Work-Life balance through telework

Employees attempting to balance their work and family life often find it difficult, if not impossible, to do so successfully. Many say that they do not have enough time with their dependents, spouses, or for themselves. Employers are starting to consider the many ways in which they can help and one of the best ways is to offer telework.

According to the 2005 Sensis Insights report on teleworking, 42 percent of those who were positive about teleworking reported finding it more flexible and convenient. And nine percent specifically mentioned that telework enabled them to spend more time with their family.

A recent study in The Journal of Applied Psychology, conducted by Ravi Gajendran and David Harrison at the Department of Management and Organization with Pennsylvania State University, reviewed 46 studies of telework featuring 12,883 employees. Their results show that working from home is good for both business and staff. In brief, Gajendran and Harrison found that when staff can decide when they are going to work and what particular tasks they will work on, they are afforded the opportunity to integrate work and family obligations. This means they can make work and family schedules fit together. Staff can plan uninterrupted work time as well as catering to family needs. Some workers find that they have a room set aside for an office and thereby reduce disruptions. Telecommuting reduces time spent in traffic and can ostensibly increase the number of hours telecommuting staff work. Taking time to take a child to a sport or pick up groceries can be scheduled into the day along with work "to-do's". Telecommuting reduces the tension that can exist between doing one's job and meeting family obligations.

Kathy Kadilak, Work-life Program Manager with the US Department of Justice, writing in 2006 also recognised the importance of telework: “Telework options provide employers with significant advantages in efforts to recruit the best and the brightest. Many current Federal employees, including myself, consider the ability to telework regularly a crucial part of our benefits packages. I have actually turned down job offers elsewhere that would have offered higher pay, due to the inability to match my telework arrangement. Telework is good for me, it's good for my agency, and it's good for the American workforce. Let's put telework into drive.”

Closer to home, the Australian Computer Society has spoken out in favour of telework and its impact on family relationships and work-life balance. In a statement ACS president, Philip Argy, said the society had been a consistent advocate of the role technology could play in the creation of family-friendly work environments.

“We welcome the findings of the report and we are pleased to see many of the conclusions are consistent with our recommendations to Senator Helen Coonan when we released the ACS Work/Life Policy early last year,” he said. The ACS Work/Life Policy supported teleworking, where appropriate, up to two days a week, as well as a flexible working day built around the core hours of 10 am – 3 pm.

“Technology changes will shape the future of our Australian workforce and already offer many solutions to employers looking for ways to increase flexibility and productivity,” Argy said, adding: “An increase in the use of teleworking will allow people currently inhibited from participating in the workforce due to family responsibilities, age or disabilities, to offer their skills to the Australian economy.”

The CPA has also embraced telework as an important objective for its members. It recently worked with the University of Canberra to prepare a comprehensive 'scoping study'. Among the benefits this study found was that "the flexibility provided by telework can improve employee job satisfaction by facilitating greater balance between work and home life". (The full scoping study is available through this site's research pages.)

One Australian company that has actively embraced the work-life benefits that telework can offer is NRMA, as this article in The Daily Telegraph describes.

Telework can help employees balance their work and life responsibilities. Elsewhere in this web site we provide information on the many other benefits of telework for organisations and individuals and ways in which organisations can develop telework initiatives that deliver real work-life balance for employees and their families.