Mike Ramsay, Director of Alliance opened their recent seminar on 11 May by stating, “Purely by engaging staff, staff satisfaction levels can sky rocket.” As history shows, among employees who have held on to their jobs through the jarring crash of the past 18 months, as the market improves many are likely to leave those same jobs for greener pastures.
The experience of seeing many of their colleagues being let go and coping with the stress of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression means that employers must take a greater interest in facilitating their employees’ physical and mental health to keep them engaged. One way to re-engage employees is to ensure they have the proper work life balance and provide wellness initiatives for them to partake in.
Ada Wong, Corporate Citizen Manager for Community Business in Hong Kong defined work life balance as, “Employees having a measure of control over when, where and how they work.” In a city like Hong Kong, achieving this objective can be a challenge. Some of these challenges are cultural and Wong noted, “Hard work ethics are often viewed as the secret to Hong Kong’s success.” She highlighted some additional challenges that are unique to Asia and stated, “Asian employees have a reluctance to reach out for help.” She added, “This situation can compound stress, as the employee does not often indicate to the employer that there are problems at work.” Another cultural factor, according to Wong, is the importance of ‘face time’ and many employees are often reluctant to leave before their boss and end up working much longer hours so as not to be perceived as lazy by leaving the office first.
The business benefits of promoting work life balance are numerous. Wong pointed out that a particularly successful strategy in the recruitment Generation-Y is when companies promote the fact they provide flexible working schedules. Many desirable companies, such as Google, consistently score in the top ten in employer ranking surveys such as Universum’s Global Employer Ranking Surveys. Employees with a balanced life are more productive, and as Wong pointed out, companies that allow greater work life balance options have higher employee engagement and retention rates.
Michelle Leung, Executive Director of Human Capital Management at Goldman Sachs was the second speaker at the event and described initiatives in the investment firm’s approach to employee wellness. Employee wellness is one of the firm’s top priorities on a global level and Leung said, “ We provide a comprehensive range of services designed to meet the health needs of our people.” These services include a childcare centre to look after employees’ children, a staff gymnasium, learning exchanges, recreation exchanges and nutrition exchanges. Leung went on to state that, “Key to corporate wellness is communication…We have developed dynamic and flexible channels dedicated to communicating information relating to our wellness activities.”
A novel approach to team building and corporate wellness was provided by Kumi Masunaga, a professional percussionist and Director of the Rhythm of Life Company. Masunaga runs teambuilding workshops using traditional drums from Africa, Latin America and China. According to Masunaga, some of the benefits of drumming are reduced stress, increased self-expression and the promotion of camaraderie. The group experienced firsthand how such drumming could be used as a tool for energizing staff.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
