Work-life Balance14th December 2004

Pauline KempHead of Customer Service - Current Account & Savings Operations

Work-life Balance

What does this mean?

Have we done enough?

or gone too far?

What does Work-life Balance Mean?

“Allowing people to work in a sensible way that allows them to balance earning a living with looking after children, in a way that is good for business too” Rt. Hon. Patricia Hewitt – Secretary of State for Trade & Industry

“It is about people having a measure of control over when, where and how they work. It is achieved when an individual’s right to a fulfilled life inside and outside paid work is accepted and respected as the norm, to the mutual benefit of the individual, business and society” Employers for Work-life Balance, “The Work Foundation”

“It is about adjusting working patterns, regardless of age, race or gender to find a rhythm to help combine work with other responsibilities or aspirations”

dti

“… whatever works for you” Ruth Spellman – CE of IiP UK

Industry

4,825 call centres (UK)

530,000 agent positions

850,000 employees

2.99% of all UK jobs (NE largest @ 4.63%) Single biggest market segment is Financial Services = 32% (MINTEL)

Average salary £13,052 (NE £11,750 London £17,000)

Significant drop in growth rate this year (off-shoring)

1997-2001 ↑ 76% 2001-2004 ↓ 16%

Call Centre Europe, Issue No. 57 2004

UK Trends

The worst long hours culture in Europe (but not as long as USA or Japan)

Average 4 weeks holiday per year • France and Germany = 6 weeks• USA and Japan = 2 weeks

8% of employers allow staff the opportunity to buy extra holidays (CIPD)

80% of workers would not reduce their hours if it means a reduction in pay (Sunday Times, 28/11/04)

The vast majority of workers list time off as a priority – in 1970’s and 1980’s pay was listed as the priority (Sunday Times, 28/11/04)

66% of women believe having children hampers their careerEmployers for Work-life Balance, “The Work Foundation”

Alliance & Leicester

Leave

Flexible Working

Holidays

Childcare Vouchers

Nursery (5% discount)

Other benefits- Computers - Dental / Optical- Private Medical - Discounted Leisure Activities- Share Schemes - Pensions / Life Cover

Context of “best practice” as defined by the Employers for Work-life Balancewww.employersforwork-lifebalance.org.uk

Leave

Maternity Leave: this goes well beyond the statutory offering, enabling women to take a longer break by providing full salary for the first 14 weeks of leave

Adoption Leave: same as Maternity arrangements, but with 12 weeks pay for newer starters

Parental Leave: again this goes well beyond the statutory - it is unpaid, but people can take all 13 weeks in one go (subject to operational needs), or can take it as a reduction in hours

Special Leave: a flexible approach for short-term parental emergencies and commitments.

Flexible Working

Flexible Working for Parents: gives employees (with children aged under 6 or disabled children under 18) the right to request a different working arrangements or different hours to better fit with their work/life responsibilities.

Flexible Working Hours: available to all staff - we encourage part-time working, job-sharing, term-time working, flexible annualised hours working, shift working, etc, to match business and personal needs.

Holidays

Holiday Plus: allows anyone to “bank” surplus holiday to build up to an extended paid leave of 5 - 13 weeks.

Flexible Holidays: Allows buying / selling of up to 5 days per annum and may be linked with the Holiday Plus scheme if required, e.g. buy 5 days and “bank” it, thereby spreading the cost of the extended leave (or creating a “savings plan” of holidays, depending on your perspective!).

Childcare

Childcare Vouchers: discounted childcare option (saves around 10% per annum overall), as the vouchers are a salary sacrifice scheme that save the employee NI contributions.

Carlton Park Nursery: an on-site facility that is reassuring for parents, high quality and easy to access at the start and end of a working day.

Balanced or not?

Finances

- Secure

- Retire early

- Investments

- Savings

Health & Fitness

- Exercise

- Vitamins & supplements

- Diet , Check-ups

Friends & Family

Children -

Visits -

Support (£ + emotional) -

Career & Learning

Career/role related -

Personal development -

Reading -

Travel -

Done enough or gone to far?

Improved maternity & paternity rights

EU working time directive

Greater choice of working patterns

Wider “care” benefits

TUC would like us to move closer to the holiday levels of other European countries

Tube staff get 52 days per year holiday (add to normal weekends this = 43% of time a year off)

“Some police forces can stack up so much overtime that 1 officer works in the UK 7 months a year and lives in New Zealand for the other 5 months” Sunday Times 28/11/04

Future

Massive increase in global competition

Agricultural Age Industrial Age Information Age Conceptual Age

Manufacturing, servicing and now information jobs going to developing countries

“Reuters plans to triple jobs at site in India” New York Times 8/10/04

Tom Peters believes we will need to work much longer hours and be more productive if we are to compete with India and China

Tom Peters “Re-imagine – Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age” in 2004

26

Final Thought…

About a year ago I hired a developer in India to do my job. I pay him $12,000 to do the job I get paid $67,300 for.

He is extremely happy to have the work and the high salary. I am happy that I only have to work about 90 minutes per day. I still have to attend meetings myself, and I spend a few minutes every day talking code with my Indian counterpart. The rest of the time my employer thinks I’m working from home. They are happy to let me work from home because my output and productivity is higher than most of my co-workers. I’m now considering getting a second job and outsourcing it too. The extra money would be nice, but that could push my workday over five hours.

posting at Slashdot (02.04.04), reported by Dan Pink