Smart working and work-life balance: a perfect match

Work-life balance is an essential factor for workers' well-being. Working remotely seems to be the perfect answer for achieving a balanced work and personal life.

Between the Covid-19 emergency and the digital transformation, over the past year, the push towards adopting flexible work models compatible with a satisfactory work-life balance has been unstoppable. Smart working, partly out of health necessity and partly out of the need for modernization, has become an increasingly adopted tool by companies. It is also thanks to this change that a modern, updated philosophy of corporate management is developing, in which the mental and physical well-being of collaborators is not only considered but actively promoted and encouraged. As already mentioned in our guide to smart working, thanks to better time optimization and high productivity, smart working allows you to better manage your days, leaving more free time and energy for the things you love. In other words, with smart working, you can achieve a great work-life balance.

Work-life balance is no longer a utopia

Finding the perfect balance between work and personal life is not at all easy: until recently, the tendency (due to an excessive presence-based management style) was to consider personal time outside of work as expendable. Today, this way of thinking about work and its connection to personal life is outdated and no longer accepted. In fact, the balance between life and work has become a determining factor in choosing a workplace and companies must work on improving this aspect to stay competitive in the job market and to attract (and retain) talent. Adopting smart working for a company means embracing a vision of work focused on goals and results, trust, and flexibility. This means giving employees and collaborators the freedom to organize and self-manage their work based on their needs and preferences: some prefer working at night, some early in the morning still in pajamas, some outdoors, and others while traveling the world like digital nomads. Through agile work, everyone is able to manage their work (in terms of hours and spaces) in total autonomy, thus creating their own tailor-made work-life balance. The agreement is that every goal and assigned task must be completed without a drop in productivity and efficiency.

How should the company adapt?

Of course, while every remote worker must have the right attitude and a good inclination towards independent work, the company must put its collaborators in the best position to work effectively from home, optimizing communication processes and providing all the necessary tools. The company’s organizational system must therefore be perfectly aligned with the digitalization of communication channels and work tools so that each department can communicate and work synergistically with others, even remotely. Here are some tips on what tools and measures a company should take to optimize remote work and help improve work-life balance.

1. The first step to optimizing smart working is to implement a multi-channel communication system for sharing information and documents, organizing meetings and brainstorming sessions, but also and above all to maintain personal contact between colleagues and managers; tools like Slack for instant messaging, GSuite for shared files, Zoom for video conferencing, and Trello for task and project tracking will be essential.
2. Provide employees with useful accessories to communicate and share information easily: for example, smartphones and/or tablets, webcams, PCs, headphones, blue light glasses, graphic tablets, etc. Basically, everything they might need to do their work well.
3. Schedule monthly, quarterly, or semi-annual remote training and update sessions for your employees. Demonstrating that you care about the personal and professional growth of your collaborators creates a positive perception of the company, avoiding the risk of losing talent to competitors! In her book Teaching, tutoring and training in the lifelong learning sector, Susan Wallace notes that constant training, even in areas not strictly related to the profession, increases employee satisfaction and self-esteem.
4. Create remote team-building opportunities: through online events where the entire team, department, or company staff is connected at the same time, you have the chance to share moments of fun and relaxation that strengthen relationships, increase a sense of belonging, improve communication and job satisfaction.
5. Including corporate welfare in contracts is definitely a move that would make a company stand out when it comes to work-life balance: welfare includes a range of services and benefits for employees provided (and financially supported) by the company to encourage their participation in leisure activities that improve well-being.
6. Finding the right remote workspace is not always easy: crowded homes, small spaces, poor WiFi, bad lighting, etc. A company that cares about the well-being of its remote workers must offer comfortable and suitable remote work solutions. For this reason, ideally, they should establish partnerships or agreements with coworking spaces in the area, so employees can choose the best place to work.

  These same smart working and work-life balance tips can guide a professional in choosing their next workplace. Don’t miss out on the chance to attract the best professionals to your team. Our coworking spaces in Palermo could be the perfect solution for your collaborators. Don’t hesitate to contact us to find the most suitable solution for your needs together.