No one ever looks back on their life and thinks I should have spent more time at work, which is a huge factor in why more and more employers offer a work/life balance to their employees.

Over the past ten years, plus or minus a few, work/life balance has been a priority for employees and has been recognized by employers.  Employees have increasingly been able to take advantage of flextime, flexible scheduling, and telecommuting, all of which allow employees to vary arrival and/or departure times to meet individual needs.  Employees may not be working the traditional 9 to 5, 40-hour workweek, but they are still working their required hours and meeting objectives. 

People have varying needs outside the office, such as caring for children, other family members, or pets, or participating in hobbies, special interest groups, or other personal needs.  There are different types of flexible working environments, such as flexible scheduling and flextime, and some employers may offer both depending on the type of organization. 

Flexible scheduling is typically a set schedule with flexibility.  For example, employees may have four-day work weeks with employees working four, ten-hour days with the reward of a three-day weekend.  This can be rolled out organization-wide, or the employer can stagger the four-day workweek, so some employees are off Monday and others are off Friday to ensure coverage.  Job sharing can also bring flexibility.  A position that must be available for all business hours, such as a receptionist, may share that position with someone else to provide both employees flexibility that suits their lifestyle. 

Flextime allows employees to work at their convenience with no set arrival and departure times.  An employee may need to be home at 4 p.m. when his or her child is home from school.  In that case, the employee may start the workday at 7 a.m. or 8 a.m.  Another example is an employee that likes to workout in the morning, so he or she prefers to start the workday at 10 a.m. and get off at 6 p.m. or 7 p.m.  There are many reasons for varying work schedules, but it is nice incentive for employees as it gives them a sense of ownership and responsibility.  Many organizations with flextime do have core hours to make sure people are available for meetings or other events and responsibilities.  

Looking back it is easy to see that the workforce environment has changed significantly.  For the most part, employees are valued more as people than just as employees.  Employers recognize the value of having happy employees, and the positive impact to the bottom line as employee retention is higher and absenteeism is lower – happy employees can also increase productivity.