Time for a change to work-life balance: Let it sway 

Work-life balance as a concept started in the late 1970’s and early 80’s to describe the balance between an individual's work (career and ambition) and personal life (health, pleasure and family). Interestingly, work-life balance continues to be elusive for many organisations Thailand included. According to Expert Market, an online B2B marketplace, 6 out of the 10 worst cities in the world, from a work life balance perspective, are in Asia with Bangkok being one of them. Another report by Sara Gabai on work-life balance seems to confirm that majority of workplaces in Thai companies do not have work-life balance practices. 
I guess I am not alone after all. Throughout my professional career, I felt like Indiana Jones chasing the holy grail of work-life balance. Except, I am not Harrison Ford and may be that’s the reason why I have failed to achieve work-life balance. Giving up is not an option either. According to the latest Global Talent Monitor Q2 2017 report by CEB, work-life balance remains one of the top five priorities for job seekers worldwide.
So, what should companies do. For a start, the goal of human resource management should shift away from work-life balance to work-life sway. Finding sway means embracing the natural ebb and flow between work and life. Sometimes work takes priority and other times family takes over. The goal is to empower managers and employees that at a given point in time they can manage work and life priority without impacting the business bottom line.
Companies can start to do that by giving employees the tools to sway. Incorporate work flexibility rules. For example, establish policies such as flexible work hours, work from home, enable technology for distributed teams to work on a project, give employees opportunity to further their education while working on the job or give paid time off for sudden events in the family. This way, employees will not feel burdened to meet their personal life challenges without sacrificing on the overall business goals. Keep in mind to adapt and adopt work flexibility policies that will align with your company’s culture.
Educate healthy habit to managers and employees, specifically recovery time. Work don’t make people sick. It’s the lack of recovery time that weighs the body down. One of the best form of recovery is sleep. I have worked on projects that require me to work past midnight. That’s fine. But to do that on a few consecutive days is asking for trouble. Allow time for sleep to recover and start again. 
Promote mindfulness in the workplace. The key is to be fully present be it at meetings, at your work desk or when spending time with your loved ones. It’s not all about the amount of time but more importantly it’s about the quality of time that you give your work or family by being “there”.
Measure your work-life sway. Conduct a survey to find out if your initiatives have made a difference to your employees’ work and personal life. Even your customers will notice that; because happy employees make happy customers. 

SUVIT CHANSRICHAWLA, next-generation HR consultant under the brand Serendipity&Co, contributed this article.