Harmony in Work and Life: Cultivating Employee Well-being for Sustainable HRM

Nurturing the well-being of employees goes hand in hand with the desire for sustainable success in today's frenetic professional environment. Recognizing that people are an organization's most valuable resource, sustainable human resource management (HRM) places a premium on employees' health, happiness, and capacity to strike a healthy work-life balance. Within the context of sustainable human resource management, let's explore the vital confluence of employee wellness and work-life balance.

 

Taking a Comprehensive View of Employee Health

Environmentally friendly Creating a work setting that supports employees' health and happiness is a primary goal of human resource management.

 

1. Programs for Physical Health: Encouraging healthier lifestyles through the provision of health insurance, gym memberships, ergonomic workplaces, and wellness initiatives. Incorporating health activities and frequent breaks into the job might help employees feel more productive and less stressed.

2. Supporting Mental Health: Recognizing the significance of mental health by offering counseling services, stress management training, and fostering a climate free from stigma where workers may freely seek help.

3. Emotional and Social Support: Encouraging staff to network with one another through mentoring programs, support groups, and team-building events. Job happiness and mental wellbeing are both favorably influenced by having a strong social support network.

Work-Life Balance: A Foundation for Long-Term Success

Sustainable human resource management is committed to fostering a healthy work-life balance for all employees:

Employees are better able to juggle their professional and personal lives when they have more leeway in their schedules, the ability to work remotely, and shorter workweeks.

Fostering a healthy work-life integration requires establishing clear expectations around email communication and non-intrusive interaction during personal time. It is important to encourage a culture that respects off-hours.

 

Leave and Paid Time Off Policies: Recognizing the need of rejuvenation for ongoing productivity, offering generous paid time off, maternity leave, and sabbaticals to recharge and respond to personal responsibilities.

 

Effects on Long-Term Success of Businesses

·       Increasing Employee Buy-In and Staying Put:

Staff morale, retention, and productivity may all benefit from an organization's dedication to its workers' health, happiness, and work-life balance.

Second, a more balanced and supported staff is more likely to be creative and imaginative, which in turn increases productivity and problem-solving skills. Thirdly, a positive organizational culture: a culture that prioritizes the health and happiness of its employees is more likely to succeed in the long run since it draws in talented people and gives the company a good reputation.

Healthy work-life balance and employee happiness are the cornerstones of long-term human resource management. A happy workplace that cares about its employees as whole people creates a culture of flourishing individuals, which in turn makes the business more resilient, creative, and successful in the long run. An business may lay the groundwork for a long-term success by investing in its employees' happiness and health.

 

Recognizing the Dilemma of Work-Life Balance

Managing one's job and personal responsibilities is a source of stress for 20% of workers, according to research. Constant involvement like this has negative effects on health, relationships, and well-being, including burnout.

Conversely, there are several advantages when experts achieve a balanced approach. It promotes creativity, better mental health, and a more fulfilling personal life in addition to increasing productivity. By highlighting nations and cultures that encourage a more

balanced attitude to work, the OECD's Better Life Index alludes to the wider, social ramifications of this approach.

The Economic Times said, "We are in the midst of a remote working revolution." Despite a slow increase before to the outbreak, the number of remote workers in the UK doubled in 2020.A recent survey of 2,000 workers by Kings College, London found that while the abrupt spike may have been caused by COVID lockdowns, six out of ten people regularly work from home even after the restrictions were relaxed. It's intriguing that they continue to follow the present protocol.

In this case, what will the distinction between work and non-work be worth? The traditional concept of "work-life balance" is broad and includes "achieving satisfying experiences in all life domains."  It also claims that "everyone can find a rhythm to help them combine work with their other responsibilities or aspirations, regardless of age, race, or gender." Here, the notion is based on the notion that, rather than seeing paid work and leisure time as mutually exclusive goals, a meaningful life should include both (Dhas, 2015).

This calls into doubt the all-encompassing nature of the concept of life. The majority of dictionaries describe life as the condition that distinguishes plants and animals from inorganic substances. Before passing away, this condition comprises the capacity to grow, procreate, function, and go through continuous change.

It also denotes the existence of a lone individual or animal. Conversely, labor is any activity that demands mental or physical effort in order to achieve a desired result. Ultimately, employment is but a portion of the many pursuits that comprise life. Then, work toward life, not against it, is what counts—labor in life. Put another way, life is a subset of work.

 

REF :

Dhas, M. D. B., & Karthikeyan, D. P. (2015). Work-life balance challenges and solutions: overview. International Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Studies, 12(2).

 

Google's Wellbeing Initiatives:

 

Approach: With its extensive wellness initiatives, Google, a company renowned for its creative work culture, makes investments in the well-being of its employees.

For instance, Google offers access to mental health services, mindfulness and meditation classes, healthy food alternatives, and on-site exercise facilities. Additionally, they encourage staff members to take a day off for health-related reasons by providing "Google Take Care" days, which eliminates the need for them to spend vacation time.