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Source: Yasmin Taj for The Times of India, posted on 09/22/2011
A startling 85 per cent of recruiters say that candidates turn down job offers from employers that aren’t work-life balance-friendly. Yasmin Taj explores this trend further.
According to a work-life balance survey by BlueSteps.com, the executive career management service of the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC), 80 per cent of executives say that work-life balance as a parameter plays a vital role during the job search process. Peter M Felix, CBE, president, Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) explains, “Work-life balance today directly impacts the retention of top executive talent. An unhealthy work-life balance leads to increased stress, strain on personal relationships and a lack of personal fulfilment. All of these factors will push executives towards greener pastures.”
According to Garima Varma, communications leader, GE Global Research, “Work-life balance today is a fundamental hygiene factor that employees seek. Other aspects like compensation and perks are of a transactional nature. Employees see worklife balance as a relational benefit.” For Srikanth Karra, director – HR, HP India, the degree at which work-life balance influences the decision of a job-seeker is closely linked to one’s age and the nature of the role the employee has chosen to perform. “It is observed that 27+ aged employees are the ones that seek options like work-from-home, flexitimings, etc. They realise that compensation alone does not lead to satisfaction,” he states.
Dayanand Allapur, head of HR, Tesco Hindustan Service Centre (HSC) further opines, “Today, there are many who would gladly give up pay raises and advancement for being able to spend quality time with their families/friends.” According to the AESC survey, two-thirds of companies are developing programmes to help top candidates boost their family time without sacrificing their careers. “The objective is to think about what is really important for employees and demonstrate our ‘care’ for them through our work-life effectiveness offerings,” expresses Preethi Madappa, senior HR business manager, Greater Asia Region at Intel Technology India Pvt Ltd.
Madappa points out that increasingly, they see a trend where, at the hiring stage, prospective employees enquire about worklife centric policies, “Candidates have enquired if we have part-time option, flexible timings (almost 85 per cent candidates check on this), home connectivity and financial assistance.”
For organisations fighting it out in this competitive market to hire and retain the best, work-life balance is certainly turning out to be the trump card.
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