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Impact of Work-Life Balance Practices on Employees Retention and

Organizational Performance – A Study on IT Industry

Conference Paper · July 2018

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ORIGINAL ReseARch PAPeR Management Volume : 6 | Issue : 8 | August 2016 | ISSN - 2249-555X | IF : 3.919 | IC Value : 74.50

Impact of Work-Life
Balance Practices on
Employees Retention and
Organizational
Work-life balance, employee’s retention,
Key org
wOR ani
P Dr Neha
Research Scholar, r
School Assistant Yajurved
Professor, School
of Business Studies, of Business Studies,
Shobhit Shobhit
ABSTRACT Work life balance is an important
concept. Every person wants to
maintain equilibrium between their
work and family life so that they can
lead a balanced life. This is the reason
that employees now pre-
fer companies that offer exclusive and attractive
work life balance policies. Therefore many
organizations adopted Work-Life Balance practices
in order to attract better applicants and reduce
work-life conflict among existing employ- ees in
order to enhance organizational performance. This
paper studies the impact of Work-Life Balance
practices on employee retention and how they
enhance organizational performance. The findings
show that a Work-Life Balance it is not a quandary
to be determined once but a constant concern to
be managed. For organization goals to be
achieved through the people employed, Work-Life
Balance concerns must become a crucial feature of
human resource policy and strategy. We suggest
organizations need to improve their practices in
order to improve organizational per- formance,
including enhanced social exchange processes,
increased cost savings, improved productivity and
reduced turnover. The sample selection was done by
convenience sampling method. The study was
conducted in Noida region with a sample of 200
employees taken from IT Industry. The data was
collected with the help of a structured question-
naire. The study has revealed that the work-life
balance practices have direct influence on
employee’s retention and it also enhances
organizational performance.
I loyalty and productivity.
n Work-life balance has
t become an important
r concept for both
o employers and employees
d of most organ- izations all
u over the world. The
c employees are not willing
t
to work in such
i
organization where the
o
n prevailing culture is not
: supportive and many
Work life balance is even quit the job;
about creating and retention happens to be
maintaining sup- portive critical then. Off late it is
and healthy work the realization of most of
environments, which will the companies that if the
enable employees to have work life conflicts of em-
balance between work ployees can be taken
and family re- care of in an appropriate
sponsibilities and thus way then it can help in the
strengthen employee’s retention of the talent.
INDIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH X 105 Work-life balance primarily
deals look tion Ther y’s time and multi faced valuable to firms. The
with outside and e demands between work quality of an employee’s
employe human socie are and home personal life impacts work
es’ resource ty. wide responsibilities cause quality. There are
ability to interven- Wor varie tremendous stress on numerous organization
properly tions. k- ties em- ployees.Chnages in policies that can assuage
prioritize Schemes Life of social and demographic the burden of work-life
between such as bala prac variables like increase in balance. Options include
their flexible nce tices nuclear families, greater provid- ing leave with pay
work and working pract curre numbers of women in the or options for reduced
family hours, ices ntly workforce, dual-career hours, workplace supports
life. alternati are bein couples, rise in the such as personal time
Where ve work chan g number of single parents, off, paid leave, childcare
there is plans, ges used long working hours and facilities, financial
appro- and that to technological ad- assistance for childcare,
priate compres orga help vancements bring toll on and other fami- ly-friendly
balance sed nizat emp the health of employees. policies all of which are
between working ion loye In re- sponse to these workplace policies that
work hours, mad es to changes work life conflict could resolve the work-life
and leave e in achi occur among the multiple balance problem. In
personal plans, their eve roles that individuals play deciding to facilitate
life, family prog work in everyday life. employees’ work-life
employ- care rams life Organizations are balance, organizations
ees give responsi , bala increasingly pressured to can choose from a wide
their bilities, polic nce. design various kinds of array of options.
best employe ies It is Work-Life Balance
shots at e and im- Practices, intended to
work, assistanc orga port facilitate employees’
because e nizat ant efforts to fulfill both their
their program ional to employment related and
families s have cultu note their personal
are become re that commitments. The way of
contente an that som how work-life balance can
d. importan are e be achieved and
Finding t part desi work enhanced is an important
a of gned life is- sue in the field of
suitable organiza to bala human resource
balance tion redu nce management and has
between benefit ce prog received significant
work and program work ram attention from employers,
family s and -life s workers, government,
life is a reward confl help academic researchers,
big package ict emp and the popular me- dia.
challeng s and loye
e. Where especiall enab es W
there are y in le to o
happy develop empl han r
homes ed oyee dle k
and economi s to stres
pleasant es. be s or -
work more helps L
places, Therefor effect to i
there is e ive f
redu
conflict employe at e
ce
free rs work abso
work should and lutel B
environ know in a
y
ment, the othe l
stres
employe benefits r a
s n
es work of roles level c
with zeal imple- . by e
.Thus menting reba
demand Work-life lanci
for work- balance O
ng p
life practices life. t
balance not only Incr i
practices for easi o
have employ- ng n
made it ees but com s
compuls also for petit Organizations are
ory for their ion realizing that employees
organiza families, in with well-bal- anced work
tions to organiza toda and lives are actually
INDIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH X 105
ORIGINAL ReseARch PAPeR Volume : 6 | Issue : 8 | August 2016 | ISSN - 2249-555X | IF : 3.919 | IC Value :
74.50
Job-sharing tive workers include educational classes, such as classes
which is a system where two people share a job. They on the wellbeing of a newborn or family, put on by the
both have the same job, but split the hours; the payments, organization, that has been shown to be associated with
holidays and benefits. This gives them ample time to at- less reported work-life conflict.
tend to non-work activities to achieve a good degree of
work-life balance. Breaks from work once in a while, Review of Literature
which results in the right balance between work and life. Review of literature paves way for a clear understanding
These breaks should not only be about maternity, paterni- of the areas of research already undertaken and throws a
ty and parental leave, but also time off for career breaks light on the potential areas which are yet to be covered.
and sabbaticals. Another option is compressed working Keeping this view in mind, an attempt has been made to
hours; a system where an employee can work his total make a brief survey of the work undertaken on the field of
number of agreed hours over a shorter period such as work life balance practices adopted by organization and its
working the hours over four days in week instead of five impact on Employees retention and organizational perfor-
consequently gaining a day. mance. The reviews of some of the important studies are
presented below.
Self-rostering
where employees roaster their hours how they want. The M. Sakthivel Murugan (2009) revealed that organizational
organization daily checks the number of staff and skills re- culture influencing performance among the employees in
quired and lets the employees decide which hours they the IT industry depends on major factors such as organiza-
would like to work. Employees are thus able to schedule tional culture, work environment, safety and negotiation. It
their time conveniently between work and nonwork activi- is concluded that all employees realized that a conducive
ties. Furthermore there is Tele-working, flexible schedules organizational culture influence organizational performance
option that employee’s value tremendously and its popu- in IT industry.
larity is increasing. Using modern communication tech-
nology, employees carry out their jobs without necessar- Baron and Hannan (2002) investigated that an instructive
ily having to be at the office. Often, they can work from conceptual framework with three dimensions of employ-
home or in satellite offices or telecentres close to them. It ment blue prints for success in high- tech start-up firms.
allows employees to attend to family or non-work issues First a basis of attachment and retention includes compen-
once production or excellence is not affected. Gradu- sation, quality of work and work group as a community;
ally more sophisticated and realistically priced technolo- the social identity. This is a key basis for creating the sec-
gies have made it more feasible for employees to keep ond dimension for attachment criteria for selection- which
contact with work employing several methods, such as includes skills, exceptional talent/ potential and fit with a
e-mails, computers, and cell phones, which enable them team or organization. Thirdly means of control and coordi-
to complete their work beyond the physical restrictions nation include direct monitoring or peer or culture control,
of their offices. Employees may respond to an email or reliance on professional standards, and formal processes
a voice mail after-hours or during the weekend, typically and procedures.
while not officially “on the job”. Researchers have found
that employees who consider their work roles to be an Rajanish Ratna (2008) in his article “ Work Life Balance in
imperative component of their personalities will be more IT Sector revealed that the work life of an employee has
apt to use these communication technologies to work attracted a great concern because of a large number of
while in their non-work domains. problems related to employee health , monotony at work-
place , declining levels of productivity and competence at
Tele- working is nevertheless not suitable or achievable the employee level .He has studied the work life programs
for every job but it saves inestimable time, money, and of Indian IT giants like TCS, Wipro, Tech Mahindra and dis-
commuting stress for employees. It also enables office cussed that work life balance diminishes as age increases
collaboration time when the employees come in and and female employees require a flexi work environment
employee work – life balance is ensured. Again, there is and timings ,a healthy relationship with colleagues helps
Child care assistance can boost output and drive among in maintain the balance. So organizations should provide
employees. It also reduces turnover, accidents and ab- provisions for development of one self, to support family
senteeism. Childcare options for working parents can be needs, a flexible work culture with management support.
significant in work life balance and job satisfaction. The
leaning is towards dual-earning families because life is C.Janki (2009) found that “Employee Retention” discussed
now excessively costly for a prospective money-maker to that most challenging issue faced by today’s global organi-
stay at home. People with families no longer possess the zation, is to retain their employees and provided insights
extravagance to stay at home for child care. Therefore into employee retention strategies, measures and tech-
the demand for child care options as a means of helping niques to minimize the rate of attrition. He said for retain-
employees achieve work-life balance is becoming more ing valuable employees the strategies of proper attention
and more popular. Child care options include crèche, should be given to every employee, get the right people
day-nursery, after school child care, teen care, host parent at right time, provide training and coaching plan for suc-
care, and leader-at-home. cession and acceleration pool, offer better career visibility,
use explicit ranking systems tied to incentive and differen-
There is also the Flexi-time allows employees, to deter- tiate the organization with unique culture, can be adopted.
mine the start and end times of their working day, pro-
vided a certain number of hours is worked. This can allow Work Life Balance Policies helps employee in managing
them to meet family or personal commitments/emergen- their work and family in a better way and enhance their at-
cies. A flexible schedule gives employees more options titudes and behavior’s such as organizational attachment
and is especially appropriate in jobs where specific work (Groover and Croocker, 1995), Job Satisfaction (Kossek
hours really do not matter. Other options of work-life and Ozeki, 1998) and intention to stay (Lobel and Kossek
balance policies that lead to happier and more produc- ,1996).

106 X INDIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED

RESEARCH
Objectives of the present study are as follows: ducted in IT Companies of Noida region.Survey method is
The purpose of this study is sought to be achieved used for collecting data from employees with the help of
through the following specific objectives: questionnaire.We requested all respondents to fill up the
questionnaire, by self after explaining the various aspects
• Study the relationship between Work –Life Balance mentioned in it . 200 questionnaires were distributed to
Practices on Organizational Productivity the employees of Noida and only 194 were found to be
• Analyze the impact of Work -Life Balance Practices on complete and suitable for analysis. The data collected from
Employee Retention. the survey was analysed by using SPSS Software.There will
• Analyze the Impact of Work –Life Imbalance on em- be no bias in using the convenience sampling since re-
ployee’s job satisfaction. spondent mutually participated in this survey. Researcher
generally uses convenience samples to obtain the large
number of completed questionnaire quickly..Data is collect-
Research Methodology ed through primary as well as secondary sources.Through
The study is conducted to obtain the data on Work- Life prinary source the data is collected through interviews and
Balance Practices and its impact on employees retention filling of questionnaire . Secondary source consist of peri-
and on organisational performance .The study is con- odicals, newspapers and online resources.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

Table 1: Relationship between WLB Practices and
Organizational Productivity
Res SA A D SD To X2Cal X2Cri df P Re
p 72(11.3 81(21.7 37(2.7 4(40. tal
19 76.7 t7.48 3 0.0 m
S
9) 8) 3) 85) 4 3 5
X2 (cal.) = 76.73, df = 3. X2 tab at 0.05 level of
significance = 7.48. Since the calculated X2 is greater
than X2 table value, we reject the null hypothesis (Ho).
This implies a significant relationship between work life
balance (WLB) practices and or- ganizational productivity.

Table2: Relationship
between Work-life
balance and Employee
Turnover and
Absenteeism
Resp SA A D SD Total X2Ca X2Cri df P Rem
89(3 73(1 20(1 12(2 194 l90.4 t7.48 3 0.05 S
3.82) 2.38) 6.75) 7.47) 2
X2 (cal.) = 90.42, df = 3. X2 tab at 0.05 level of
significance = 7.48. Since the calculated X2 is greater
than X2 table value, we reject the null hypothesis (Ho).
This implies a significant relationship between work life
balance (WLB) practices and em- ployee turnover and
absenteeism. Work-life balance (WLB) practices can trim
down employee turnover and absenteeism.

T
a
b
l
e

W
o
r
k
-
L
i
f
e

I
m
b
a
l
a
n
c
INDIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH X 107
e The need for enhanced
use of Work-Life Balance
a options like flexi time,
n
job sharing and breaks
d
from work so that
E employees can feel that
m the organization is
p facilitating their
l coordination of family
o and professional lives. A
y reassess- ment of present
e policies and upgrading
e of current prac- tices is
necessary. Provisions
J should be made where
o
possi- ble for leave
b
facilities, both with or
S without pay for family
a emergencies, child care
t within the organization,
i for female employees to
s create a work
f environment free of
a aggrava- tion and
c inequity. Moreover the
t need arises to introduce
i job sharing options in
o
addition to paid and
n
unpaid career breaks.
Resp SA A D SD Total X2Ca X2cri df P Rem Also there should be
l t
103( 58(1. 21(1 12(2 194 106. 7.48 3 0.05 S specific counselling
61.2 86) 5.59) programs on Work-Life
X2(cal.) = 106.16, df =7.47)
3. 16
and employers. Work-
Balance. Organizations
X2 tab at 0.05 level of Life Balance has double-
should have formal
signifi- cance = 7.48. edged gains where right
counselling departments
Since the calculated X2 balance is important to be
to appreciate employee
is greater than X2 table maintained. Availability
work life balance
value, we reject the null and use of Work- Life
problems and help them
hypothesis (Ho). This Balance Practices, when
pick spot-on options.
implies a significant provided in the context of
Again, regular exercises,
relationship between em- ployees and
mediation and other soft
work life imbalance and employer’s support can
skill prac- tices can be
employee job satisfaction. reduce work-life con- flict
initiated to advance the
Work-life imbalance and increase positive
emotional balance of the
affects em- ployee job appraisals of one’s
employees. The study
satisfaction and social organization. These effects
gives new insights and
life. High quality of work are often associated with
research directions on
life balance will improve employee attitudes such
work-life balance
the job satisfaction. as increased job
practices and their
satisfaction, enhanced
relation- ship to
employee’s performance,
organizational
C reduce absenteeism,
on performance and
increased productivity,
cl employee’s produc- tivity.
lower recruitment and
us training costs, increased
io The study has practical
retention of valuable
n implication for that
employee and increased
an organization especially
organizational com-
d who wish to retain talent
mitment and loyalty. All
Po through family friendly
of these aspects are
lic Work-Life Balance Policy
y associated, in turn, with
and Practices. It is not
I costs savings, higher
only going to make the
m customer satisfaction and
employee happy and
pl implicitly higher levels of
productive but also dif-
ic organizational
ferentiate the
at performance. Build- ing an
organization as an
io organizational culture
employer of choice. The
ns which supports Work-Life
study encourages
A successful balanced Bal- ance is a long term
organization to take an
between work and family process for large
active role for
life is like a win-win organizations.
situation for employees
INDIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH X 107
developing a more supportive and encouraging employee
friendly culture that can facilitate on the policies implemen-
tation.

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108 X INDIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH

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