By Dr Anjali Bansal Quality of Work Life (QWL)

Agenda  What is QWL?  Determinants of QWL  New Tools of QWL  Checklist of QWL goals

What is Quality of Work Life?  Quality of work life (QWL) is viewed as an alternative to the control approach of managing people.  The QWL approach considers people as an ‘assets’ to the organization rather than as ‘costs’.  It believes that people perform better when they are allowed to participate in managing their work and make decisions.

What is Quality of Work Life?  This approach motivates people by satisfying not only their economic needs but also their social and psychological ones.  To satisfy the new generation workforce, organizations need to concentrate on job designs and organization of work.  Further, today’s workforce is realizing the importance of relationships and is trying to strike a balance between career and personal lives

“ QWL” means different things to different persons  to a clerk in dispatch  To a mineworker  Shop floor workers  A probationary officer

Determinants of QWL  Employee pay  Benefits  Schedule flexibility  Working conditions  Johnson & Johnson, for example, reported that its employees who used flextime and family leave were absent 50 % fewer days than its regular workforce.  Moreover, 71 % of those workers using benefits said that the policies were "very important" to their decision to stay with the company

Employee Involvement Practices  Quality Circle  Suggestion System  Employee Participation in Management  Empowerment  Survey Feedback  Autonomous Work Teams  Flexible Organization Structure

Other Tools for QWL  Flextime  Flexi place  Part-time Employment  Job Enrichment  Job Rotation  Job Enlargement

Suggestion System  Direct benefits of a suggestion scheme are the following:  It can make work more easy  It can make-work more safe  It can remove mistakes  It can improve quality  It can increase efficiency  It can decrease rejects  It can reduce costs  It can give more satisfaction to customers through better service

Suggestion System  Indirect benefits of a suggestion scheme are as follows:  It increases employees’ work morale  It develops their capabilities  It activates communication  It improves human relations  It identifies work-related problems  It raises the level of group activities

Employee Participation in Management  Key features that enhance QWL are:  Subject matter of participation  Level of participation  Personal characteristics  Extent of participation

Empowerment  Merits  Speed in Decision Making  Morale  Compensation for limited career paths.  Demerits  Greater potential for chaos  Breakdown of hierarchical control  Demoralization

New Methods of QWL  Prayer and Meditation in the Workplace  The American Stock Exchange has a Torah Study Group  Boeing has Christian, Jewish and Muslim prayer groups  Apple Computers office has a meditation room and employees are given 30 minutes to meditate or pray.  Prentice-Hall Publishing has a quiet room for employees where they can take mental retreats

Checklist of QWL goals  Decent living standard & economic security  Mutual trust among employers & workers  Participation in decision making  Healthy & safe work environment  Work-life balance  Encourages initiative & creativity  Building commitment to high quality work environment  Negotiate clear roles & responsibilities for mgt, govt, unions, professional associations

Checklist of QWL goals  Benchmark job quality, analyzing impact on employees & results  Diagnose areas of strength & weakness, develop strategies to address latter, track progress  Evaluate impact of organizational change on employees & results  Build quality work environment goals into business plans, showing links to results  Provide incentives for managers to contribute to specific job quality goals

Thank you