Laura Frangella, CHRP, B.A.,
Principal, FocusedHR
Alan Kearns, President
and Founder, CareerJoy
“In the past decade, there have been a lot
of changes to Canadian workplaces,” said
Laura Frangella, CHRP, B.A., principal at
FocusedHR, a Toronto-based company
that assists organizations in establishing
and maintaining effective HR capabilities
by providing services in training, policy
development, performance management,
legal compliance, change management and
strategic planning. The firm has more than
50 years of combined human resources
experience in diverse sectors including
manufacturing, distribution, retail, pharmaceutical,
energy and not-for-profit
agencies, construction and health care.
“We have an increased rate of female
workers today. The ‘breadwinner’ role is
shared and balancing work and childcare
has become more challenging. Many Canadians
are also in the ‘sandwich generation,’
spending more time taking care of
children and elderly parents.”
Frangella says we all still have much further
to go in achieving a work-life balance,
but it is important for companies to do so
for many reasons.
“A healthy work-life balance reduces
staff turnover rates, which in turn lowers
recruitment and training costs, reduces
absenteeism and use of sick leave and
improves productivity,” she explained.
“Work-life balance reduces stress levels
and employees feel they have control over
time management in meeting their worklife
commitments. Employees will have
increased focus, motivation and job satisfaction
knowing that family and work
commitments are being met.”
It really is a balancing act, she adds, because
the needs of the business also have
to be met. “I do believe it is a give-and-take
relationship, whereby employees will be
more motivated in doing a great job if they
feel supported.”
Alan Kearns, president and founder of
CareerJoy, a Toronto-based firm that provides
career management advice to both
individuals and employers, views things a
little differently.
“I don’t see balance. I see work-life integration,”
he said. “We always talk about
work-life balance, but it’s a myth. In today’s
world, that’s almost impossible. We can
work anywhere at any time and it’s about
giving people flexibility about where, how
and when they work. It’s focusing more on
deliverables and less on time.”
Kearns – who has shaped his 15 years
of career management experience into a
company that helps people from coast to
coast navigate through a wide variety of
career-related issues – says the way people
work is still very much structured in the
industrial age. That is, the worker shows
up, essentially punches a timecard, does
their work and goes home. Yet we don’t
work that way anymore.
“Globalization, outsourcing, insourcing,
multiple projects – all of these trends have
created a tremendous amount of convergence,”
he said. “But people are still often
being managed according to the old industrial
model.”
He says it’s important for companies to
move away from viewing work as time and
shift their thinking to viewing work as results.
He cites a personal example of where
he was a speaker at a recent conference in
Victoria, B.C. His offices are in Eastern
Canada, so he rose early to get some work
done to compensate for the three-hour
time difference. He was scheduled to attend
and speak at the conference that evening,
so from noon to 2:00 p.m., he went
paddle boarding.
“That’s an example of work-life integration,”
he said. “I was unavailable during
that time. For the worker with family
obligations, maybe they will get on the go
train at 4:00 p.m., but they work on the
way home and then are with their family
from, say 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., and then
do some work that night. They’ll leave
the office early when others are staying
behind, but on the other hand, they’ll be
working in the evening. I’m convinced that
the majority of people will do the work
they need to do when it needs to be done.
They might just do it at 2:00 a.m.”
STRATEGIES TO ATTAIN BALANCE
Whether one views it as work-life balance
or work-life integration, it is still vital that
companies create strategies and set successful
policies to create a situation that
Photo by Laura Frangella, Alan Kearns
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28 ❚ JANUARY 2014 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL