Managing Work/Life Balance

Physical and mental stress are all too common as more people seem to find the pressures of completing expected work tasks and expected in-office time too much to bear.  As firms shed labour to cut costs, the problems become worse.

Work-life balance is not merely about cutting working hours or simply  dividing hours between WORK and HOME  life' it is about creating harmony between the two. 

Many people think that they should be available for work for as close to 24/7 as possible. However long snd hard work does not always mean effective work - and ineffective work results in more delays, errors and time wasted. What is needed - as often cited - is to work smarter -  to manage tasks intelligently and make each minute of work contribute to overall goals.This, of course, can be helped by working aids - computers, AI, etc - but using these does not always lead to efficiency. They, too, must be used in a smart way.

To achieve a better work-life balance, individuals must set realistic goals (or have them set for them), manage their effectively and (especially) eliminate or delegate non-essential tasks. Additionally, understanding when one is most productive and structuring the day accordingly can improve  efficiency, leaving more time for relaxation, for personal interests and for the family.

A well-balanced life creates a positive mindset, enhances relationships and improves overall well-being and mental health   This leads to improved productivity.

As an employer, you should encourage and support your employees in managing their work-life balance. It benefits both them  and your organisation.

Where Are Your New Employees Coming From?

Times are tough for both commercial organisations and governments in terms of recruiting the labour needed for economic growth.  Employment is high in most developed countries and there is a trend towards disengagement and ’quiet quitting’.

This means that firms have to look further afield (than traditional labour markets) to find new staff.  This ‘distance’ brings into play:

• early school and college leavers taking their first step onto the employment ladder;

• the long-term unemployed who have found it challenging to get back to work;

• immigrants looking to establish  new careers;

• Released prisoners., who find securing employment to be difficult

• Early retirees who find themselves in difficult financial situations.

Each of these categories offers a challenge but all will need some form of training and preparation for employment to maximise their chances of success - and their contribution.

Governments have a role to play in providing routes to these new markets, especially since many of the people involved may be in the social benefits ’system’.

You may want to look at their present aging workforce and consider how they can retain their skills for longer - at least while they train and mentor the next working generation.

A new set of markets might need a new set of employment policies and practices - with increased flexibility of contracts to suit the differing needs of these new groups of potential workers.

So, remember… your talent pipeline may be longer than you think but you may need to carry out some work to make it effective. 

Engaging Employees

Engaged employees are more productive.   This is not surprising.  If employees feel they have a  significant part to play in the organisation they work for, they are much more likely to share the goals of the organisation and to contribute fully to those goals.

The culture of the organisation is a major determinant of the nature and level of engagement.  Employees want to share the values of their organisation and want to work for an organisation that treats them well, communicates fully with them and respects their role and contribution.

They, themselves, will know if their role is meaningful one - if the work they perform genuinely ‘makes a difference’

They expect to receive the training they need to carry out their role to the full - and to understand the performance expectations the organisation has for them.  Even those with mundane or simple jobs should feel their role is worthwhile.

There is a story that JFK (President Kennedy) was once on a tour of the Cape Canaveral Space Center when he saw a man pushing a broom. JFK asked the man what he was doing and expected a simple response such as “I’m keeping the place clean and safe.  The response he received, however, surprised and pleased him.  The broom pusher simple said “I’m helping put a man on the moon.”

This is an engaged employee, knowing that his simple role was a contributing factor in the overall mission of the organisation.

Such engagement is not fostered through rigid monitoring - of attendance, of throughput, of ability or …. 

Truly engaged employees can be trusted to perform, to question, to improve.  Engagement creates a virtuous circle of high performance, of job satisfaction, of challenge and offer suggestions for improvement.

So, instead of using simple performance monitoring processes in an attempt to gain improvement, you should take the longer view and consider how you might increase engagement.  This may be a road less travelled but it is a more precise route to performance and productivity improvement.

Productivity in the Modern Workplace

 Over the last two decades and especially since the pandemic -  the workplace has undergone significant transformations. The rise of technology-driven companies brought flat hierarchies, attractive employee perks, and open-office concepts. Meanwhile, the integration of productivity tools like Slack, Trello, and generative AI has aimed to make workflows more efficient. However, despite these advancements, more employees are suffering from stress, leading to burnout and reduced productivity.

So, with all these innovations, why are firms still struggling to maximise productivity?

While personal productivity techniques—such as the Pomodoro Technique and zero-inbox strategies—have gained popularity, they only address individual efficiency. The real challenge lies in managing people in teams effectively and fostering a collaborative environment.

David Allen, the productivity expert behind *Getting Things Done*, highlighted this issue in his latest book, *Getting Things Done… with Others*. He argues that the key to workplace productivity isn’t just about personal efficiency—it’s about how teams work together. And that, ultimately, comes down to management.

One of the most significant productivity barriers in companies, particularly startups, is inexperienced leadership. Many new managers are promoted because they excelled as individual contributors, such as programmers or analysts, rather than for their leadership skills. Without proper management training, they struggle to transition from *doing the work* to *managing the work of others*.

You must invest in training programs to equip (especially new) managers with the skills to:

- Align diverse work styles and personalities towards common goals

- Facilitate clear and open communication

- Foster accountability without micromanagement

- Encourage team collaboration and problem-solving

One of Allen’s key insights is that while personalities cannot be changed, rules and workplace standards can be established. Clear standards help eliminate confusion and reduce workplace stress. For example:

Define when meetings should start and how long they should last.

Set expectations for response times to emails and messages.

Establish protocols for renegotiating commitments when priorities shift.

By implementing these ‘standards’, firms create an environment where employees feel supported rather than overwhelmed.

Burnout is often less about having too much work and more about uncertainty, miscommunication, and unaddressed stressors. When employees don’t have a clear framework for renegotiating deadlines or addressing workload concerns, they internalise anxiety, which affects both mental well-being and productivity.

To combat this, you should:

Encourage transparent discussions about workload and deadlines

Promote a culture of psychological safety where employees feel comfortable voicing concerns

Implement well-being initiatives, such as flexible work arrangements and mental health support

Enhancing workplace productivity is not just about implementing the latest tech tools or adopting personal productivity ‘hacks’. The key lies in effective team management, clear workplace standards, and reducing unnecessary stressors.

If yoy want to boost productivity in a sustainable way, you must focus on building a culture of collaboration, training effective leaders, and establishing clear, supportive workplace structures. 

After all, productivity is not just about getting things done—it’s about getting things done together.

Thankyou, Sergey

Last week, I asked “What should we measure?” And talked about the need to measure outputs/outcomes rather than inputs - in terms of workers’ contributions.  Working long hours is not a key to success.  Those hours have to make a contribution to strategic goals.

Now, I read that Google co-founder Sergey Brin has called the 60-hour working week the "sweet spot of productivity" as he urged staff to have more  onsite days to help the tech giant meet its AI goals. 

I agree that we need more staff to be in the office - but this is to improve communication, interaction, creativity and team bonding, rather than as a direct impact on productivity.

But this does show that very smart - and very successful - people can misunderstand the nature of productivity and concentrate on the wrong measures.

Sergey Brin might not have been saying exactly what he seemed to mean but it was very kind of him to underline my message and my lesson in such a timely manner.

What Shluld We Measure?

 There is an old management adage… “If we can measure it, we can understand it”.  This is broadly true.  Certainly if we don’t measure, we find it hard to assess or judge. So. if we want to improve effectiveness and productivity, what should we measure?

There is one basic answer to this.  We should measure what is important - those things that contribute to the achievement of corporate goals.  (One might suggest that if we are doing things that do not add to corporate goals, then Why?). These are the things that are important.

We should not be measuring employee time - how long they are at work is irrelevant.  It is what they do, and the degree to which this does contribute to corporate goals.  So  we measure task completion, outputs and outcomes - not inputs or activity. This is, of course, not just about quantity of output - but quality and consistency as well.

These corporate goals should be cascaded down throughout the organisation, being translated at each stage or level into language and concepts which are understood by the employees at those various levels.

We should take care that tracking outputs and outcomes does not impose a burden on employees which lowers completion rates.  The measurement should, as far as possible, be automatic, derived from something which is already measured as pert of the existing process.

Managerial control should then focus on the (translated) goals. Employees should not be micromanaged. Employees should be aware of what is being measured and tracked - and why.  If they truly understand the goals and targets, and the importance of their contribution to the overall process, motivation should be inherent, not externally imposed.

So, we  measure contribution to corporate goals at each level and in time frames that allow actions to be taken to adjust underperformance and errors. We communicate these measures and associated targets openly and fully - reporting data in easily digestible formats- preferably visually.

Everyone should understand how their job/role contributes to the overfall process, why it is important and how they as an individual or team  are performing in terms of meeting agreed targets.

Engage and Reward

 I have written before about my belief that WFH imposes a brake on productivity.  There are all sorts of reasons - big and small.  The other day I thought of another reason which I thought I should bring to your attention.

When working from home, employees obviously (well it’s obvious to me anyway), have less engagement with their colleagues ….  but also with their supervisor or manager.  This means they miss out on all those little ‘strokes’ they receive on the various interactions and engagements they would normally have with their manager.

Though these may individually be insignificant and trivial, collectively they continually reinforce the relationship and bond between the two of them., Assuming this is a positive relationship, this is clearly a good thing and very difficult (if not impossible) to replicate over Zoom or Teams or any other communication platform - especially as it is often non-verbal.  

All of us need to know our contribution is respected and valued and that we are meeting or exceeding the demands placed upon us.  Though this can happen formally at reviews, assessments and at the end of projects, we need ongoing, regular feedback.  This is what we get from perhaps tiny ‘strokes’. Nothing may be said but we know everything is OK and we are making valued progress.

So, get your people back to the office - and let these informal interactions blossom once more.  The productivity figures will thank you.

Don't Multitask

 If, on reading this headline, your first response was “If I don’t multitask, how do I get through my long and varied To Do list?”, then read on.

If you switch regularly snd swiftly between tasks, or even worse, try to do two things at one, (like handle your emails while in a meeting), you simply switch your focus too often, ruin your concentration on any one task and show little respect for others you are dealing with.  This is not a recipe for effective and productive work.  

Of course you need to address a variety of tasks but you need to work on any one task for sufficient time to remain familiar with all the contextual information and give strong focus to the current steps in your process of handling this task.    

This is why you should not have too many task on your ToDo list.  If you cannot give this level of focus to each task in turn ,there are too many on your list. You need to delegate some tasks or negotiate with others (including your boss) if you have one to reduce the number to a level where you can give full focus to each and deliver quality outcomes.

Then you have to schedule your day to provide periods when you can give full concentration to tasks in turn.  

This presupposes that you know what you want to achieve.from your workday - and you understand the key priorities for your focus of attention.

if you don’t address the problem, your ToDo list will get longer and the quality of your work will deteriorate.

Crisis, What Crisis?

 Media pundits love to talk about the productivity crisis.  (Well, let’s be honest, they love to talk about any crisis…. and if there isn’t a crisis to talk about, they will invent one.)

The productivity crisis isn’t really a crisis.  The decline and stagnation in productivity has been a general factor in the Western world for the last decade. There are lots of reasons suggested and causes put forward but as we said last week, it is is too easy to blame the workforce - or to assign it to any one of a host of external factors.

The real reason for the productivity decline (take a deep breath here) is a lack of bold leadership over a significant time period.  One off the problems of the Western approach to business ownership and to government is its focus on the next 5 years as a maximum planning horizon.

Governments must achieve whatever they set out to do - or at least whatever they promise to do - before the next election

Business executives have a much lesser time period; they are forced into concentrating on the next quarter’s profits.  If these are down, the share price may tank- and with it, the executive’s bonus.

This is no recipe for infrastructure investment by government or business process investment by companies.

We need leaders that are willing to explain to their citizens, or their shareholders, why they intend to take longer-term decisions and make longer-term plans.  They then need the courage of their convictions to set in train the long-term actions that will ensure these plans are implemented successfully. 

If we have a crisis now, it is a crisis of leadership.

And just remind you,  it was not, and indeed is not, always thus.  

Quite a few countries with an authoritarian regime do take a longer-term view because they do not fear the electorate.

Even democratic Victorians made lots of profits but built lots of infrastructure - railways, roads, sewage systems and so on.  Without this infrastructure, we would not have had the industrial revolution.

So, your role is to  stand up, take deep breath, look at a calendar rather then your current diary and start to formulate a longer view.

We might just avert ‘the crisis’. 

A SPIRAL OF DECLINE

  Poor, and declining, national productivity is a serious malaise.  Not only does it mean that inflation is likely to rise  - as wage rises lead to increased costs without corresponding output rises - but investment also declines).

It seems ironic that firms invest more when things are going well but they do -and it’s not really very surprising.

So successful countries can benefit from a virtuous spiral while unsuccessful countries continue to decline.

It seems, obvious that those unsuccessful countries need to find a way to breakout of their downward spiral of low investment and resulting low productivity.

This clearly needs government action to stimulate growth.  However the steps to do this are not always clear.

The US has shown us a possible path.  The Biden government, under the inflation reduction measures, made huge investment in infrastructure development.

This does two things. It directly stimulates growth in specific sectors- like construction and allied supply chains; it also provides an improved infrastructure which can benefit other sectors- improved communication, improved transport links, improved employee skills, etc.

(Ironically for Joe Biden, he is unlikely to gain the benefit(in terms of recognition of his ’legacy’ The incoming president will likely take all the credit having spent the last couple of years talking dwn the economy, which has actually been in rude health.)

The NEW UK government does not seem to have learnt the lesson.  Their initial economic steps seem to have reduced the ability, and the willingness, of UK firms to invest in growth - and so far they have not made real progress on, or even plans for, infrastructure development.

It is not easy to break out of the spiral of decline. but to fail to learn such an obvious and recent lesson seems like carelessness at the very least.

Be Intelliigent about AI

 AI is certainly ‘the next big thing’ with many claiming it as a transformational tool.  Whether it is or not, only time - and productivity statistics - will tell.

However, the sheer volume of publicity being given to AI means that most organisations should be aware of AI’s capabilities and potential.

Before you go running to sign up for an account with one of the providers of AI software or services, take the time to think - and to research.  Read about AI and what it does (or at least might do).  Also try to understand what it doesn’t do - yet!

If you start experimenting too soon, you might go down a lot of blind alleys - and make a lot of U-turns.

Do you have so much spare time at the moment that you can afford to fill it with failed experiments?  You might not be wasting money (since many of the tools and services are free for initial trials) but you could be wasting your valuable time. This is especially true of the free tools and services which might have constraints which make them very limited.. 

So think carefully and smartly - about what you want AI to do for you. In what parts of your work, or your organisation’s activities, might its potential be most valuable - and where might it be most easily implemented.

Determine what you might improve and in what kind of timescale - and what the returns might be.  Then you can take an informed decision about the level of effort and investment that is sensible. 

Temper your enthusiasm for artificial intelligence with real intelligence.