International Journal of Latest Technology in Engineering, Management & Applied Science (IJLTEMAS)

Volume V, Issue VII, July 2016 | ISSN 2278-2540

Work Life Balance Policies, Practices and Its Impact

on Organizational Performance
1 2 3 4
Prof. Pooja Ainapur , Prof. B. Vidyavathi , Prof. Keerti Kulkarni , Mamata P.
1,2,3
Assistant Professor, Dr. D. Veerendra Heggade Institute of Management Studies & Research, Dharwad, Karnataka
4
Student, Dr. D. Veerendra Heggade Institute of Management Studies & Research, Dharwad, Karnataka

Abstract: - Work life balance practices are deliberate II. WORK-LIFE BALANCE POLICIES / PRACTICES
organizational changes in programs or organization culture that
are designed to reduce work life conflict and enable employees to There are number of work-life balance and flexible working
be more effective at work and other roles. This paper mainly arrangements. They are the clear policy statement that
focuses on understanding how organization’s ‘Work life balance’ announces the organizations commitment for providing a
policies assist employees in balancing their work and life flexible responsive work balance, which enables all
responsibilities and also provides an indication on how the employees to balance work and family / personal
organization policies could be improved and how these policies
when applied to all workers can be considered strategic human
responsibilities supported by policy guidelines.
resource management that can translate into improved Some of the important policies and initiatives taken in the
individual and organizational performance. study are elaborated below:
Keywords: - Work life balance, Organizational performance,
Policies in the originations with reference to leave
Flexible Work Arrangement and Productivity.
arrangements:
I. INTRODUCTION 1. Careers Leave: It allows employees to take time off to

E mployees with work life balance feel their lives are

fulfilled both inside and outside of work, and they
experience minimal conflict between work and non-work 2.
care for and support a sick family or household
member.
Opportunity for leave if care arrangements – for
roles and life in general and lower levels of stress in general. children or other dependents breakdown: If day care
Historically, work life balance issues have been considered person taking care of children or dependants get sick,
personal issues and employees have just responded to their the employee is allowed to take leave to care for his/
employees needs by providing additional benefits such as her child or dependents.
onsite child care service and paid maternity leave in the 3. Study/ Training leave: It allows employees to take
workplace. However, with environmental shifts and value time off for study or training.
changes of employees, employee’s desire for work life 4. Career breaks: It allows employees to negotiate a
balance has increased and employees have begun to offer fixed period away from work to undertake study,
more active support of their employees work life balance. while keeping a job at the end of the term.
Thus, organization efforts for ensuring employees work life 5. Cultural / Religious breaks: It allows employees to
balance are needed and valued more than ever. take time off for cultural/ religious reason; public
holidays excluded.
Competing and multi-face demands between work and home 6. Bereavement leave: It allows employees to take a
responsibilities have assumed increased relevance for minimum leave of 2 days after the death of family or
employees in recent years, due to large number of house hold member.
demographic and workplace changes such as greater number 7. Pooling of leave entitlement: It allows employees to
of women in the workforce, dual – career couples, pool all entitlements like sick leave, career’s leave etc,
transformation in family structures – a rise in number of giving employees a larger number of days if they need
single parents, a growing reluctance to accept the longer hours it for family reasons.
culture and technological advances. In response to these
changes and conflict they generate multiple roles that Policies in the organization with reference to Parenting and
individual’s occupy, organization are increasingly pressured Pregnancy Policies:
to design various kinds of practices, intended to facilitate 1. Unpaid maternity/ paternity and adoption leave
employees efforts to fulfill both their employment related and 2. Paid Maternity leave
their personal commitments.

www.ijltemas.in Page 11
 3. Paid paternity leave 6. Annualized Hours: It is a system where the total
4. Paid adoption leave number of hours to be worked over the year is fixed
5. Opportunity to return to the same job after maternity / but there is flexibility over the employees daily and
paternity and adoption leave. weekly working patterns.
6. Safely at work during pregnancy: It allows changing 7. Home Working: It is a arrangement where an
the work of a pregnant worker to avoid long periods of employee regularly carries out all or part of their
standing or lifting heavy objects. duties to home rather than employer premises. It could
7. Pre-natal leave: It allows time for pregnant women or be occasional agreed days or it could be a full time
their partners to attend medical appointments during arrangement.
working hours, either using additional leave or sick 8. Mobile Working: Here an employee works all or part
leave. of their working week at a location away from
8. Staggered return to work after pregnancy: It allows employer’s work place. Employees will receive
employees to negotiate a temporary reduction in hours instructions by phone or computer at home or in their
of work when they return to work. vehicle.
9. Private expressing / breast feeding room: Space 9. Hot Desking: Here employees are not assigned their
provided at work offering privacy for an employee to own desk but when they are in the office they can use
breast feed and providing refrigeration facilities. any desk, or an available desk within a designated
10. Lactation breaks: Time off to express milk or breast area.
feed babies if needed. 10. Gradual Retirement: It allows employees to gradually
11. A careers room or bringing children to work in reduce the number of working hours or duties over an
emergencies: Provision of a safe location where staff extended period of time, after several years prior to
can carry out their regular work duties while caring for retirement.
dependents until other arrangements can be made.
Additional Work Provisions:
12. Employer assistance with childcare: Employers
paying for or reserving places in an existing or on-site 1. Telephone for personal use
child care centre. 2. Counseling Services for employees
3. Health Programs
Policies in the organization: with reference to flexible work 4. Exercise facilities
arrangements: 5. Equal Access to promotion, training and development.
6. Referral Services for employees personal needs: Here
1. Job Sharing: Job sharing is a form of part-time the organization provides a referral service – a
working where two or more people share the telephone service that employees can use for
responsibility for full-time job. They share the pay and assistance for personal matters.
benefits in proportion to the hours each works. Job 7. Parenting of family support program: The
shares may work split days, split weeks or alternate organization provides a formal educational program
weeks. on parenting.
2. Flextime: Flextime operates in which the system allow 8. Relocation or placement assistance: Here if the
the employees to build up additional hours, which can employee has to move for work purpose. The
be used to leave early, come in late, or take longer organization helps the whole family adapt to the new
periods off, with approval from line management. environment.
3. Part-time work: Part-time working hours any
arrangement where the employees contracted to work III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
anything less than typical full time hours for the type
of work in question. Need for the Study:
4. Compressed hours: This is where an employee works
In today’s society it is common for employees to have many
their usual hours in fewer or longer blocks during the
week. Through starting early or finishing late, competing responsibilities in their life. Care commitment
employees can build up additional hours which they involving children or elderly relatives, education commitment,
take as a day or half day away from work. needing to be available for religious observances, employees
5. Shift work: It is a pattern of work in which one want a greater sense of well being and reduce stress levels. A
employee replaces another doing the same job within poor balance between an employees work commitment and
a 24 hour period. Shift workers normally work in their other responsibilities can lead to stress, high absence and
crews, which are group of workers who make up for low productivity. Employees with better work life balance
separate shift team. often have greater sense of responsibility, ownership and
control of their working life. Hence this study is aimed to find
out the impact of work life balance policies on organizational A. Primary Data:
performance.
Primary data are collected by a study specifically to fulfill the
Background of the data needs of the problem at hand. Such data are original in
Study: character and are generated in large number of surveys
The pharmaceutical industry in India is the world’s largest in conducted mostly by government and also by individual,
terms of volume and stands fourteenth in terms of value. The institution, and research bodies.
Indian pharmaceutical market increased at a CAGR of 17.46% Methods of Collecting Primary Data:
in 2015 from US $ 6 billion in 2005 and is expected to expand
at a CAGR of 15.92% 2 US $55 million by 2020.This study Direct personal interviews.
was conducted in the company which is a premium Indirect oral interviews.
manufacturer of pharmaceutical containers made of neutral Information from correspondence.
glass. It is one of the leading manufacturers of pharmaceutical Mail questionnaire method.
packaging and also the leading supplier for pharmaceutical
industry offering a “One Stop Shop” solution for entire range The primary data in this study was collected by questionnaire
of small volume tabular glass, parenteral packaging including method considering a sample size of 50through direct
ampoules, vials, cartridge and sterile refillable syringes. With interview method.
more than thousands of employees working in the company it
becomes important to manage the work life balance to B. Secondary Data:
improve productivity. Hence a study is conducted to
understand the different policies adopted by the organization Data which are not originally collected but rather obtained
and its impact on the organizational performance. from published and unpublished sources are known as
secondary data. Sources of secondary data are:
Objectives of the Study:
Published sources
1. To know the different work-life balance policies / Unpublished sources
practices in the organization and the importance of
these policies to the employees. Secondary data in this study was collected through HR text
2. To know the benefits of work-life balance and ways books, Company annual reports and documents.
to increase productivity and to find out the challenges
for introducing flexible work arrangement. Method of Analysis:
3. To analyze the barriers in achieving work-life Raw primary data was collected with the help of a
balance. questionnaire. The raw data was then tabulated. Based on this
4. To understand the impact of work-life balance on bar chart were prepared. Analysis was conducted and
organizational performance. interpreted. Conclusions were drawn based on that.
Type of Research: Tools and Techniques Used:
The research is descriptive type. Descriptive research provides 1. The data collected is tabulated in MS EXCEL.
the researchers with a general understanding of the problem
2. Study is conducted with help of Table, Graphical
and seeks conclusive data to answer question necessary to
determine a particular cause of action. representation & interpretation with each graphs &
charts.
Sample size:
Limitations of the Study:
A size of 50 employees was chosen randomly for the
survey. Accuracy of the study is purely based on the
information as given by the respondents.
Sampling Method:
This study was limited to Sample Size of 50.
The sample is selected through the simple random sampling This study has been limited by time and cost factors.
method. The number of employees selected for survey is 50.

Method of Data Collection:

Personal Profile of Respondents:

Maritial Status Age

60%
70% 54%
60% 50%

40%

30% 26%
20%
20% 20%

0% 10% 0%
0%
Single Married 20-30 30-40

Gender Educational Qualification

100% 80%
70%
84%
80%
60%
60%
40%
40%
16% 18%
20%
12%
20%
0%
0% 0%

Male Female School level Graduates Diploma Professional

Work experience
35%
32%
30%
26% 26%
25%
20% 16%
15%
10%
5% 0%
0%

Less than 1 yr 1-3 yrs 3-5 yrs 5-10 yrs Above 10 yrs
Interpretation: From the above graphs it can be seen that group 30-40, they were graduates, married and with a work
most of the employees surveyed were male, were from the age experience of 5-10 years.
Q No 1: Do you agree that the following policies are the in the organization to manage work life balances?

Interpretation: 4. The same is applicable even to career break as above.

1. From the graph it can be seen that the organization 5. 98% of the employees say that there is no special
had policies for care leave as told by 96% of the leave arrangement for culture or religious ceremonies.
employees but some say that there is no care leave, 6. Regarding bereavement leave 14% say there is a
these are some of the employees who are not aware of policy on it. But 86% said no. When checked it was
the facility being given. found that there was policy on bereavement but only
2. All the employees said that there is no policy on 14% who actually availed this leave were aware of it.
opportunity for leave if care arrangement for children 7. Most of the employees that pooling of leave policy is
or other arrangements breakdown. not available (76%) but 24% say it is available. This
3. It can be seen that 92% of the employee survey say result is obtained as the pooling of leave policy is
that there is no study or training leave where as some available only for middle and top level management
of them say they don’t know about it. These were the and not for workers and the sample survey consisted
employees who did not know the different policies of employees of different cadres.
concerned to work life balance.
Policies for Parenting & Pregnancy:
Interpretation: 6. Most of the employees also said that there is a policy
1. From the graph it can be seen that most of the which says that the employees have opportunity for
employees (80%) said that there is no unpaid returning to the same job after maternity leave.
paternity leave. 7. Almost all the employees said that there is no leave
2. Most of the employees also said that there is no policy on prenatal leave.
policy on unpaid or adoption leave (96%). 8. The same is applicable as above to policies on
3. The employees said that there was policy on paid staggered return to work after pregnancy, lactation
maternity leave. break, employee’s assistance for child care.
4. All the employees said that there was no policy on
paid paternity leave. Flexible work arrangements:
5. The same is applicable for paid adoption leave.

Interpretation: 2. The same applies to flexi-time, term time hours, part-

From the above graph it can be seen that time work and hot desking.
3. But the organization has policies on compressed
1. The policy on job sharing as regards to flexible work hours and annualized hours.
arrangements is not available in this organization
where the survey was conducted. Additional Work Provision:
Interpretation: 2. It is also seen that counseling services for the
From the above graph it can be seen that employees, referral services for employee personal
needs, parenting support programs and relocation and
1. Additional provision regarding on telephone is placement assistances are not provided in the
available in the organization and also different health organization
programs are conducted to manage the health of the
employees.

Q No 2: How importance is this policy personally to manage work life balance?

A. Policies for leave arrangement:

Interpretation:
From the above graph it can be seen that most of the what the employees feel the organization needs to manage
employees say that care leave (63%), Bereavement leave work-life balance.
(58%) and pooling of leave (54%) are the important policies
B. Policies for Parenting & Pregnancy:
Interpretation: From the above graph it can be seen that the personal leave on
From the above graph it can be seen that paid maternity leave telephone (74%), health programs (48%) are the important
(62%), staggered return to work after pregnancy (54%), additional work provisions that the organization needs to
opportunity for returning to the same job after maternity leave provide to manage work-life balance.
(36%) are some of the important policies what the employees Q No 3: Do you agree that work life balances leads to
feel are needed for parenting and pregnancy. following benefits for employee?
C. Flexible work arrangement: Work-life balance leads to benefit for employee.

Interpretation: Interpretation:
From the above graph it can be seen that policies on From the above graph it can be seen that the main benefits of
compressed hours of work (52%), and annualized hours (70%) work life balance to a great extent as said by most of the
are the two important flexible work arrangements what the employees are good health (48%), fulfillment (42%), and
employees feel need to be there in the organization to manage greater productivity (34%).
work-life balance. The previous graph on the policies shows Different ways to increase productivity.
that these two flexible work arrangements are already
available in the organization.
D. Additional Work Provision:

Interpretation:
From the above graph it can be seen that the different ways to
increase productivity is to take enjoyable break, taking time
Interpretation: off and taking healthy break.
Q No 4: Do you agree that flexible work arrangement have reducing productivity (78%) and direct supervision
following challenges? throughout the day will be difficult (64%).
A. Job Sharing:
C. Part time:

Interpretation:
From the above graph it can be seen that the main challenge
Interpretation:
for job sharing is extra induction training and development
(56%) and high responsibility on the supervisor by the From the above graph it can be seen that the main challenges
manager to allocate work fairly(54%). are increased training (24%) and increased administration cost
(32%).
B. Flexi-time:
D. Compressed work:

Interpretation:
Interpretation:
From the above graph it can be seen that the main challenges
From the above graph it can be seen that the main challenges are difficulty in scheduling the work (84%) and longer daily
for introducing flexi-time are it can lead to long hours of work work causes fatigue (70%).

E Annualized hours:
Interpretation:
From the above graph it can be seen that the main challenges Interpretation:
are extra administrative costs (36%) and working for long
hours may lead to tiredness and increased absenteeism (70%). From the above graph it can be seen that the organizational
outcome due to work-life balance it often leads to enhance
Q No 5: What are the barriers in achieving work life balances organizational image (28%) , retention of desirable employees
in your organization? (24%), more work satisfaction.
Barriers in achieving work-life balances in the
organization. IV. CONCLUSION
To conclude, it can be seen that work life balance practices
benefits everyone, i.e the business, through easier recruitment,
improved retention and easier service delivery, the economy
as the labour market grows skilled and experienced people are
available to work, parents and careers who can spend quality
time at home, as well as providing financial support through
work. This study basically made us to understand the
different work life balance practices followed in the
organization, also helped us to understand the importance of
the different practices followed in the organization.
An overall conclusion of WLB practices are most effective
when they enhance employees’ autonomy and increase their
capacity to perform well in work and in family situation. In
summary a successful convergence between work and non-
work aspects can be win –win situation for employees and
employers alike.
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