Work
Life Effectiveness
“Work Life Effectiveness” is a term that some
in the Work-Life field have lobbied to use instead of Work-Life
Balance. The belief is that senior executives will buy into
the term more easily. But whether you call it work life effectiveness,
life work effectiveness, or work life balance, being overly
concerned with terminology is a mistake. While the perception
may be that some higher ups on the corporate ladder respond
better to “effectiveness” studies have shown that
“balance” is the more appealing term to the managers
and individual contributors that work-life programs are designed
to impact.
Much more important than what you call your work-life program
is what it achieves. Senior executives respond to results.
Past work-life programs have focused their strategy, often
entirely, on “What the organization can do for the employee”
in terms of policies, benefits and procedures. Great strides
have been made in such areas as EAP’s, flexibility in
the work place and telecommuting. But many organizations have
passed the point of diminishing returns in adding bells and
whistles to programs of this type while doing nothing to teach
employees to help themselves.
Changing the concept’s name from work life balance
to worklife effectiveness does not help this problem –
the only solution is to expand your program to include the
other critical half of a successful work-life strategy –
teaching employees to help themselves.
Work Life Balance or Life Work Effectiveness: Forget Terminology
Whether you call it a work life effectiveness program or
a work life balance program the goals are the same:
- To immediately and consistently create more value and
balance every day for the individual
- To drive personal commitment and accountability to the
organization
- To drive productivity
In the end, it doesn’t matter if the program is called
work life effectiveness or work life balance. We need to stop
being hung up on terminology and start focusing on the tools
that are necessary to achieve the best results possible. By
educating managers and employees with skills to help themselves
create their own best life work effectiveness, the employer
can see breakthrough returns on investment and a lasting positive
impact on the entire organization.
Learn more about how to achieve results
from a work life effectiveness program and how to stop focusing
on terminology.
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