What are Work-Life Strategies?
In the effort to create a positive work environment, work-life strategies are the special antidotes for a company to address work-life balance in the workplace. Through a broad lens, a work-life balance describes the healthy blend of an employee’s professional and personal responsibilities. It’s about the right portion of everything in life. Having said that, different organizations have different work-life strategies based entirely on the employee’s profile, the nature of work of the company, and specific job’s scope and responsibility that the companies offer to their staff. Work-life is the practice of providing initiatives designed to create a more flexible, supportive work environment, enabling employees to focus on work tasks while at work. Therefore, a fulfilling, well-planned and flexible work-life strategy is important for both the employer as well as employees. Flexible work arrangements, leave benefits as well as employee support schemes are among the concerns that have been included in the work-life strategies.

Why Do Work-Life Strategies Matter?
Work-life strategies are important to create a more productive workforce, which will, in turn, benefit the economy as a whole. For a country like Singapore, where the success of the nation lies in the hands of labor force, a positive workplace is crucial to boosting the productivity and to ensure the performance of workforces are always up to par. Furthermore, human resource challenges like older workers, more women in the workforce, extended working hours, increased number of dual-earner family, tight labor market and declining birth-rate are among the reasons that support the implementation of work-life strategies in Singapore.

The bottom line is, effective work-life strategies will definitely impact the company in different ways, such as in work performance, direct and indirect costs related to absenteeism, costs related to the loss and replacement of valuable employees, customer satisfaction, organizational productivity as well as the corporate image.