work life balance_Regus-Index-2012

A better balance Regus Work-Life Balance Index May 2012 – Issue 1 Regus Work-Life Balance Index | May 2012 | Page 2 Management summary More business people across the world feel that their work-life balance has improved in 2012 compared with 2010. This upturn is the main finding of the Regus Work-Life Balance Index, which assesses improvements in the balance achieved between professional and home life. The Regus Work-Life Balance Index, which surveys over 16,000 professionals in more than 80 countries, has registered 24% rise between 2010 and 2012. This is a positive indication that now even more workers globally believe that conditions are improving and that measures are being taken to help them successfully manage to balance their personal and their work time. The Regus Index calibrates work-life harmony by combining a number of different factors, both ‘soft’ indicators such as feelings of enjoyment, sense of achievement and satisfaction with the amount of time spent at home, and ‘hard’ factors such as working hours and additional duties in order to monitor real improvements in the lives of professionals all over the globe. In 2012, some 61% of business people globally feel that their work-life balance has improved since 2010. Although a positive majority, this figure still has considerable room for improvement as the decade advances. As economic conditions improve and employment opportunities become more frequent businesses cannot afford to ignore key measures to improve employee work-life balance and well-being. One such example are businesses that are helping staff reduce their commute time. Over two fifths of respondents report more firms are engaged in reducing staff commutes, highlighting that attention to employee commute time is becoming mainstream. This also confirms previous Regus research showing that businesses find flexible working practices (such as allowing staff to work closer to home or to avoid the rush-hour), reduce costs and improve staff productivity. Regus Work-Life Balance Index | May 2012 | Page 3 Key findings and statistics • The latest Regus Work-life balance Index, reveals that global business satisfaction with the balance between home and work life is improving. The Work-Life balance Index has increased 24% from base point 100 in 2010 to 124 points in 2012. • In 2012, some 61% of business people around the world perceive that their work-life balance has improved. Whilst this is an encouraging majority, there is also evidently substantial room for improvement as the decade progresses. • This new research shows that fully 74% of workers globally believe they achieve more at work than they used to, highlighting the link between improvements in work-life balance and productivity revealed by previous Regus research into flexible working practices. • 69% of workers feel that they enjoy work more than in 2010 and 59% are happy with the amount of time they spend with family or at home. • However, there are still working life behaviours that need to be addressed by businesses seeking to provide a competitive balance between personal and work life in order to retain staff as the job market improves. • Over two fifths (41%) of global respondents feel that companies are doing more to help reduce the time employees spend commuting than in 2010. One popular strategy for reducing commute time is allowing more flexible working, in terms of hours or location, a strategy that previous Regus research confirms is not only cost effective, but improves staff productivity. • Fully 63% of workers globally took on additional duties during the downturn that were not subsequently picked up by other colleagues possibly resulting in additional time spent in the office as well as an increase in stress levels. • The index found that small companies had a higher work-life balance rating than larger companies at 130 points compared to 109, highlighting that the barriers to introducing measures to improve harmony between work and personal life may be administrative rather than psychological. • Work-life balance has improved in 2012 compared with 2010 for all size companies, but it has taken a particular leap forwards in small companies where the index has grown 27 points. Regus Work-Life Balance Index | May 2012 | Page 4 Introduction During the past decade the pace of change and of life has accelerated greatly. During the downturn workers came under extraordinary pressure to hold on to their jobs and take over additional duties as staff were made redundant; as we move with difficulty out of the downturn this work ethic persists. This latest crisis has so affected the well-being of workers that are finding difficulties switching off and carving out time to spend with their families or on their personal pursuits away from the demands of work. Stress has in fact now become the most common cause of sick leave, surpassing back pain in the UK,1 while sick leave, presenteeism and staff turnover reportedly cost the country around £26bn a year.2 Governments all over the globe have become aware of the costs associated with a poor work-life balance, particularly as the downturn accentuated the negative sides of a frenetic pace of life which are stress, over-work, long hours and fear of unemployment. In addition to this a poor work-life balance affects female labour participation, lowers national birth rates and can raise child poverty levels if families are driven to live on a single salary by lack of suitable childcare options. Of course a number of factors are concurrent to creating a good work-life balance and a major difficulty for analysts lies in identifying those that really lead to a harmonious life for workers. In particular the OECD’s Better Life Index focuses on aspects such as housing, education and the environment to rate countries’ overall happiness level, while for its work-life balance index the OECD drills in on the needs of families with children who, it reports, are likely to feel the strain of trying to reconcile parental duties with those of full-time employment. Overall, the picture painted by the OECD is rosy with 66% of mothers in the area being employed after their children are of school age and 64% of any worker’s day spent on personal activities.3 1 The Guardian, The pursuit of workplace happiness….goes on, 2nd February 2012 2 The Guardian, Happiness at work, why it counts, 15th July 2011 3 OECD, Work-Life Balance, website Regus Work-Life Balance Index | May 2012 | Page 5 Introduction The OECD confirms that across countries there is a strong negative correlation between long working hours and satisfaction with work-life balance, as well as between lengthy commutes and longer working hours. In addition to this, longer commuting times particularly affect the rate of employment of women with children of schooling age suggesting that even on a single business level, firms that are not sensitive to worker commute times may end up missing out on an important part of the talent pool.4 According to the OECD survey the highest ranking countries in the work-life balance are in Northern Europe with Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Canada, the Netherlands and Finland while Turkey and Mexico were the lowest scoring.5 To get some comparative measure of which countries rank better than others HSBC asks expats to use their experience living in more than one country to rate destinations on a variety of factors including work-life balance. According to HSBC, based on work-life balance alone, the Netherlands, South Africa, Canada, Germany and Australia all ranked among the top 10 countries. The UK and USA ranked 22nd and 23rd out of 55 countries, followed by BRIC countries which scored as follows: China 25th, Brazil 27th and India 28th.6 On a single business level plenty of attention has been devoted to achieving a better work-life balance for employees and particularly having a good company track record can prove to be a great incentive to join a company or a valuable retention tool. Latest research shows that workers globally are actually less driven by salary to accept an offer and rate being treated with respect as the most important factor in a job, followed by work-life balance, type of work, quality of co-workers and quality of leadership.7 To improve employee loyalty and attract top talent businesses now have a huge variety of options to choose from ranging from offering flexible working hours, alternative locations for work, crèche facilities within the work-place, part-time working and job sharing. There are as many options as there are requests by workers, but businesses need to understand that it is time to start offering these as an incentive rather than waiting for governments to enforce this freedom as the norm. 4 OECD, How’s life? Measuring Wellbeing, Chapter 6, 2011 5 OECD, Better Life Index, 2011 6 HSBC, Expat Explorer Survey, 2011 7 Mercer, What’s working?, October 2011 There is a strong negative correlation between long working hours and satisfaction with work-life balance Regus Work-Life Balance Index | May 2012 | Page 6 The Regus Work-Life Balance Index In order to provide business leaders and policy makers with an up-to-the-minute barometer of worker and manager satisfaction with their work-life balance and measure real improvement, the Regus Work-Life Balance Index analysed the opinions of over 16,000 business managers and business owners from 86 countries. In addition to enquiring about whether they felt that improvements had been made to their work-life balance in the past two years, the report also analysed their views on factors and behaviours that typically affect work-life harmony such as satisfaction with the amount of time spent at home or with their families, working hours, time spent at work, job enjoyment and sense of achievement and whether additional duties taken on during the downturn have finally been reassigned to new members of staff. Methodology The Regus Work-Life Balance Index calibrates a number of different factors to produce an index value that reflects overall levels of personal-work life harmony. Not only are opinions about enjoyment and sense of achievement measured, but actual working behaviours are also taken into account. Taking over additional duties, working hours, commute length and actual time spent away from personal pursuits are all ‘hard’ factors that are considered alongside individual perceptions in this model that uniquely balances opinion with real working practice. Regus Work-Life Balance Index | May 2012 | Page 7 On average more business people globally feel that their work-life balance has been enhanced in 2012 compared with 2010, when around half (49%) of business people across the globe reported that their work-life balance had improved and the base point for the Index was set at 100. The index has grown to 24% in 2012. Unexpectedly perhaps, the highest scoring countries are the BRIC countries with Mexico, Brazil, China and India scoring highest for improvements in 2012 highlighting that in their quest for exponential growth, businesses in these countries have acknowledged the importance of achieving a better work-life balance. Brazil also interestingly stands out as the country which has had the highest index point growth between 2010 and 2012 having soared 45 points to 151. This contrasts with China where an above average rating in 2010 has only grown 4 points in 2012 to 149, the smallest variation in the sample analysed in this paper and a worrying suggestion that Chinese businesses may have taken focus away from work-life balance improvements in reaction to a slight slowdown in the economy. The balance Work-Life Balance Index 2010 and 2012 0 20 2012 2010 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 Germany UK Belgium Japan France Canada Netherlands USA Global Average Australia S.Africa India China Brazil Mexico Regus Work-Life Balance Index | May 2012 | Page 8 The balance Western economies were among the hardest hit by the downturn so it is not surprising that their index ratings should be lower than average. The UK, Belgium and Japan are close to the bottom in the scale although the Belgian index has increased 29 points since 2010. In Japan in particular, public spending on childcare and preschool services is very low and is identified by the OECD as an area in need of immediate improvement if work-life balance is to benefit.9 Germany surprisingly comes in at the bottom of the pile, probably due to the high standard expected by this developed nation that was left almost unscathed by the recession, although even here the index has increased 36 points in 2012. In Germany the OECD confirms that female labour participation is an issue with gender pay gaps well above average, a lower than average birth rate and mothers spending twice as much time on care than male workers. Germany is also reportedly the only OECD country where second earners in families with children are not favoured by the tax or benefits system.10 Work-Life Balance: the definition The need to define work-life balance, to measure it and identify its ideal has become more and important in the past decade. The OECD describes it as ‘a suitable balance between work and daily living’8, the HEBS (Health Education Board for Scotland) as ‘working practices that acknowledge and aim to support the needs of staff in achieving a balance between their home and working lives’ and the DTI (Department for Trade and Industry) describes it as ‘a balance between work and other aspects of people’s lives’. The Regus Work-Life balance incorporates aspects form all these definitions specifically regarding a good work-life balance as a condition promoted by working practices that allow workers to spend enough time at home or on personal pursuits to be happy, while working in an environment where tasks are fairly distributed, work is enjoyable and it is possible to feel a sense of achievement. 8 OECD, Better Life Index, Work-Life Balance, website 9 OCED, Work-Life Balance, In Detail by Country, Japan, 2011 10 OCED, Work-Life Balance, In Detail by Country, Germany, 2011 Regus Work-Life Balance Index | May 2012 | Page 9 Enjoyment and achievement One important subjective factor which influences work- life balance is job enjoyment. If workers enjoy their time at work then they are less likely to take home worries and stress and are less likely to resent the time that is spent at work. Western economies were still suffering from the effects of the downturn in 2010 affecting job enjoyment and shifting the focus from self-realization to maintaining a position in spite of additional work-load. Therefore it is not surprising that well over half of respondents in the UK, USA, Belgium, and France feel that they are now able to enjoy work more than during that difficult time. On the other hand, it is interesting to note that it is in emerging economies such as Mexico, Brazil and India that the greater proportion of respondents declare they are enjoying work more than in 2010 highlighting that improvement of working life is growing hand in hand with economic advancement. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 Belgium UK USA Netherlands Germany France China Japan Australia Global Average Canada S. Africa India Brazil Mexico Do you enjoy work more than in 2010? Regus Work-Life Balance Index | May 2012 | Page 10 11 Regus, Flexibility drives profitability, February 2012 12 ENT, Work Overload: Sense of achievement key to combating professional burnout, August 2011 Enjoyment and achievement Over two thirds (74%) of workers globally report that they are achieving more at work now than in 2010. This result confirms previous Regus research revealing that more companies are experiencing an increase in productivity resulting directly from a greater take up of flexible working practices.11 Also in line with previous research, workers in emerging economies such as India, Brazil and Mexico are more likely to feel that they are achieving more at work than before. Although more than 60% of respondents in all countries report that they are achieving more at work than in 2010, results in France, the Netherlands and Japan are lower than average. As sense of achievement is reportedly an important element to combat professional burnout, so it is vital that businesses invest in strategies to help workers experience a sense of accomplishment in their daily duties.12 In particular burnout is associated with taking on an excessive workload and during the downturn, as companies were forced to make redundancies to stay alive, remaining members of staff had to take on additional duties. As conditions improved, and volume of business increased, these additional duties have often become more difficult to manage and have not always been redistributed among new employees. 63% of workers globally still feel that they are managing duties that they acquired in the downturn. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 France Netherlands Japan UK Canada USA China Global Average S. Africa Australia Germany Belgium Mexico Brazil India Do you believe that you achieve more at work today than you did in 2010? More than 60% of respondents in all countries report that they are achieving more at work than in 2010 Regus Work-Life Balance Index | May 2012 | Page 11 Enjoyment and achievement The USA is a particularly worrying example of this with 68% of workers declaring that the additional duties they took on are still their remit. Belgium, Canada and the UK also all report a higher than average proportion of overburdened workers. Bootstrapping during the global recession seem to have led a large number of businesses in Brazil, India and Mexico, emerging economies that may have been unwilling to commit to new resources in such a difficult climate, to overburden existing staff, but this pressure is likely to drive valuable team members away as the economy stabilizes. 13 OECD, Work-Life Balance, In detail by Country, Australia, 2011; OECD, Work-Life Balance, In detail by Country, Netherlands, 2011 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Netherlands Germany France Japan China Australia Global Average UK Canada S. Africa Belgium Mexico USA India Brazil I have taken on additional duties during the downturn, which have not been picked up by a new member of staff Regus Work-Life Balance Index | May 2012 | Page 12 Enjoyment and achievement As workers have taken on extra duties it is not surprising to find that they also feel that they spend more hours working than they did in the past. On average well over half of workers globally (59%) feel that they spend more time at work than they did in 2010. In particular Chinese, Indian and German workers feel they spend more time at work than in 2010 suggesting that in these economies the cost of continued growth has translated into longer working hours. In Australia and the Netherlands working hours seem to have not increased significantly, confirming OECD findings that Australian and Dutch employees work respectively an average of 1690 and 1378 hours a year, well below the OECD average of 1739 hours.13 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Australia Netherlands Mexico Japan UK USA Brazil S. Africa Global Average Belgium France Canada Germany India China Do you spend more time working than you did in 2010? Over half of workers globally (59%) feel that they spend more time at work than they did in 2010 Regus Work-Life Balance Index | May 2012 | Page 13 Enjoyment and achievement Similarly Chinese, Indian and German workers also report that they spend more