stress, will help the
individual to enjoy good mental health.
CONCLUSION
Evidence suggests that improvements in people management practices contribute to increased work-life
balance. To have better work balance in life individuals need to undergo some amount training which
helps them to have better balance to some extent. We can’t predict what the workplace or the family
will look like later in this century As one pointed out, people tend to ignore work/life balance until
“something is wrong.” But that kind of disregard is a choice, and not a wise one.
Similarly, at home different solutions work for different individuals and families. Some people
have a stay-at-home partner; others make trade-offs to enable both partners to work. The questions of
child care and other household commitments at the dining table don’t have “right” answers.
Finally, self-management is important; people need to control their own behaviour and
expectations regarding work-life balance.
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