2. 1 Do Work Life Balance Policies Work? An Evaluation of the Work Life Balance (WLB) Challenge Fund, UK Adrian Nelson and Kathryn Nemec The Tavistock Institute

3. 2 Background to the Study  In March 2000 the Prime Minister launched the Work Life Balance (WLB) Challenge Fund.  Public, private and voluntary sector organisations could access consultants to help them introduce WLB policies and practices.  The resulting interventions were designed to enable employees to better balance work and the rest of their lives.

4. 3 Methodology Exploratory Interviews Building society National charity County cricket club Airport rail service District local authority Market research company Mushroom farming business Work-Life Balance Audits (management,staff, WLB consultants) County Council Regional police force Hospital trust Primary school Food industry supplier Longitudinal survey of employees Job satisfaction (Warr Cook & Wall, 1979) Organisational commitment (Mowday Steers & Porter 1979) Mental health (GHQ12) Home-work conflict Culture Management style Sickness absence

5. 4 Research Findings  The need for full employee participation  The need for management commitment  The influence of organisational structure  Effective communication  The need to look outside of WLB  Problems of measuring success

6. 5 The need for full employee participation Participative, bottom up interventions increase stakeholder satisfaction and empower staff. Working arrangements were designed by ward staff. (Hospital) Interventions were tailored to 6 different teams. (County Council) Provides opportunity to contextualise WLB within the presenting issues, such as work load, long hours, or recruitment and retention problems. In addition, senior management/director level ‘buy in’ is critical.

7. 6 The influence of organisational structure  Branch vs. Head Office structures.  There was greater resistance at branch level offices to take up WLB initiatives due to:  concern about how a busy, understaffed branch office could cope.  feelings of loss of control over staff.  competing business needs.  underlying conservatism towards flexible work patterns.

8. 7 The importance of effective communication  Problems of continuity of working relationships  Uncertainty about entitlements among employees  The pivotal role of first line managers and the need for management training in WLB

9. 8 Looking outside of Work Life Balance  Examples of interventions stalling because the organisation was not ready for implementation  The need to address some basic issues before WLB could progress  In some cases the underlying problem has not been a WLB problem

10. 9 Problems of measuring impact  Unrealistic indicators  Difficulties ascribing causality between WLB and outcome measures  The need to take a long-term view