Ict work life balance final

July 12, 2012

SHRM Survey Findings: Work/Life Balance Policies

Work/Life Balance Policies ©SHRM 2012 2

Definitions

Wireless communication devices: For the purposes of this survey, wireless communication devices include cell phones, smart phones (e.g., Blackberry, iPhone, Android), tablets (e.g., iPad, Archos, PlayBook) and similar communication devices.

Work/life balance policies: For the purposes of this survey, work/life balance policies include programs that encourage flexible employee work arrangements that emphasize the value of making work and life responsibilities more manageable for employees.


Key Findings

How prevalent are work/life balance policies? Twenty-four percent of organizations have a formal work/life balance policy in place, whereas approximately one-half of organizations (52%) have an informal work/life balance policy.

What elements are included in work/life balance policies? Working during vacation time was included in almost one-half of formal work/life balance policies (47%) and in over three-fifths of informal policies (62%). Working during sick time was also included in roughly one-third of formal policies (34%) and one-half of informal policies (54%).

What are supervisors/management doing to encourage employees to take time away from work to recharge? The majority of organizations (80%) indicated that their supervisors/managers encourage a healthy work/life balance within their unit/work group. Approximately two-thirds of supervisors/managers (67%) encourage employees to ask for help when necessary, and roughly one-quarter of supervisors/managers (26%) discourage employees from answering e-mails or phone calls via their wireless communication devices during nonworking hours.


Organizations with Formal Work/Life Balance Policies


Does your organization have a formal (i.e., written) work/life balance policy?

Note: n = 327. Respondents who answered “not sure” were excluded from this analysis.

No

Yes

76%

24%


Please indicate the elements included in your formal work/life policy:

Note: n = 79. Only respondents whose organizations have formal work/life policies were asked this question. Percentages do not equal 100% due to multiple response options. An asterisk (*) indicates that this response option was developed from open-ended responses.

Percentage

Working during vacation time 47%

Working over a specified number of hours per week in the office or away from the office for both exempt and nonexempt employees 43%

Working during sick time 34%

Flexible work arrangements* 10%

Other 9%


Organizations with Informal Work/Life Balance Policies


Does your organization have an informal (e.g., management practices) work/life balance policy demonstrating organizational commitment to the importance of employees taking time away from work to recharge?

Note: n = 254. Respondents who answered “not sure” were excluded from this analysis. Only respondents whose organizations do not have formal work/life policies were asked this question.

No

Yes

48%

52%


Please indicate the elements included in your informal work/life policy:

Note: n = 133. Only respondents whose organizations have informal work/life policies were asked this question. Percentages do not equal 100% due to multiple response options. An asterisk (*) indicates that this response option was developed from open-ended responses.

Percentage

Working during vacation time 62%

Working during sick time 54%

Working over a specified number of hours per week in the office or away from the office for both exempt and nonexempt employees 41%

Flexible work arrangements* 9%

Other 8%


Which management practices are utilized to encourage employees to take time away from work to recharge?

Note: n = 84. Only respondents whose organizations have informal work/life policies were asked this question. Percentages do not equal 100% due to multiple response options. An asterisk (*) indicates that this response option was developed from open-ended responses.

Percentage

Supervisors/managers encourage a healthy work/life balance within their unit/work group. 80%

Supervisors/managers encourage employees to ask for help when necessary (e.g., when employee finds that he/she needs to work beyond specified work hours).

67%

Supervisors/managers discourage employees from answering e-mails or phone calls via their wireless communication devices during nonworking hours (e.g., weekends, evenings, holidays).

26%

Supervisors/managers encourage the use of PTO/vacation and sick leave.* 7%

The organization has days or time when e-mail is not used (e.g., “E-mail-Free Fridays”, “No e-mail weekends”). 1%

Other 4%

Work/Life Balance Policies ©SHRM 2012

Demographics: Organization Industry

11

Note: n = 332. Percentages do not equal 100% due to multiple response options.

Percentage

Manufacturing 17%

Finance and insurance 17%

Health care and social assistance 12%

Professional, scientific and technical services 10%

Other service except public administration 9%

Educational services 6%

Public administration 5%

Retail trade 4%

Construction 3%

Information, publishing industries 3%

Religious, grant-making, civic professional and similar organizations 3%

Transportation and warehousing 2%


Demographics: Organization Industry (continued)

12

Note: n = 332. Percentages do not equal 100% due to multiple response options. An asterisk (*) indicates < 1%.

Percentage

Wholesale trade 2%

Utilities 2%

Accommodation and food services 2%

Administrative and support and waste management and remediation services 2%

Real estate, rental and leasing 2%

Arts, entertainment and recreation 1%

Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting 1%

Mining 1%

Repair and maintenance 1%

Management of companies and enterprises 1%

Personal and laundry services *


Demographics: Organization Sector

Other

Government sector

Nonprofit organization

Publicly owned for-profit organization

Privately owned for-profit organization

3%

7%

19%

22%

49%

13

n = 332


Demographics: Organization Staff Size

25,000 or more employees

2,500 to 24,999 employees

500 to 2,499 employees

100 to 499 employees

1 to 99 employees

5%

22%

16%

31%

26%

14

n = 330


Demographics: Other

15

Does your organization have U.S.-based operations (business units) only, or does it operate multinationally?U.S.-based operations only 74%Multinational operations 26%n = 329

Is your organization a single-unit organization or a multi-unit organization?Single-unit organization: An organization in which the location and the organization are one and the same.

33%

Multi-unit organization: An organization that has more than one location. 67%

n = 331

For multi-unit organizations, are HR policies and practices determined by the multi-unit headquarters, by each work location or by both?

Multi-unit headquarters determines HR policies and practices. 52%

Each work location determines HR policies and practices. 3%

A combination of both the work location and the multi-unit headquarters determines HR policies and practices.

45%

n = 230

What is the HR department/function for which you responded throughout this survey?Corporate (companywide) 70%Business unit/division 14%Facility/location 16%n = 230


Response rate = 12%

Sample composed of 332 randomly selected HR professionals from SHRM’s membership

Margin of error +/-5%

Survey fielded June 9 – June 27, 2011

16

Methodology

For more poll findings, visit www.shrm.org/surveys

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SHRM_Research

SHRM Survey Findings: Work/Life Balance Policies

Project leader:Robert Boyd, survey research analyst, SHRM ResearchProject contributors:Mark Schmit, Ph.D., SPHR, vice president, SHRM ResearchEvren Esen, manager, SHRM ResearchChristina Lee, SHRM ResearchCopy Editor:Katya Scanlan, SHRM Knowledge Center

http://www.shrm.org/surveys

http://twitter.com/SHRM_Research

Ict work life balance final

Technology

wireless communication

healthy worklife

worklife balance

multiple response

formal worklife

informal worklife

shrm survey

informal policies