Work Life Balance Takes Precedence Over Even Money

Today's Work Tips

 

Work Life Balance Takes Precedence Over Even Money

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Posted by James T |

 HR Management Tips, Human Resources Industry News 

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Work Life Balance is increasingly important to every employee

8 simple tips every employer can use to further work life balance – and Job Satisfaction – for every employee

The next generation of workers is willing to give up even substantial increases in pay for more flexibility and “balance” in their professional lives.

If they feel appreciated, if they’re part of a team that sticks together and enjoy even a little more flexibility over their hours and place of work then they’re likely to stay.  

Previous generations – who you may very well also be employing – wanted development opportunities. And opportunities for advancement, security, certainty and a level playing field – all admirable goals for the work place.

But Generation Y and millennial workers will even accept less money – lower pay – in exchange for more control over how when and where they’re going to be.

Retaining the talent your company needs – today more than ever before – means changing your work more into a thing and less into a place.

These are eight strategies to bring up at your next HR retention meeting. Everyone of them will keep those younger and more restless employees happy, but they also work with older generations too. By 2020, you’ll be looking at 50% of your workforce being made up entirely of Generation y, so there’s no time to lose.

 

1. Make your Policies Clear

Policies on flextime, telecommuting and performance need to be clear and known far and wide.

 

2. Reward Performance

There’s no saying that every employee needs to start out as the free bird. Build increasing freedom into your policies and let the best people reap the rewards.

 

3. Infrastructure

If they need networks, the time is now to get them out the office. This can be the greatest expense for companies moving into the cloud, so now is the time to start planning for secure and always available cloud-based infrastructure.

 

4. Choice

Employees like to be able to say no. No guilt, and no worries make even die-hard desk jockies into true 

believers. Give them the chance.

 

5. Respect

Make sure employees know that you respect the decisions they make, and give them more choices where ever possible.

 

6. Communications

Balanced workplaces need to put more effort into that internal newsletter or blog. It’s not just about the bottom line. It’s also about people, and people’s lives, accomplishments and communities.

 

7. Get Personal

With all of the above in mind – your new workplace has room for a little breathing, a little more fun and some messy personal lives. Of course, employees still need privacy and respect, but there’s a lot to be said for personal achievement, and kids’ achievements and your local schools, softball teams and scouts.

 

8. Test, Review and Modify

As your infrastructure learns to grow and change and improve, it’s not going to grow more rigid.  There’s no reason you should let it. Take the time to learn to read the new numbers as they are coming in. You’ll see performance increases, but you’ll be identifying problem areas too. Change and improve.

That process will never cease, and there’s no reason it should. You’ll find that achieving balance is not only the most cost effective goal for your employees but for your entire organization too!

5 Work Stressors

Today's Health Tips

                                                   

5 Work Stressors

Published in Health & Science News, Our Journal

 

 

                                                               

What not to eat and drink at work in order to stay calm and focused.

Living Green magazine reports that a recent survey says that 23 percent of Americans lash out at others due to stress. Prolonged stress can also lead to high blood pressure, depression, isolation, and anxiety, among other detrimental health conditions.

Keri Gans, MS, RDN, CDN, a registered dietitian/nutritionist, and author of The Small Change Diet, is quoted by Living Green as saying there are five foods that may be contributing to stress at work and that “making smarter food choices can lead to a happier, healthier, more productive self. The old adage is true: you are what you eat!”

According to Gans, the five no’s are foods high in caffeine, foods rich in sodium, junk foods, fatty foods and alcohol.

Small daily doses of caffeine of 16oz. or less is acceptable, but black coffee and tea are lower in sugar than most soft and sports drinks. They are also rich in antioxidants which can reduce the risk of some diseases and be beneficial to overall health. Caffeine is also a powerful stimulant and if over-consumed, can cause anxiety, irritability, poor concentration and productivity, and increased stress at work.

Sodium rich fries, chips, and deli meats are still lunchtime favorites, says Gans. However, an excess of sodium causes the body to retain fluids leading to hypertension. “Though research is unclear on whether or not stress alone can result in prolonged high blood pressure, sticking to a diet low in fat and sodium can be best.” She suggests that “a simple grilled chicken sandwich with avocado and lots of veggies on whole wheat bread instead of a huge sub weighed down by cheese, meat and high sodium condiments, may help keep blood pressure down.”

As far as junk foods go, “if you find yourself making frequent trips to the office vending machine, you may want to re-consider that afternoon bag of candy.” Packaged sweets and other “quick-fix snacks” may satisfy cravings, but soon leave one feeling lethargic and hungry. Most junk foods are simple carbohydrates with no protein, fiber, vitamins or minerals ― all “the dietary essentials which assist the body in regulating stress levels.” Rather bring your own healthy snacks, which also prevents weight gain.

Fatty foods, she says may increase the unhealthy effects of stress on the heart, like raising blood pressure. These foods aren’t just pizza, fried chicken and mashed potatoes, but large daily amounts of 100 percent whole fat dairy. So no more adding full-fat cream to your coffee!

Regarding alcohol, the problem lies in hangovers. “Hangovers may kill your chance at productivity and subsequently increase your stress. Partaking in a glass of wine or beer at a business lunch also may not benefit you.” According to a study, many people drink regularly, and sometimes, while in the presence of colleagues. Alcohol also increases stress.

How to Think Creatively

Today's Work Tips

 

 

 

How to Think Creatively

HBR Blog Network

Tony Schwartz

Tony Schwartz is the president and CEO of The Energy Project and the author of Be Excellent at Anything. Become a fan of The Energy Project on Facebook and connect with Tony at Twitter.com/TonySchwartz and Twitter.com/Energy_Project.

I grew up hungry to do something creative, to set myself apart. I also believed creativity was magical and genetically encoded. As early as the age of 8, I began sampling the arts, one after another, to see if I'd inherited some gift.

Eventually, I became a journalist. For many years, I told other people's stories. I was successful, but I rarely felt truly creative.

The first hint I might have sold myself short came in the mid-1990s. In the course of writing a book called What Really Matters, Searching for Wisdom in America, I took a five-day seminar on how to draw, led by Betty Edwards, author of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

When Edwards peered down at the self-portrait I had drawn on the first day, she smiled. My artistic development, she told me gently, seemed to have been arrested somewhere around the age of six. This was, she hastened to add, no evidence of lack of ability, but rather of training.

From an early age, we're taught in school to develop the logical, language-based, rational capacities of the left hemisphere of our brain, which is goal-oriented and impatient to reach conclusions.

The left hemisphere gives names to objects in order to reduce and simplify them. One nose is like another, for example, so when we're asked to draw one, we retrieve the symbol we have for "nose" from our memory, reproduce it and move on.

The right hemisphere, by contrast, is visual rather than verbal. It's capable of seeing more deeply and subtly than the left, immersing itself in what's actually there, in all its richness. Once you learn to do that, Edwards told us, drawing what you see is, relatively speaking, a breeze.

Sure enough, by the fifth and final day of the workshop, I was able to produce a self-portrait that was undeniably me, and surprisingly realistic. After several months of practice, I was able to draw myself with a significant degree of skill, and even expressiveness. I had effectively begun to learn a wholly new and non-verbal language.

But what did that have to do with creativity? Turns out, quite a bit.

Over the past hundred years, researchers have reached a surprising degree of consensus about the predictable stages of creative thinking. It was Betty Edwards who first pointed out to me that the stages move back and forth between right and left hemisphere dominance:

1. Saturation: Once the problem or creative challenge has been defined, the next stage of creativity is a left hemisphere activity that paradoxically requires absorbing one's self in what's already known. Any creative breakthrough inevitably rests on the shoulders of all that came before it. For a painter, that might mean studying the masters. For me, it involves reading widely and deeply, and then sorting, evaluating, organizing, outlining, and prioritizing.

2. Incubation: The second stage of creativity begins when we walk away from a problem, typically because our left hemisphere can't seem to solve it. Incubation involves mulling over information, often unconsciously. Intense exercise can be a great way to shift into right hemisphere in order to access new ideas and solutions. After writing for 90 minutes, for example, the best thing I can do to jog my brain, is take a run.

3. Illumination: Ah-ha moments — spontaneous, intuitive, unbidden — characterize the third stage of creativity. Where are you when you get your best ideas? I'm guessing it's not when you're sitting at your desk, or consciously trying to think creatively. Rather it's when you've given your left hemisphere a rest, and you're doing something else, whether it's exercising, taking a shower, driving or even sleeping.

4. Verification: In the final stage of creativity, the left hemisphere reasserts its dominance. This stage is about challenging and testing the creative breakthrough you've had. Scientists do this in a laboratory. Painters do it on a canvas. Writers do it by translating a vision into words.

The first key to intentionally nurturing our creativity is to understand how it works. I've found the stages often unfold in unpredictable sequence, and wrap back on one another. Still, keeping them in mind lets me know where I am in the creative process, and how to get to where I need to go.

Ultimately, the highest creativity depends on making frequent waves — learning to engage the whole brain by moving flexibly and intentionally between the right and left hemisphere, activity and rest, effort and letting go. That's also a pretty good prescription for how to live.

How to Accomplish More by Doing Less

Today's Work Tips  

How to Accomplish More by Doing Less

Tony Schwartz

Tony Schwartz is the president and CEO of The Energy Project and the author of Be Excellent at Anything. Become a fan of The Energy Project on Facebook and connect with Tony at Twitter.com/TonySchwartz and Twitter.com/Energy_Project.

 

7:40 AM Tuesday December 13, 2011 

Two people of equal skill work in the same office. For the sake of comparison, let's say both arrive at work at 9 am each day, and leave at 7 pm.

Bill works essentially without stopping, juggling tasks at his desk and running between meetings all day long. He even eats lunch at his desk. Sound familiar?

Nick, by contrast, works intensely for approximately 90 minutes at a stretch, and then takes a 15 minute break before resuming work. At 12:15, he goes out for lunch for 45 minutes, or works out in a nearby gym. At 3 pm, he closes his eyes at his desk and takes a rest. Sometimes it turns into a 15 or 20 minute nap. Finally, between 4:30 and 5, Nick takes a 15 minute walk outside.

Bill spends 10 hours on the job. He begins work at about 80 percent of his capacity, instinctively pacing himself rather than pushing all out, because he knows he's got a long day ahead.

By 1 pm, Bill is feeling some fatigue. He's dropped to 60 percent of his capacity and he's inexorably losing steam. Between 4 and 7 pm, he's averaging about 40 percent of his capacity.

It's called the law of diminishing returns. Bill's average over 10 hours is 60 percent of his capacity, which means he effectively delivers 6 hours of work.

Nick puts in the same 10 hours. He feels comfortable working at 90 percent of his capacity, because he knows he's going to have a break before too long. He slows a little as the day wears on, but after a midday lunch or workout, and a midafternoon rest, he's still at 70 percent during the last three hours of the day.

Nick takes off a total of two hours during his 10 at work, so he only puts in 8 hours. During that time, he's working at an average of 80 percent of his capacity, so he's delivering just under 6 ½ hours of work — a half hour more than Bill.

Because Nick is more focused and alert than Bill, he also makes fewer mistakes, and when he returns home at night, he has more energy left for his family.

It's not just the number of hours we sit at a desk in that determines the value we generate. It's the energy we bring to the hours we work. Human beings are designed to pulse rhythmically between spending and renewing energy. That's how we operate at our best. Maintaining a steady reservoir of energy — physically, mentally, emotionally and even spiritually — requires refueling it intermittently.

Work the way Nick does, and you'll get more done, in less time, at a higher level of quality, more sustainably.

Create a workplace that truly values a balanced relationship between intense work and real renewal, and you'll not only get greater productivity from employees, but also higher engagement and job satisfaction.

There's plenty of evidence that increased rest and renewal serve performance.

Consider a study conducted by NASA, in collaboration with the Federal Aviation Administration, of pilots on long haul flights. One group of pilots was given an opportunity to take 40 minute naps mid-flight, and ended up getting an average of 26 minutes of actual sleep. Their median reaction time improved by 16 percent following their naps.

Non-napping pilots, tested at a similar halfway point in the flight, experienced a 34 percent deterioration in reaction time. They also experienced 22 micro sleeps of 2-10 seconds during the last 30 minutes of the flight. The pilots who took naps experienced none.

Or consider the study that performance expert Anders Ericcson did of violinists at the Berlin Academy of Music. The best of the violinists practiced in sessions no longer than 90 minutes, and took a break in between each one. They almost never practiced more than 4 ½ hours over a day. What they instinctively understood was the law of diminishing returns.

The top violinists also got an average of more than 8 hours of sleep a night, and took a 20-30 minute nap every afternoon. Over a week, they slept 16 hours more than the average American does.

During my 30s and 40s, I wrote three books. I sat at my desk each day from 7 am to 7 pm, struggling to stay focused. Each book took me at least a year to write. For my most recent books, I wrote in a schedule that matched the great violinists — three 90 minute sessions with a renewal break in between each one.

I wrote both those books in six months — investing less than half the number of hours I had for each of my first three books. When I was working, I was truly working. When I was recharging — whether by getting something to eat, or meditating, or taking a run — I was truly refueling.

Stress isn't the enemy in the workplace. Indeed, stress is the only means by which we can expand capacity. Just think about weightlifting. By stressing your muscles, and then recovering, you gradually build strength. 

Our real enemy is the absence of intermittent renewal.