Malay Karmakar/ MINT
A35-year-old middle-level manager at information technology company
HCL Technologies Ltd was finding it hard to juggle the demands made on her at the workplace and by her 10-year-old son, who suffers from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. The high level of stress was impacting both her work and personal life. Fortunately, help was at hand, in the form of a counsellor provided by her employer. The executive says she has sought help several times in the last one year.
The fierce competitive business environment—where chasing tough targets often results in employees compromising their personal lives for work—is leading to extremely high stress levels at the workplace. And this, say experts, may be counterproductive for companies because stress usually leads to a decline in efficiency levels.
Surveys show that work-life imbalance is leading to a sharp rise in lifestyle diseases and low morale among staff, which threatens a company’s growth. According to a study released by New Delhi-based economic think tank, the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (Icrier), in September 2007—it surveyed 81 companies across sectors—organizations annually lose around 14% of their working days due to ill health. Reducing just one health risk increases an employee’s on-the-job productivity by 9% and cuts absenteeism by 2%.
Several leading companies, particularly multinational firms with policies in place globally, are making an effort to help employees attain a balance between work and their personal lives.
Many firms, however, are yet to realize the criticality of this need at a time when the new pressures imposed by globalization are accentuating work-life imbalance.
Soft drinks company PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt. Ltd recently introduced an employee assistance programme (EAP) dubbed Pepcare. It has hired Hong Kong-based Human Dynamic Asia Pacific Ltd (HDAP) to counsel employees and their immediate family members on issues such as stress, handling dissension and challenges in personal and professional relationships.
The company says it went ahead and engaged professionals after it found, in internal employee satisfaction surveys, that managing multiple priorities was a common challenge among staff. “We decided to outsource the counselling part of our work-life initiative because professionals are better equipped to coach on work-life imbalances,” says Pavan Bhatia, executive director, human resources (HR), PepsiCo India. “Also, people find it easier to discuss personal—even if they are related to work—issues with strangers.”
Pepsico’s other work-life initiatives include a “no meeting” policy on Mondays and Fridays for outstation employees, so that they don’t have to spend time travelling during weekends. Also, the sales and marketing teams have to leave early on Wednesdays—just to provide a mid-week break. To ensure compliance, the company decided on a Rs500 fine for violations.