4 Creative Strategies To Improve Employee Work-life Balance

Work-life balance means carving out time for both your personal and professional lives. It has become a trend lately where startups and small businesses offer ideas to embrace this, thereby attracting young talent. It allows growing companies to achieve their maximum productivity at a reasonable cost while improving their employees’ well-being and time-management.

Today, companies have started realizing that maximum productivity looks different for different employees, which means a change to what a regular work day looks like. Most CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business leaders are aware that achieving proper work-life balance can take on many different forms – and that means learning how to support this new working approach.

The points below highlight some creative strategies to improve employee work-life balance.

Create Harmonious Work Spaces

One of the primary keys to a good work-life balance is to enjoy the specific workspace and feel relaxed in it. The feeling of not having a personal area to work or cramped working conditions is likely to increase stress. To accommodate all the team members, consider setting up your work stations with these insights in mind:

  • Organized and neat arrangement
  • Uplifting and bright colors
  • Access to natural lighting
  • Work stations that are task-specific

Allow your employees to get creative at work, to spark new ideas and innovation. For example, you could equip your team with crafting supplies in a quiet space to help to promote healthy self-regulation and take their minds off their busy schedules. Ensure communication is consistent with all employees about the purpose of the different spaces within the office, and always consider the different styles and personalities of your team members.

Encourage a “No Work at Home” Policy

When deadlines are not met, employees often carry their work at home to make up for the lost time. This mainly results in excess work that the employees have at the end of the week. This extra work can affect the rest that every person needs for better productivity.

It also results in a social imbalance as it creates obstacles in the life of the individual. These obstacles include limited family time, less interpersonal communication, less social time, and more. Employers should strictly adopt the policy of no working at home.

Focus on Ergonomic Workplace Design

For your employees to have a healthier work-life balance, you should consider installing ergonomic workstations in your office. Some projects can be stressful for your workers and even worse if they are working in uncomfortable workstations. Assess each workstation in the workplace, and consider how you can improve each one. The kind of office chairs you purchase should be comfortable and offer features such as lumbar support.

Since the employees will be seated for hours on end, they should have ergonomic furniture. It would be best if you also considered swapping out your regular workstations for customizable sit-stand workstations. Working while standing has been proven to lead to a much healthier lifestyle, and sitting for too long is harmful in the long run.

Foster Creativity

Physical fitness is essential, so it is also important to encourage employees to maintain good mental health. You should give them space and time to venture into creative projects and creatively think about the current projects.

This allows them to think outside the box, which offers a good sense of balance and benefits the business. For instance, Google offers a 20% time allocation program that allows their developers to creatively spend 20% of their time on creative side projects. This is necessary as the workers get to have a break from the day-to-day duties and also have the opportunity to show what more they can offer.

Get Feedback From Your Workforce

Employees are the people who spend most of their time in the office, and they are the people who will always have good ideas for the workplace and know what they need to make them happy. Therefore, they need to be involved in the running of the company. Ensure you talk to your employees, get feedback from them, and make the necessary adjustments. This creates a collaborative environment and shows you value their efforts and input.

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