A healthy work-life balance and employee engagement are intrinsically linked. Any organization that wants to be successful needs to ensure that its employees are engaged in what they are doing. Below is a discussion about a couple recent articles on these two very related topics.
Work-Life Balance
Work-life balance is one of those topics of conversations that we all bring up around colleagues to make ourselves sound like better people. Sometimes I bring it up to help justify the crazy work hours I’ll put in. It is so easy to get caught up all of our professional hoopla and not leave enough time for yourself or the people around you.
Fast Company’s article entitled “This is what employers need to do when it comes to work-life balance,” takes aim at the various aspects that are associated with finding a healthy balance between work and life. I like this article because it brings up some good talking points for ourselves: 1. Am I the person I really want to be? and 2. Have I done anything meaningful today?
Work-life balance does matter, but so does meaningful work. There is time for both. Figuring it out isn’t easy though. If someone figures out the magical formula to it all, please let me know.
Employee Engagement
Employee disengagement is a real thing and it causes a lot of lost productivity for businesses every single day. According to a 2016 study by Gallup, only 32% of Americans were engaged at work.
In an article entitled “How to use workforce development to improve employee retainment,” several strategies to increase employee retention through employee engagement are discussed. One of the strategies listed in the article is about helping employees develop more skills through apprenticeship programs to help them feel like they are better reaching their full potential. Another way apprenticeship is proving itself to be such a fantastic model for on-the-job training and employee retention.
For more information about work-life balance and employee engagement, visit the work culture section of workforceKO.com