Coaching Information

Integrating Life and Work


Organizations are finally creating cultures that support a work and life balance for their employees. After years of demanding high productivity and increasing on the job hours and expectations and not achieving the hoped-for better results, companies are finally embracing polices and procedures that support employees in integrating their life and work experience. The results are bringing higher productivity, better employee overall job performance, and fewer employee absences, resulting in greater profitability.

When companies first consider such programs, their biggest concern is how programs supporting life and work balance will help their bottom line vs. simply costing more money that they don't want to spend. As more companies develop creative methods for integration of life and work, they see that the bottom line can't be impacted upon positively without recognizing employees' needs for balance. Employees are, after all, only human.

At first, companies we've presented these concepts to have resisted and felt that it was all simply added expense for them. In addition, they've seen the need for balance as an "employee" issue and not a company issue. In my experience coaching and consulting with companies around the world, I think that avoiding responsibility for integration of life and work is what is actually COSTING companies money, and if they'd invest some money in programs that support balance, they'd increase their bottom line through improved morale and productivity.

Here are the reasons that organizations are adopting life/work balance policies:

Employee hiring and retention: it is more difficult to recruit and replace employees if there isn't a balance in their job, as they leave faster when they feel imbalance and the cost of constant retraining is money that could be better spent elsewhere.

Absenteeism decrease: when there is flextime, flexible schedules, childcare, etc. offered, it is well documented that absenteeism and tardiness go way down.

Stress is decreased: on the job tension often comes from the feeling of being out of balance, and stress creates illness, poor morale, and low productivity. People are not robots that can be switched on and off at will. All work and no play certainly does make Jack a dull boy, and companies now realize this.

Attitude and morale: employees who have a integration in life/work show higher job satisfaction, greater productivity, feel more loyalty, and file fewer law suits.

Organizations will be successful when they realize that without high quality workers who are loyal and who feel integration between family and work, they won't have a dedicated workforce, and they will actually lose money. People are worth keeping and developing and are the most valuable asset that any company has, and yet it is the one asset that is generally overlooked.

People make a business? not machines, not books of accounts. In our world, nothing is free and people do have to earn a living, but they do also have to live a meaningful and productive life. When there is a fair balance between the two, this results in a happy and constructive human being who is able to give 100% because one aspect of their life is not demanding more than the other and there is no unhealthy imbalance. Companies who acknowledge this and incorporate strategies to allow for this, reap the rewards described above. Result? Everyone gets what they want and need. Everyone is happy.

Written by Terri Levine, MCC, PCC, MS, CCC-SLP, the CEO of Coaching Instruction.com, popular Master Certified personal and business Coach, sought after Public Speaker, and Author of bestsellers, "Stop Managing, Start Coaching", "Work Yourself Happy", "Coaching for an Extraordinary Life" and "Create Your Ideal Body". She can be contacted via the web site http://www.TerriLevine.com or by telephone: 215-699-4949.

  


MORE RESOURCES:

RDS

McGill creates Quebec's first full-time soccer coaching position
RDS, Canada - 5 hours ago
He served on the Canadian women's coaching staff three times at various FISU World University Summer Games, including a stint as head at the 2005 Games in ...


TVNZ

Connolly linked to Tahs coaching job
The Australian, Australia - 8 hours ago
FORMER Wallabies coach John Connolly could come into the reckoning for a role as Waratahs director of coaching if the NSWRU stands by its decision to move ...
Breaking News Jones slams Tahs' coaching search Fox Sports
O'Neill urges fans to get behind Tahs The Age
NSW rugby board divided over coaching issue Radio New Zealand
Stuff.co.nz - LIVENEWS.com.au
all 64 news articles


AINSWORTH HANDED COACHING ROLE
Sportinglife.com, UK - 10 hours ago
... manager Luigi De Canio when not on the pitch, has been appointed as an official member of the coaching staff to work under Dowie and Tim Flowers. ...
Ainsworth Bags Coaching Role Vitalfootball
Ainsworth handed coaching role Harrow Times
Ainsworth staying on TWTD
Clubcall
all 12 news articles


Coaching creativity leaves mark on BCS bowls - College Football
ESPN - 7 hours ago
By Adam Rittenberg We remember BCS bowls for what happens on the field, but many games are shaped and decided by the coaches prowling the sidelines. ...


Sky News

Champions League final: Avram Grant turned to coaching after near ...
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom - 16 hours ago
Avram Grant turned to coaching when he was involved in a near-fatal traffic accident in 1972 in Israel that damaged a leg. The Chelsea coach, now 53, ...
Chelsea senior players know Grant will leave coaching job Tribalfootball.com
'Premier League era has been the Giggs era' ic Wales
Richard Williams guardian.co.uk
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph.co.uk
all 683 news articles


Bleacher Report

Ewing unlikely to be on Knicks' coaching staff
Newsday, NY - 16 hours ago
SECAUCUS, NJ - Mike D'Antoni is still deciding on his coaching staff, but one name that will not be among his choices is Knicks great Patrick Ewing. ...
Suns Coaching Search Continues Suns.com
Kerr flies to Detroit to interview Porter for Suns' coaching job - NBA ESPN
Suns continue coaching search AZ Central.com
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - The Official Phoenix Suns Blog
all 238 news articles


BBC Sport

Newcastle and Munster offer Graham a new coaching route
Scotsman, United Kingdom - May 20, 2008
At the moment I'm not quite sure what that will be, but I feel it's important for me and my ongoing development as a coach to be coaching day-in, day-out. ...
‘It is my ambition to coach Scotland – I will definitely do it’ The Herald
Graham leaves Scotland's set-up BBC Sport
all 4 news articles


Quality holiday coaching camps
Lithgow Mercury, Australia - 1 hour ago
There will be plenty of sports action for boys and girls during the next school holidays, with Quality Sports offering coaching camps at Orange in rugby, ...
Quality camps on offer in school holidays Orange Central Western Daily
all 2 news articles


ISU men's basketball: McDermott says Johnson took coaching personally
DesMoinesRegister.com, IA - 1 hour ago
Iowa State coach Greg McDermott thinks Wesley Johnson took some of his coaching personally and couldn't get past it. Speaking with reporters today, ...


Timaru Herald

Young SC hockey players given top-level coaching
Timaru Herald,  New Zealand - 6 hours ago
PASSING ON KNOWLEDGE: Black Sticks assistant coach Paul Derham explains how it is done at a primary grade coaching clinic held in Timaru on Sunday. ...

coaching - Google News

Article List | Index | Site Map
All logos, trademarks and articles on this site are property and copyright of their respective owner(s).
The comments are property of their posters, all the rest is Copyright © 2006 CanadaSEEK.com - All Rights Reserved.