You may want to look at your organisation’s work-life balance because of workplace stress, to help attract and keep staff, or to help staff give and get the best out of their work; or perhaps your organisation is thinking about flexible working to save on office costs. But this is also a great opportunity to stand back and look at how and why you deliver services in the way you do.
Since I set up Phillips Development, work-life balance has been an important part of my work. Initially, my interests were in fairer access to employment. Latterly, however, I could see the opportunities for organisations to improve both service delivery and working lives, if they were only prepared to ask “Why can’t we give this a try?”.
Below I give some specific examples of my experience in work-life balance. More generally, part of my approach with organisations and in training managers is to support them in finding better and more sensible ways of doing things.Past Projects
In partnership with other consultants, I provided support and specialist advice in several long-term projects with local authorities and voluntary organisations throughout the country. Work on these projects included reviews of staff terms and conditions; information and guidance on flexible working options; support and development of senior management teams; staff consultation and training; occupational stress audit; design of remote working policies; advice on work-life balance accreditation and employer branding.
The Work-Life Balance
Manual
for
HR specialists
(Co-author)
Employee relations
service improvement project
TUC/Employers’ Organisation
for Local Government
Developing a
work-life balance strategy
for a
social housing
landlord
I worked with the HR team to develop a strategy, provided information on options and likely take-up; reviewed existing policies; carried out an on-line staff survey to assess attitudes towards flexible working; ran focus groups to consult and inform staff; and provided guidance on setting up and evaluating flexible working pilot projects.
Coaching
home
The Work-Life
Balance
Challenge Fund
Approved Consultant,
Department of
Trade and Industry,
2000 – 2004