This document discusses gender and work-life balance. It outlines how changes in demographics affect organizations and measures they can take to support employees' work-life balance, such as flexible working. Flexible working includes options like part-time work, flexi-time, job sharing, and working from home. Supporting work-life balance brings benefits like improved performance, retention, and discretionary effort. However, barriers include a take-up gap and perception that work-life balance policies are only for women with children. The document also examines differences in how work-life balance is experienced depending on factors like gender and profession.

1. Gender and Work Life
Balance
Kate Sang k.sang@hw.ac.uk
Enterprise and its Business
Environment © Goodfellow

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
Enterprise and its Business
Environment © Goodfellow

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
Environment © Goodfellow

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
Environment © Goodfellow

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
Environment © Goodfellow

6. Benefits of WLB
• Performance
• Retention
• Discretionary effort
• Outside skills feeding back into workplace
Enterprise and its Business
Environment © Goodfellow

7. Barriers to WLB
• Take-up gap (changing employer)
• British labour market rigid
• Costs
• Reactionary rather than strategic
• Professional part time – really??
Enterprise and its Business
Environment © Goodfellow

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
Enterprise and its Business
Environment © Goodfellow

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
Environment © Goodfellow

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
Environment © Goodfellow

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.’
Enterprise and its Business
Environment © Goodfellow

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
Environment © Goodfellow

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
Environment © Goodfellow

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
Environment © Goodfellow