4 Ways to Help Work and Life Coexist

Studies show that the happier your team is, the more productive they will be. Here are simple strategies to keep them energized.

Today’s post is by William Vanderbloemen, author of Culture Wins (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

More and more studies are showing that how we feel about our work impacts how we feel about ourselves, our personal and professional relationships, and our job performance.

Successful companies are wising up to this and nurturing our mind/body connection and seeing a boost in higher quality work, retention and results.

Still not convinced?

Think of it this way: If you buy two pairs of running shoes and switch them off, they’ll last longer. The same is true with your staff. Give your team time to reset during busy work seasons, and they’ll be energized to do more work quicker and better.

Here are four simple strategies to having work and life not only coexist, but get along, and see great results:

Hit the gym

Organizations with a healthy work culture encourage their team members to be healthy themselves.

Give your employees the resources to take care of themselves. Provide a gym membership. Schedule a trainer to come to the office so people can work out while getting paid (not squeezing in during a lunch hour). Or, have a fitness challenge. People can train together for a race or see who can log the most steps in a month.

Encourage LONG lunches

Many companies are changing their vacation and sick time policies, so if an employee wants to go to their son or daughter’s baseball game or school recital, or have lunch with a spouse, then can take an extended lunch.

In these policies, they don’t have to take a whole day of vacation time to do something either; instead, you can take blocks of hours off and then still work part of the day.

This encourages quality of life at work and outside the office.

Be flexible

Allow people to choose their work hours. If someone would rather come in at 5 AM and leave to go work out in the morning – or come in late to avoid rush hour, let them. To ensure this doesn’t cut into collaboration between teams, have a set of core work hours like 10:00AM to 3:00PM, where everyone is in the office.

Offering flexibility to people improves their quality of life outside the office so they can be happier when they’re at work.

Get into the rhythm

Work-life balance is a myth. What’s more accurate is a work-life rhythm.

Sometimes, we hit a high-intensity season with work. Other times, the days and weeks slow down.

Since you can’t schedule that ebb and flow, learn to recognize different seasons in your and your company’s year and lean into them. Is the summer a slower time for your company? Schedule a vacation then. Is the end of the year an intense time for your company? Rest up before then to prepare yourself for the intensity. Learn to manage your work-life rhythms to avoid burnout.

Allowing work and life to coexist and get along is more important now than ever, thanks to millennials. They are the first generation to grow up online. They’ve chosen when to work and at what pace. Traditional work hours and practices are quickly becoming less effective.

Businesses that are gearing up for the future are trying to build a workplace that will attract and retain millennials. A vital component of that is providing work/life rhythms and a work environment that allow millennials to work hard but have time to play and refresh when needed.

William Vanderbloemen is the author of Culture Wins: The Roadmap to an Irresistible Workplace (CLICK HERE to get your copy). He is an entrepreneur, pastor, speaker, author, and CEO/Founder of Vanderbloemen Search Group (VSG), an executive search firm that helps organizations find their key staff. VSG has been named four and three times to the top of Entrepreneur.com’s Top Company Cultures list of small businesses and Houston Business Journal Best Place to Work list, respectively.

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