A study on new trends in human resource management by DBM Spain found that almost half of workers who leave their jobs voluntarily do so due to their need to balance work and family life. Policies to improve work–life balance used by companies include making the working day flexible, providing services such as nurseries, and ensuring equality of opportunities for women. Multinational companies offer the best options to their employees to reconcile work and family demands.
A recent report on new trends in human resource management published by DBM Spain, an international human resources consultancy, presents the findings of a study carried out on a representative sample of Spanish companies covering all size categories and economic sectors. According to the report, 46% of Spanish employees who voluntarily leave their jobs mainly do so due to difficulty in balancing work and family life.
Company practices and general context in Spain
As a result of difficulties in balancing work and family life, many companies have resolved to implement different types of practices according to their human resource policies. Such polices affect all workers and include:
- making the working day flexible by specifying the period which is ‘compulsory’ and allowing employees to adapt their start time, end time and work breaks to their needs around the ‘compulsory presence’ time, and also to have a continuous working day (without a lunch break);
- providing services which groups of workers find valuable (such as a nursery, a gym and/or teleworking) and which help employees achieve better management of their time and greater efficiency;
- ensuring equality of opportunities for women, especially promotion opportunities in management posts.
Further points made by the report are summarised below.
- It is easier for managers to offer more flexibility to employees with higher levels of responsibility.
- The Spanish context is characterised by several factors that negatively affect opportunities for employment equality (gender equality in the labour market, concerning for example employment/activity rates and women in management positions) and business productivity. Examples of these factors include social disparities such as the uneven distribution of home tasks between men and women, the division of labour according to gender and the lack of support community services (such as nursery services).
- Those companies that offer the most opportunities for balancing work and family life tend to be multinational companies, though they are criticised for still not offering enough. The rigidity of the Spanish labour market, reflected for instance in the high cost of dismissals, as well as the difficulties faced by workers in changing jobs (especially in the current context of high unemployment figures) makes the situation complicated.
- The authors stress that balancing work and family life can be also a matter of personalities, rather than just a policy-approach, especially in small enterprises. In this sense, a good working environment and a good relationship between employers and employees, together with a positive view of employees’ attitudes to work and their performance makes it easier to adopt flexible solutions.
- The report also suggests that balancing work and family life is normally promoted by result-oriented managers with a long-term approach and leadership abilities, who are able to see a direct relationship between personal satisfaction and labour performance. Conversely, companies whose working practices are too strict, especially as far as working time is concerned, are losing their attraction for workers. This change of mentality has been facilitated by changes in social values, as people become more and more aware of the need for gender equality in all social spheres, as well as by the need for family stability, favoured by the avoidance of long working days to make it easier to care for dependents and to improve quality of life.
Commentary
Spanish companies are increasingly aware of the need to introduce measures that make it easier for their employees to achieve a balance between work and family life, especially bearing in mind the increasing demand of Spanish workers (particularly women) on this issue. This demand is being coupled with increasing numbers of requests for flexibility by both employers and employees. Finally, it should not be forgotten that the current economic crisis and high unemployment levels also place a question mark on this issue.
Jessica Durán and Iñigo Isusi, IKEI Research & Consultancy