Workplace life balance assignment

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Contents
Executive Summary.....................................................................................................................................3
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
Critical Analysis............................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................8
References...................................................................................................................................................9

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Executive Summary
With the ever increasing weightage being given to mental health, motivation, and work life balance,
these facets of an organization has become a critical talking point, and something that employees highly
consider and evaluate before signing with any organization. In this assignment, the researcher tries to
understand the meaning and the importance of work life balance, which the employees have been
highly aware about, and have given rising importance especially post pandemic. In this assignment the
researcher has taken the case of TD Bank Group, to understand about how the organization has been
able to achieve work life balance. TD Bank Group has provided its employees with high autonomy and
flexibility through programs of electing their own working hours, work days within a week, and even
work sharing. In addition to this, various researches and surveys have found out how satisfied the
employees have been with the work life balance they have been able to enjoy, by being a part of the
organization. TD Bank Group, has provided monetary benefits and resource assistance when their
employees shifted to work from home, with provision of additional benefits for employees having child
or elderly responsibility. In addition to this, they provide vacation time for their employees, provision of
12 week paid maternity and paternity leaves, and unpaid leave of 52 weeks.

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Introduction
In today’s times, especially after the covid-19 pandemic, and the implementation of work from home in
various or almost every major organization, it has become crucial for organizations to ensure that the
status of work life balance is maintained amongst their personnel, even after the pandemic concludes or
ends. Work/life balance, or striking a balance between one's work or profession and other parts or
demands of life (such as family, leisure, and personal duties), is a continuous issue of modern living.
Even before COVID-19 converted houses into temporary workplaces, a slew of mega-trends made
achieving work/life balance more challenging (Segal, 2022). The perks provided, the motivational levels
and the way in which the employees of a certain organization are treated, has become a major
determinant of how employees evaluate an organization, the provision of work life balance has become
one such indicator for employees, and can make a vast difference in the motivation levels of the
employees. The pew research of 2022, shows that employees who are juggling between work and life,
and finding it extremely to do so, are 58% of working mothers and 43% are working fathers (Igielnik,
n.d.). In this assignment the practice of work life balance would be discussed and evaluated of TD Bank
Group, one of the largest existent bank in Canada. Not only in Canada, the TD bank group
headquartered at Toronto, Canada, is also one of the 10 largest banks in the U.S.A. The Toronto-
Dominion Bank and its subsidiaries are collectively known as the TD Bank Group, with headquarters in
Toronto, Canada, and around 90,000 workers worldwide (TD) (td.com, n.d.). Through three core
business categories, TD provides a broad range of financial products and services to over 26 million
clients worldwide:

1. Canadia Retail

2. US Retail

3. Wholesale Banking

In addition to the above, or subisidiary to these services, the firm also provides various other services to
their clients, including; Business Banking, Wealth and Asset Management, MBNA, and TD insurance etc.,
(tdbank.com., n.d.).

Through this assignment, the researcher would try to understand and evaluate the work life balance
that employees experience and are a part of, whilst working at TD bank. This would be gauged through
secondary sources, assessment of company policies, employee feedbacks, and opinions and ratings of
independent research conducted.

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Critical Analysis
Stress management and work life balance have become increasingly important aspects of the workings
of various organizations across the globe. Severe stress and lack of work life balance could lead to
severed mental health implications and could significantly hinder the productivity of any employee
facing such an issue. Severity and provision of no work life balance has also resulted in certain extreme
circumstances such as increased stress, higher health problems, employee burnout and breaking of
marital and/or family relationships (Segal, 2022). Therefore, organizations like TD bank have been
implementing more and more norms and creating an organizational environment and work culture
within their organizations, which is conducive to maintaining and providing better work life balance than
various other organizations. Because of its long hours and extremely competitive character, the financial
business is known for being one of the most challenging sectors in which to attain work/life balance
(Segal, 2022). Therefore, it becomes important to understand exactly how such a globally renowned and
operated bank has been able to achieve such levels and recognition of maintaining work life balance into
their corporation.

The TD Bank group offers its employees various options and allowances of flexible working hours, these
flexible working hours systems provides employees with the luxury of changing times of starting and
ending times, reducing workweek, reducing and changing the number of days worked whilst keeping the
number of hours worked per week the same, job sharing with other employees and to also allow the
personnel to conduct and do their works from home for a certain number of days (Segal, 2022).
Moreover, the bank has a Flexible Work Alternatives Business Committee for each line of business to
ensure that appropriate work options are adopted and promoted throughout the organization (Canada’s
top 100 employers, 2021). Such measures of flexibility provides the employees with a greater freedom
to chose and plan his/her work week, and then accordingly give more time to the family according to
their needs. Companies and employers may offer incentives in a variety of ways to make employment
more appealing. Telecommuting, flexible work schedules, required vacations and voluntary sabbaticals,
child care, and workplace amenities like gyms and subsidised cafeterias are all examples (Segal, 2022).

According to the research conducted by comparably, 75% of the employees working in the TD Bank
group are pleased and satisfied with their work life balance with the corporation. In addition to this,
approximately 88% of the employees working in the TD Bank group, work for 8 hours or less,
henceforth, providing them with more time to spend with their families, and/or pursue their other
interests and activities.

As noted earlier, by Segal (2022), one important measure that employees could take to substantiate
with the provision of work-life balance is providing the employees with other perks, which could make
the employment more appealing and facilitate their employees with a lot of things that they would
normally do outside of their work. Such a policy was adopted by TD Bank group, in the year 2011 for
Canadian employees. Under this new policy, the subjected employees would be able to use their paid
benefits with the organization to obtain various perks for themselves and their families, such as; fitness
membership, exercise equipment, counseling and preventive items (td.com., n.d.).

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In addition to this, some of the other initiatives and measures taken by TD Bank Group that the company
offers includes;

 Paid and unpaid time off to their employees for attending any special family circumstances
(td.com., n.d.).
 Up to eight weeks of leave to attend and serve to ill family member/s (td.com., n.d.).
 Up to 52 weeks of pregnancy and parental leave, in addition to this, 6 weeks of salary top up for
availing any governmental childcare benefits available (td.com., n.d.).
 A gradual return to work from a long leave, a special program has been created for this within
the company (td.com., n.d.).
 Paid time off for any volunteering work that the employee hopes to do, which could prove to be
of fruition to the community (td.com., n.d.).

During the covid-19 pandemic, it became difficult to adopt with the new found methodology and
philosophy of work, especially during the initial stages. One article published by Park (2020), showcases
about how women, or for that matter, all the employees were able to work remotely during the
covid019 pandemic, providing them with a higher work life balance (Park, 2020). All the women that
were spoken with, were in a certain leadership role within the organization. It wasn’t only left upon the
employees to set up their work places, facilitate and execute the working of work life balance. The
organization had a very crucial role to play, throughout the whole process. The company provided their
employees with a lot of technological assistance throughout the shift. In addition to this, all the
employees throughout the company were provided with a $100 subsidy. Whilst, at the same time, the
company provided additional monetary benefits of $1000, to the employees who were essential and
had to work from the office premises itself (Canada’s top 100 employers, 2021). TD Bank group, also
subsided these monetary benefits with extended paid personal days for all employees facing child care
and elder care responsibilities at home. Early in the epidemic, the company ran a big online Colleague
Connection poll to better assess the effects on employees, and it is still working with employee groups
to debate and build a future workplace model (Canada’s top 100 employers, 2021).

There are a host of other factors which determines and dictates the amount of work life balance
enjoyed by the employees, other than the number of hours worked. The company was given the
accolade of being the best employer in Greater Toronto, a testimony to how well the organization has
been able to adopt to the changes induced due to the covid-19 pandemic, and how well they value and
treat their employees. TD Bank provides 100 percent of salaries to their employees for maternal and
paternal leaves, for 12 weeks. Additionally, the TD Bank group, helps and provides its employees with
better retirement planning assistance, and actually enables them to spend a better post work life.
Maintaining and striking for work life balance during the work tenure is not the only important task, the
employers and employees must also ensure that they are able to do so, even after their work ends, and
they enter their retirement (Canada’s top 100 employers, 2021). TD Bank group also provides of 3-5
weeks of paid vocational time to their employees, and a maximum of 12 months of unpaid leave. To
ensure that their employees are constantly engaged in working positively with the community, TD Bank
Group also ensures to provide their employees with paid leaves for any additional volunteering work
that they wish to take upon (Canada’s top 100 employers, 2021). According to the results of the survey

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and reviews conducted by Glassdoor, more than 780 employees who are currently working with the
corporation have stated that TD Bank group has exceptional provisions of work life balance, within their
organizational culture (Glassdoor, n.d.). As mentioned earlier, provision of work life balance doesn’t only
has the tangible benefits of physical well being, and enabling the employees to spend greater amount of
time with their families, it also means and imparts the employees with the intangible benefits of
employee’s mental health and welfare, these would ultimately benefit the organization, by ensuring that
the employees stays longer with the organization, henceforth, higher chances of him being retained, and
due to lesser levels of stress, his/her productivity would also increase significantly.

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Conclusion
In today’s times, the work conducted by employees has become increasingly tiring and stressful. It has
become extremely crucial for organizations to ensure that they provide their employees, and strike the
right balance between work and life, in the individual lives of their employees. At the start of this
assignment, the researcher established the definition of work life balance, and why is it important to
strive for and achieve greater work life balance, not only from an employee’s perspective, but also from
the employer’s perspective, some such benefits include; better mental and physical health and well
being, higher productivity, and lower retention costs for the organization as well. Through this
assignment, this aspect of organizational working was explored and understood about for a firm known
as TD Bank Group. It was understood through various research and various reviews that it is one of the
best places to work at, when it comes to work life balance experienced by employees. The company
provides the option of choosing work hours, choosing the days and the number of days in which the
employee could work within the week, and the organization also facilitates its employees with work
sharing within the organization. In addition to this, the organization also has monetary provisions to
employees. For instance, the organization provides, up to 52 weeks of unpaid leave, it provides 12
weeks of compensation for paternal and maternal leaves, and provides upto 3-5 weeks of vacations to
their employees. In addition to this, TD Bank group was able to facilitate the shift to work from home,
during the pandemic, by providing the necessary resources to their employees, and also providing them
with monetary benefits, to cope and adopt with the situation. Additional monetary benefits were
provided to employees with child or elderly care during this period.

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References
1. Segal, T. (2022). Maintaining Work/Life Balance for Finance Professionals. [online] Investopedia.
Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/professionals/061113/maintaining-worklife-balance-
financial-professionals.asp#:~:text=Work%2Flife%20balance%20refers%20to [Accessed 25 May 2022].

2. www.td.com. (n.d.). TD Bank Financial Group - Corporate Information - Corporate Profile. [online]
Available at: https://www.td.com/about-tdbfg/corporate-information/corporate-profile/profile.jsp#:~:text=TD
%20Bank%2C%20America [Accessed 25 May 2022].

3. Igielnik, R. (n.d.). Many working parents with young children say finding backup care would be very
difficult. [online] Pew Research Center. Available at:
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/02/23/many-working-parents-with-young-children-say-
finding-backup-care-would-be-very-difficult/.

4. www.td.com. (n.d.). TD Employee Well-Being. [online] Available at: https://www.td.com/corporate-

responsibility/crr-2010/employees/attract-great-people/flexibility-well-being-index.jsp.

5. Park, V. (2020). Work-life balance and COVID-19: How women make it work. [online] MoneyTalk.
Available at: https://www.moneytalkgo.com/women-executives-and-work-life-balance-during-the-covid-19-
pandemic/ [Accessed 26 May 2022].

6. Canada's Top 100 Employers (2021). Top Employer: TD Bank Group. [online] Canadastop100.com.
Available at: https://reviews.canadastop100.com/top-employer-td-bank.

7. Glassdoor. (n.d.). TD Reviews. [online] Available at: https://www.glassdoor.co.in/Reviews/TD-Reviews-

E3767.htm [Accessed 26 May 2022].

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