The CEO of Salesforce, Marc Benioff, emphasized the gravity of work and life. So far, he has been successful in balancing both and quotes each as essential for generations. Further, he threw some light on how personal life and professional life have hit a snag. Thus, as CEO, he saw it as his responsibility to develop a work-life balance mechanism for his employees. He stressed several points regarding employee well-being. A workforce dedicates its time and energy to a company. In return, they expect more from their companies and owners. Therefore, an entrepreneur should encourage employees to maintain a balance between work and life, by supporting them. And entrepreneurs need to create a thin line to establish this practice, he added. Benioff left the audience with a question on why companies aren’t stepping ahead. Continuing, he asked the business owners “Why is ‘giving back’ not a part of our jobs?”
I decided to take this discussion ahead by putting the need for ‘giving back’ on the table. In these times, an entrepreneur needs to ensure employee satisfaction. For this to happen, employees should receive recognition equally based on their performance. To give back is nothing more than ensuring employees live a balanced life as discussed above. As Benioff suggested, entrepreneurs come into the picture here. A business owner acts as an example setter here. Once a leader recognizes the need for this practice to be implemented, it becomes easier for employees to move forward.
In the first place, work-life balance is a serious issue that needs to be dealt with correctly. In many cases, every entrepreneur or business owner has faced challenges. These issues were a product of the workforce having difficulty meeting company goals. Unfortunately, these goals remain unmet due to factors like long working hours, untimed meetings, procrastination, and no plug-offs from work.
The Outcome of Imbalance
A report from BBC showcased a hike of 144% in employees falling sick due to excess work on their table. Many times, an entrepreneur fails to ensure a proper delegation of work in the system. Poor management and the over commitments of an owner creates pressure on the employee. They tend to work 12 hours a day to meet the deadlines. As soon as an entrepreneur welcomes ‘work overload’ with barging piles of paperwork, unproductivity enters the room. This results in unmatched emotional and physical suffering for employees, which leads to burnout.
The size of the workforce decreases when burnouts happen. Entrepreneurs should take note. Employees put down their papers when they are frazzled by an imbalanced work-life in their firm. Somewhere, the attrition rate increases when a company fails to fulfill the expectations of its employees. The expectations here are more or less for a flexible working environment.
When an employee fails to achieve the target, the overall goal of the company gets hampered. The low outputs are the result of clinical burnouts where a brain tiredly functions during the workplace. In addition, lack of employee engagement often creates a perception of an entrepreneur being money-oriented. Lastly, when owners often fail to establish strong core values, a firm never binds together. Hopefully, that’s not your experience.
An engaged workforce counts as an asset for an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg and Marc Benioff came forward and guided the business owners, CEOs, and newbie leaders. This guidance included practices and listicles which will set the proper equilibrium between work and life. Here are a few things that can keep a workplace in harmony.
Flexi-Time and Leave Policy
It is easy to implement a flexible work pattern but a lot harder to follow. When the deadline is near, people tend to forget the timings and work late. An entrepreneur here needs to implement and monitor flexible log-in and log-outs in the workplace. Reporting managers and immediate bosses need to weigh the workload according to schedule and delegate accordingly. This is where “Human Resources” comes in to publish official statements. Instructions should come in written through personnel in the organization. Moving forward, entrepreneurs should strictly restrict the untimed and impromptu meetups with the management. And well-planned meetings should be organized so that every employee can manage the schedule accordingly.
The flexibility of work depends on the policies of the organization. Many policies like paternity and maternity leave are highly normalized and are decently similar everywhere. Nevertheless, leave policies to vary from company to company. In recent years, the scenario has changed the structure of a leave chart in a company. Entrepreneurs realize the need for giving equal rest to employees. Now, this realization should change into action by redrafting the leave and workspace policies. Casual and paid leaves should increase per month. Further, the working system has resumed in most workplaces, while some employees are still experiencing difficulties due to C-19. Therefore, work from home should be allowed to employees with valid reasons. Also, mandatory time off should be granted during festivals to reconnect with personal life and culture.
Set Realistic Targets
The majority of entrepreneurs need to set realistic goals for the company and workforce. Setting a realistic goal reduces the gap between setting and achievement of a goal. Setting a meaningful target is always achievable. One can understand this better with an example of sales targets. When a team’s average is 35 deal closures per week, setting an overestimated target of 70 is a waste of time. Once in a blue moon, a team may achieve but not always. Hence, it becomes an invalid and unrealistic benchmark to reach. A right target set increases confidence in an employee. They stop doubting their abilities and overthinking. In the end, goals are achieved.
Another way to reduce pressure and achieve set targets is to limit commitments. An entrepreneur should limit its commitments and future projections. In this way, the resources will work accordingly without any hassle. When one sets unachievable targets, uncertainty arises. Rush to meet deadlines ensues. Suddenly, entrepreneurs exhaust all their resources, and this creates elbow room for errors. Technical errors, unproductive decisions, and controlling errors are some examples.
A desk with a balanced amount of flies and e-mails promotes mindfulness. This limits procrastination which happens under pressure and fatigue. Reading these practices is different from applying them in the system. For an entrepreneur, work-life balance should be a regular preach to perform. Having said this, I agree that revenue is vital for companies, and employees sometimes need to be pushed to an extent to perform. For this, an entrepreneur needs to set measurable goals which can result in efficient KPIs. If goals are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound) then the profit and quote to close ratio of a firm improves.
Hiring Approach
I zoomed in on the issue of an entrepreneur who finds it difficult to develop an involvement with his or her team members. Soon, I found that the involvement of the members in their work matters a lot. An uninterested team is of no use. Such hiring fails a company drastically. Therefore, it is vital if a right candidate fills a vacant position. Furthermore, the hiring approach of a firm should be vocational-oriented. Rather than stress interviews, case studies should be provided to the candidate. Hypothetical and real-time scenarios should be the parameter for hiring. These factors will ensure whether a candidate perfectly fits the job or not.
This process is HR-oriented, but the regulation and command of an HR operation are in the hands of an entrepreneur only. A business owner here should dive deep into the operational aspects of a firm and should promote productive hiring. It is proved that a cleverly hand-picked workforce is more likely to perform. Also, an employee who is dedicated to its work is very easy to retain. For such an employee, the HR engagement practices work much better.
Take the Lead
I’ve been on a bit of a teether board with work-life balance. As time went on, I discovered that it is possible to achieve. Leading by example, I strongly believe that these changes can be successful only if the senior leadership follows them first. This will serve as motivation for other employees. Leaving the office on time, no emails during off-hours, and a mindful lifestyle should be the practices used by every leader.
In a nutshell, fostering work-life balance requires a creative entrepreneurial mindset and discipline. The impact of work-life balance will not be immediate. Creating a good working environment requires some patience, but it is worth the wait.
Cloverbites By Rupesh Sanghavi 
Leave a Reply