Work-life balance improves earnings

If your workload is affecting your personal life, you may want to let your boss know he or she can make more money from your skills by expecting less. Businesses that help staff to achieve a good work-life balance earn 27% more per year from each employee, according to a newly released study.

The research, conducted by Morgan Redwood, an expert in leadership development, is based on responses from the heads of human resource departments and board director-level staff from more than 250 businesses.

The findings of the study reveal average net annual earnings per employee of ?31,640, but this figure rises to ?43,125 in companies that consider helping staff to consider wellbeing and achieve a better work-life balance to be an HR priority, which makes it 27% more than the average.

Despite this financial benefit, the results also reveal businesses that considered improving work-life balance to be a key HR focus are in the minority, as only 6% regard it as a priority.

In spite of the associated benefits of a good work-life balance, only 25.6% of businesses believe that staff wellbeing was very closely connected to business performance. Morgan Redwood conducted a similar study in 2009, which indicated that 58% of the businesses questioned at the time considered it to be an integral part of business success, suggesting a fall of more than half in the latest findings.

The latest study establishes 17 key HR priorities from the companies questioned, out of which only three serve to improve earnings per employee better than those with an HR focus on work-life balance. The number one HR priority for improving earnings was measuring staff performance, which saw an average of ?47,000 earned per employee, followed by getting the board to see employees as a corporate asset rather than just a cost at ?44,166 and those who looked to improve staff wellbeing with an average of ?43,750.

The HR priority that corresponded with the lowest average earnings is reducing staff costs, at a figure of ?29,802 per employee.