Gender and Work Life Balance

Work-life balance
 Well-being at work (part of H&S?)
 Intensification of work (longer hours, more intense work)
 No set definition – often (paid) work-family (childcare) interaction
 Part of recruitment and retention efforts

Work-life balance practices

 Flexible working
o Number of hours
o Timing of hours
o Location of hours

Part time, flexitime, compressed week, annual hours

Benefits of WLB
 Performance
 Retention
 Discretionary effort
 Outside skills feeding back into workplace

Barriers to WLB
 Take-up gap (changing employer)
 British labour market rigid
 Costs
 Reactionary rather than strategic
 Professional part time – really??

Gender and work-life balance

 Requests for childcare viewed more favourably
 WLB – ‘ghettoised’ – for women with children who don’t really want a career
 ‘Special privileges’
 Lacking commitment

Women & WLB – is it the same for all?

 Crompton and Lyonette (2011)
o Women professionals working part time
o Career limiting
o Marriage and family career/pay benefits for men
o Crowding into family friendly, but lower prestige specialisms
 Forson (2013)
o Self-employed black women have to negotiate societal structures for WLB

CIPD survey 2013

 96% employers offer some flexible working (more prevalent in larger organisations, but just for some
employees)
 75% employees take up flexible working (mostly part time). Greater uptake from women
 Those in smaller companies report fewer barriers
British Gas case study (CIPD)
 Service to customers, attracting and retaining talent, want a ‘diverse workforce that reflects our
community and customer base’
 ‘We believe that happy, committed employees lead to a successful, flourishing organisation. Offering
benefits such as flexible working builds mutual trust between employer and employee. In return, our
people reward us with great service and commitment to the business and our customers.’