Management approaches to safeguard and better reconcile work-life balance

Rarely has work-life balance been so rigorously put to the test. In these unprecedented times, when many civil servants are having to work from home whilst managing childcare and their children’s lessons or caring for a relative, professional and personal lives have become considerably intertwined.

A 2018 study conducted by the European Commission flagged up major disparities within the EU. A fifth of Europeans are not satisfied with the balance between their work and personal life. This is in spite of the fact that, in recent years, a number of countries have introduced initiatives to heighten the protection of their employees.

Germany has a “Working and Family Life” policy. This certification, which has to be re-audited every three years, ensures that tangible measures are rolled out so that employees are able to benefit from all the conditions that foster a good work-life balance. There are eight areas of action: working time, work organisation, work location, information and communications, leadership-management, human resources development, financial benefits and services for families. All federal government departments (ministries, authorities and agencies) have applied for and been awarded certification.

For its part, Portugal has unveiled the “3^rd Line” programme, with one of its four arms being devoted to the government. It provides for the introduction of a mandatory training module for all managers to raise awareness of best practices, as well as polling of employees and regular appraisals to measure the achievement of targets.

In Malta, the People and Standards Division has built up a network of “People Support and Wellbeing” counsellors who are expressly tasked with answering requests from civil servants and putting forward solutions for a better work-life balance.

The Nordic countries, where wellbeing and balance are deeply ingrained (“hygge” in Denmark and “lagom” in Sweden), focus on respect for personal time and public services aim to be exemplary in this regard. Besides regulations covering parenting, flexible working hours have been mainstreamed and are used by almost 60% of employees. At all hierarchical levels, working long hours is not perceived as a feat but as a warning that the workload should be reviewed, or even as a sign of inefficiency.

In Spain, in addition to “moscosos” – days off on personal grounds whose use is regulated and which specifically cover family needs – the government and the unions have recently executed an agreement which provides for applications for a one-off and limited “time credit” of up to 8% of annual working hours for childcare or caring for a relative. This credit will then be worked off once the employee resumes normal working hours.

On the other side of the Atlantic, OPM, the US federal government’s human resources department, has introduced a Work-Life Toolkit for managers. It contains self-training media, guides for interviews with staff and a list of best practices. Each agency is rated based on its employees’ satisfaction rate which is polled by an annual nationwide survey.

What about the right to disconnect during this period of mass teleworking? Although France was a trailblazer by regulating this practice in the private sector,(1) a field study conducted by the network of European Public Administration Employers (EUPAE) – and which provides a list of recommendations for improving work-life balance in the face of opportunities and risks coming from digitalisation – reveals that only Estonia partly restricts public sector employees’ access to professional emails outside working hours.

In Austria, which already posts very good results, all employees can and must be involved in ensuring this balance. The new “smartWorkLife” app aims to foster the acquisition of habits by regularly completing exercises on the frontiers between work and leisure.

¹ Act of 8 August 2016 relating to work, the modernization of social dialogue and the stengthening of professional paths (article 55).