The balancing act:
work v life

The benefits

Businesses benefit if they make the best use of their most valuable resource: their staff. The main advantage of balancing personal and professional life is that the workers are happier. If they are happy, they work better; if they work better, the company profits. And if staff are happy they will stay.

In a tight labour market, employers need to retain and recruit good, hard-working, loyal staff, especially and increasingly women. Offering good working conditions cements the company's reputation as an employer of choice and will attract the best candidates for the job. Workers are also holding companies more and more accountable for bad working conditions and inflexible practices. The pressure is growing on employers.

Society demands choice in the 21st century. The choice to take the kids to school and then go to work, the choice to leave early to attend a language course or visit granny, the choice to return to work on a basis you want, the choice to take unpaid leave to travel somewhere new, to train, or to have more time to visit friends.

The facts

Family-friendly flexibility in the UK:

• While 65% of employers claim to offer some kind of family-friendly working arrangements, including part-time working, only 10% of workplaces provide any practical help with childcare.
• Only 5% of employers provide four kinds of family-friendly practices: maternity benefits, paternity leave, childcare arrangements and non-standard working time.
• 17% of employers offer career breaks of at least three months. But only 12% of employers offer career breaks to both men and women.
• Only 5% of employers provide extended maternity leave with pay beyond the legal minimum. Women are twice as likely to return to employers where extended maternity has been negotiated.
• 31% of male employees are entitled to some form of paternity leave - usually paid and typically four days - around the time of birth.
• Fewer than one in three employers offer parents flexibility and extended leave around the time of birth.

Source: Family Friendly Working Arrangements in the UK 1996, DfEE Research Series RR16.

Gemma Lavender is an officer with the TUC.

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