Supervisor Bárbara Ruiz has a big problem. In fact, four of the seven bank tellers where he works have difficulties:
A cashier is on maternity leave. Almost 03 months ago, she had a half-kilo premature baby. You must return to work soon, but you do not want to leave your baby still in intensive care, so you want to extend your license.
how-to-help-your-employees-achieve-balance-work-familyAnother cashier has just informed Barbara that her elderly mother, who lives in the province alone, has fallen and broke her hip. The cashier, an only child, wants at least a month off to attend to her mother and find a new place for her.
A cashier has asked her to slightly reduce the hours to return home soon and be with her children after school. The next-door neighbor, who had been taking care of them, is going to move and the cashier, who is new to the city, can't find anyone she can trust to take care of her children.
Barbara's best cashier, who could one day be a supervisor, has just asked her to cut down on working hours so she can attend a master's class. Barbara would like to be able to access the petition, because her performance is also evaluated based on her ability to promote her staff.
At one time Barbara would not have been distressed by any of these requests. She would simply have refused, would have ordered all of her cashiers to remain in their posts, and would have replaced the one that had not obeyed.
But the company has just adopted a series of policies to accommodate and resolve conflicts between work and family responsibilities of employees. Barbara is supposed to be a flexible supervisor now, which implies that she must try to fulfill the requests of her staff. But,
How to do it and at the same time get the bank to continue working?
Content:
1.-What is called work-family conflict?
2.-Types of work-family conflicts
3.- Family-friendly or work-family policies and benefits
4.- The family-friendly culture
5.- The policies applied
6.- When the management is not interested in the subject
7.- Corporate social responsibility
8.- The ISO 26,000
9.- Is this all?
"People are not resources of the organization, they are the organization" Peter Serge
Managers in the organization need to be "informed" that the personal and family life of employees is not an untreatable or strictly private matter, but rather a topic that directly impacts employee health, satisfaction and productivity. It is to go from a "polluted climate" to an "enriched climate", where the role model and moral leadership comes from the owner or the executive director of the organization.
The balanced and responsible life, becomes much more a business responsibility that goes far beyond the simple payment of wages.
In AFP-Horizonte (Lima-Peru) they promote the policy "Friday home early":
The staff at headquarters during the summer can leave the office from 4:30 in the afternoon.
If the organization continues to consider its collaborators as pieces, it is digging its own grave.
1.-What is called work-family conflict?
It is a type of conflict between roles
In which the role at work becomes incompatible with the demand to fulfill his role in the family. In addition, the conflict that occurs in both directions, because work can interfere with the family and the family can interfere with work.
These conflicts have been linked to absenteeism from work, the intention to leave employment, a decrease in commitment to the organization and a decrease in job satisfaction, negative physical and mental signs in health: depression, stress, work mental exhaustion.
The company Belcorp in Peru, promotes its program "Your Belcorp time, which consists of a Coupon Book that promotes the balance between personal and professional life
2.-Types of work-family conflicts
Various classifications have been formed considering parameters such as time, tension and behavior.
a.-Related to time: When the pressure of work-family obligations compete for the worker's time.
Example: Traveling abroad for work reasons, ceasing to care for a sick child.
b.-Related in tension: When the family is demanding.
Example: This is the case of transferring work problems to the home.
c.- Related in behavior: Result of incompatible behaviors by competing roles. Example: A military officer treating his children like little soldiers.
And what do organizations do to manage these conflicts?
3.- Family-friendly or work-family policies and benefits
The policies are organization sponsored facilities designed to support the combination of paid work and family responsibilities of employees.
They can be formal, written, or informal agreements. In some cases they are not accessible to everyone. Example: For pregnant employees.
Policies are not enough to create a family-friendly work environment.
The culture and especially the attitude of the executive managers plays a very important role.
For example, in a company where promotion is based on unconditional commitment and long working hours, employees who prioritize family over work will not survive.
4.- The family-friendly culture
A family-friendly culture cannot be created overnight. It is an organizational change, which starts from the recognition of a strong need that the organization must change. In addition to the visible support and involvement of managers (which is key), the desire of employees to participate and the “communication” of why, when and how to do it.
Telephone and commercial services
Free time at TSC
Coupons where, if it is your birthday we give you half a day off, if you are going to be a dad we give you 2 free days in addition to the law, among others
And how is this process of change handled? It can be divided into the following steps:
1.- The adoption of the decision: When to start and if they should incorporate these policies in the organization.
2.- The design of the decision: Which of the policies to choose.
3.- Implementation of the decision: How and dissemination
4.- The decision to allow: Example, reducing work time or working from home.
5.- The policies applied
a.- Flexibility policies
They allow to adapt the working hours to the needs of the employee
Example, agreements that make time flexible; Flexible working hours case (employees can join and leave work within certain limits, provided they work 8 hours a day), part-time work, compressed work in certain weeks, shared work (That is, work between 02 people who carry out the same job (it is a variant of part time or reduced working hours) and those that allow flexibility in space (telework and video conference).
Flexible working hours allow employees to control their arrival and departure hours. The schedules are divided between main time, in which all employees have to be at work and flexible time, in which employees can choose how to organize work routines related to their personal activities.
Heewlett-Packard gives its workers the flexibility to start work between 6.30 am and 8.30 am and to leave work after eight hours. Therefore, the main time in this organization is between 8.30 am and 3.30 pm In this way, meetings and team activities take place at this time.
Traditionally part-time workers have been employed in the service sector, because they have a high variation in demand between peak and low work moments. For example, restaurants and supermarkets hire many part-time workers to serve their customers during peak times (typically nights and weekends).
Du pont used shared work between management, research and secretarial employees to avoid dismissing these workers.
Compressed work.- Offers the advantage of avoiding potential interruptions in services that must be carried out 24 hours a day, such as hospitals and the security forces.
Shared work.- Two people of similar qualification agree to perform the same job at different times. For example, of the eight hours of work each one makes an average of four, but at the time that best suits their obligations. Thus, when one of them has to do something, the hours change with the other. This type of work can be assumed by people who maintain a relationship of close trust with each other.
b.- Leave or leave agreements
It allows individuals to leave work for a long period of time. For cases of maternity, paternity, child care.
In Peru, by labor legislation, the pregnant worker has 45 days of rest before childbirth and 45 days of rest after the same. Furthermore, the enjoyment of rest before childbirth may be partially or totally postponed, and accumulated by rest after childbirth, at the decision of the pregnant worker herself.
Postpartum rest will be extended for an additional 30 calendar days (would be 60 days) in cases of multiple births. The aforementioned is the minimum part that the law mandates, the employer can extend it if it considers it convenient.
In addition, the working mother at the end of the postpartum period is entitled to one hour of daily leave for breastfeeding until her child is 01 year old. This permit can be divided into two equal times and will be granted within your working day.
In Tottus Hypermarket, Lima-Peru headquarters
Collaborators in gestation: For new collaborators who are in gestation, as they are not entitled to the pre and post natal period, they are given 90 days of leave and the possibility of accessing a loan.
And the father? Peruvian labor legislation has created "paternity leave" that must be granted by the employer to the father for 04 consecutive business days. The start is computed from the date that the worker indicates, between the date of birth of the new son and the date on which the mother or son or daughter is discharged by the respective medical center.
c.- Stipulations of care.
It refers to the obligations that are entrusted to other people, during the time that the employees are working.
Example: nurseries (own, outsourced or recognition of the expense made by employees). This also includes caring for the elderly and carrying out household chores (cleaning and ironing, shopping and going to the bank).
At PepsiCo's headquarters in New York, they hired a full-time janitor to help the 800 employees with things like reserving restaurant seats or movie tickets, hosting children's parties, or finding someone to do a home repair. The company started the service when a survey revealed that employees had no free time to do that type of errand.
The company offers other services to save your employees time, such as a dry cleaning plant in the headquarters building, monthly oil change in the parking lot, a shoe shine that circulates through the offices twice a week and sales in the cafeteria of the company, every day at 4.30 PM of prepared meals, ready to take home. They recently added a shoe repair shop and hope to add a tailor shop soon, all for the convenience of employees.
d.- Support agreements
They include a wide variety of services, such as family work management training that give managers the skills necessary to manage a diverse workforce or implement responsible family policies and programs, seminars and training courses (example: parenting, development of childhood and elderly care), distribution of information to raise awareness of these issues, a work-family manual that communicates related policies, assistance and counseling programs, wellness / health programs or stress management (to prevent or detect health issues).
Cola-Cola headquarters Lima-Peru
Active and healthy life: Associates participate voluntarily in a preventive medical checkup. The company also subsidizes 80% of a physical program, such as a gym, swimming or dance.
Hewlett Packard Lima-Peru
Integral Life Program
It allows to balance the work and personal environment of the collaborators.
e.- Conventional provisions and compensation / benefits.
Health insurance for employees and family members, life insurance, career development opportunities, pension plans, relocation services, company vehicle, restaurant and transportation services, etc.
People are changing their lifestyles, thanks to the impulse that companies are giving to programs designed in order to have a workforce (in many cases including their families) in healthy conditions:
- Preventive medical checkup
- Company-financed life insurance
- Sickness allowance, maintaining the employee's salary during the leave.
- Corporate health agreements
- Medical services on company premises
Example:
Belcorp –Perú: Annual health program
Routine medical check-up, preventive check-up, health and nutrition talks
Interseguro headquarters Lima - Peru: family life
The healthy honeycomb: each week delivers a collectible recipe and healthy food, and is also accompanied by medical talks and vaccination and removal campaigns.
Family involvement: From the 1st day of work, by sending them a welcome kit. Then there are workshops for parents, health campaigns and activities for the "interseguritos", who are the children of the collaborators.
6.- When the management is not interested in the subject
If I ask you, what is more important, family or work?
Of course the family will say. However, work is also important, so we must find a balance between these two worlds. To help you, in case everything mentioned so far sounds like "fantasy" or a "bad taste joke", I give you some suggestions, in case you work in organizations where "… that doesn't work":
6.1.- Set your priorities and organize them in your daily plan
Set yourself and family goals, setting time for them on your calendar. This can range from visiting a relative or playing in the park with your child. If you include it in your calendar, it is more likely to happen, instead of abandoning yourself to luck.
6.2.- Set aside time to connect when you are with the family
When you spend some time with your family, turn off your mobile phone and even more "disconnect" from the problems of the office.
6.3.- Build a support network
Try to have a chain of friends or relatives ready to "take care of your children" when you are very busy. And at best, you can learn a lot from other people who are experiencing the same problem as you.
It is easy for his work to absorb him and dictate how to lead his family life, however that should not be the case. Spending time planning your work and family priorities will strengthen you. Make a little effort.
Natura headquarters Lima Peru
Massages in the office
Once a week, experts in kinnesiology attend workers in 10-minute sessions.
Nutritious coffee break
It is provided daily to workers with the idea of promoting healthy eating.
7.- Corporate social responsibility
The church has a preponderant role in the birth of a true social responsibility in the business world.
But how do we know if social responsibility works in an organization? Through Social Balance.
The Social Balance is a diagnosis of the business management regarding the fulfillment of its social responsibility in a determined period of time.
The information is given in two areas:
Internal area
It refers only to the information and evaluation of compliance with corporate social responsibility towards its workers.
Socio-labor issues of the staff
1.- Labor Day: It must be specified for what reasons the requirement of a more extended working day than normal obeys. Overtime comes into play here, as well as vacations (indicating the number of workers who enjoyed them, those who accumulated them and those who have not enjoyed them to date).
External area
This deals with relationships with various types of "clients" (suppliers, competitors, community, family members of workers, among others).
Primary relationships
Worker's Family
The actions aimed at ensuring that the workers' dependents avail themselves of the benefits granted by the organization (example: health, education and recreation) are taken into account.
Social Balance: variables
Internal area External area
1.- socio-labor characteristics of the worker
a- demographic characteristics of workers
b- causes of absenteeism-staff turnover
c- Labor day
d- Total paid for wages and benefits
e- Relations with unionized personnel
2.- Company services for staff
a- General health
b- Occupational medicine, occupational hygiene, industrial safety, accidents
c- Housing
d- Food
e- Transport
f- Advice provided by the company in various fields.
3.- Integration and development of personnel
a- information and communication
b- Staff development (participation strategies, performance evaluation, promotions or promotions).
c- Training
d- Education
e- Free Time
1.- Primary relationships with
a.- Family of the worker
b.- Pensioners
c.- Shareholders, distributors, consumers, competition.
2.- Relations with your community
(….)
8.- The ISO 26000
It is an international standard that accredits Social Responsibility and has been developed under a global consensus. It is official since November 2010.
Fundamental guidelines: Corporate governance, human rights, labor practices, environment, consumers, fair practices of operations, involvement and development of the community.
9.- Is this all?
There's no more.
There are issues related to "family-work" and union organization (There are union organizations that have begun to negotiate facilities for their members to spend more time with their children).
The "Corporate Social Responsibility" (Here only a few brushstrokes have been given). A concept that is spreading where it speaks of internal social responsibility (the treatment of people who work in the organization) and external social responsibility (the image that is wants to give in the community). Here the issue is in the internal treatment
Scotiabank headquarters Lima- Peru
Life balance
It tries to provide benefits in terms of health and recreation to employees and their families (emotional balance and tranquility). Example: health check-up for workers' children and for their parents. Talks about the family. Vocational guidance workshops for young people.
And, not least, the case of "ISO certifications" and all the like, where in the internal relations category they maintain an item related to the facilities that the company provides for the normal family development of its members. (It is known the provision of those organizations with certification where only the normal 08 hours of work are worked and overtime must go through a strict authorization process by Management).
They say that the "world is changing… and will change more…", I hope that in the coming years, what is written here will be something common and not a "curious" issue that exists in some organizations.
Sources:
People management. Jaime Bonade and others. 2nd edition
1001 Ways to Reward Employees - Bob Nelson
Direction and management of human resources - Gómez-Mejia Luis and others
Social responsibility and public relations - Aldo Norero Laures
Social responsibility: Foundations for business competition and sustainable development - Schwaks et al.
Subscribe to the newsletter "Update": Human resources management, Peruvian labor legislation, safety and health at work.
Download the original file
