Creating a work environment that prioritizes work-life fit, and happier employees as a result, equals increased performance, productivity, and ultimately a stronger bottom line for the company.
Work-Life Fit
Work-life fit is about creating a work and lifestyle that fosters both personal and professional life at the same time.Work-life balance, on the other hand, is the idea of creating and maintaining clear distinctions and boundaries between what is work and what is not.
Having a successful career is important for many people, but most people have other things outside of work that are important to them. These other things create a demand on an individual’s time and resources. In turn, these demands create needs that may look different for each individual.
This website is focused on addressing the Work-Life Fit needs of ALL individuals. The website is intended to be a tool for helping individuals find their Right Fit, by providing information about various work-life fit policies and resources. We want to empower employees with the information and guidance they need to successfully approach leadership and advocate for real change and investment for themselves and within their companies.
The talking points and data within this tool are scalable for any size company, and makes the business case between an improved work-life fit for employees and a resulting improvement in recruitment, retention and success for their companies. Creating a work environment that prioritizes work-life fit, and happier employees as a result, equals increased performance, productivity, and ultimately a stronger bottom line for the company while improving the employee experience leading to increased recruitment and retention.
Leave Policies
Sometimes, striking a work-life fit means that you must set work aside completely for a time while addressing critical life events or helping our loved ones in times of need. When a company claims to embrace family values and cares about its employees, when it boasts about employee retention and supporting a positive culture but then fails to provide adequate parental or family leave for its staff, a discrepancy exists that demands attention.
Multiple studies prove that a reasonable policy with family leave can improve company culture and morale, as well as productivity. One study found that more than 80% of companies that offered paid family leave saw a positive impact on employee morale, and more than 70% reported an increase in productivity.1
To that end, you will find many resources on this page to help you build a strong pitch for adopting or strengthening your company’s leave policies. Ideally, a comprehensive leave policy should apply to all staff so that everyone has equal protections for when serious demands arise that require significant time away from the office and work.
Know your Leave Rights
Family Medical Leave Act (1993)
“The United States is one of just eight countries in the world, that does not have federal legislation requiring paid maternity leave.2 What does exist is the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 which provides employee of qualified companies up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave without risk of losing their job. You can learn more by visiting the U.S. Department of Labor website: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fmla or download the fact sheet below.
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (1973)
Employers with 15 or more employees are prohibited from discriminating against pregnant employees. They are entitled to the same treatment that any other employee has received in the same situation or another medical condition (i.e. working from home). Learn more here.
This website and its content are meant as a resource, but it has not been reviewed by legal counsel. Please consult an attorney or an HR professional for an exhaustive list of the family leave rights that you are entitled to.
Flexible Work Policies
The Covid pandemic changed the landscape of flexible work models dramatically. And with that, so too has the perception of flexible work models as the benefits for employers and employees alike were highlighted.
Even before the pandemic, there was an increasing demand for flexible work arrangements in order to meet the needs of personal and professional life. Having a choice of work environment and location is now a key factor for many job seekers when searching for a better work-life balance and evaluating new career opportunities.
Significant data exists across many industries to make the business case for implementing flexible work models; most notably the positive impact on retention and recruitment. As we move into the post-pandemic era, “what is the future of work?” is a collective question being asked by companies across the world.
Responsible leaders must move beyond physical location to shape the future of work by giving people resources tailored to their needs. It’s not about place, it’s about potential. Asking where people should work in the future might be the wrong question. A better question is: What unleashes a person’s potential, enabling them to be healthy and productive, regardless of where they work?
To that end, you will find many resources on this page to help you build a strong pitch for adopting a flexible work policy that is right for you and your company.
Healthy Work Environment
Addressing work-life balance, and the emotional and mental health of your employees, can be achieved through examining the physical surroundings of your workplace. As employees transition to a full return-to-the-office, hybrid or even a full remote schedule, employers are able to positively impact their work-life balance by implementing design-based optimizations of their physical working environment.
Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States Department of Labor (DOL), specifically the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) indicates that a sedentary lifestyle3 and poor air quality, combined with poor ergonomics at your primary workstation, are a leading cause of disease, disability and absenteeism. Global estimates from 2016 suggest that nearly a quarter of the adult population are physically inactive4, with our homes, schools and workplaces physically designed to demand less movement and require more sedentary activity over time.
The ways in which your workplace is designed and interacts with your employees can offer a platform through which to deliver healthy intervention and improve employee work-life balance. By allowing an employee to exercise, work from a standing position and assure seated ergonomic comfort5, you are allowing the employee time to incorporate healthful activities into their daily schedule, reducing fatigue and promoting productivity.
Employers also are empowered to improve work-life balance, absenteeism, and employee overall health through reduction of indoor air contaminants, increased outdoor air distribution and source reduction of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). The evidence of impact on improving indoor air quality is substantial, with emerging evidence linking air pollution as a disruptor to human physical and cognitive development6.
With this in mind, you will find many resources on this page to help you build a strong pitch for adopting or strengthening policies regarding your physical work environment. Ideally, policies which improve your physical work environment should be extended to all staff, so you may consider including remote worker benefits, such as subsidies to purchase active furnishings or air pollution education, to your staff not present in the office.
Create Your Presentation
Change often begins with a conversation. Work-Life Fit has created a presentation example and template to get you started toward a healthier combination of the professional and personal aspects of your life.
Page Sources
<sup1 https://media-publications.bcg.com/BCG-Why-Paid-Family-Leave-Is-Good-Business-Feb-2017-Revised.pdf
2 Ibid
3 “Physical Inactivity is a Leading Cause of Disease and Disability,” The World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news/item/04-04-2002-physical-inactivity-a-leading-cause-of-disease-and-disability-warns-who
4 https://v2.wellcertified.com/v/en/air
5 https://www.osha.gov/ergonomics
6 “The Impact of Exposure to Air Pollution on Cognitive Performance”, Xin Zhang, XI Chen and Xiaobo Zhang, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of American, September 11, 2018. https://www.pnas.org/content/115/37/9193</sup