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It is interesting to note from the most recent of our quarterly research studies – carried out in March on work-life balance – that more and more employees in New Zealand and Australia are finding themselves working at weekends and on public holidays. What’s more, they are dreaming about work while they sleep and are checking their emails regularly outside working hours.
While at first glance this may appear to be a bad thing, closer inspection brings one or two other factors into focus.
Firstly, technology has made it easy to keep abreast of work issues via email and mobile phones. Many would say that is a good thing, not a bad thing. Secondly, the Australian and New Zealand economies have been in robust health for some years now – and when the market is strong, it’s always harder to find the number of candidates required to fill all the available positions in a business; leading to an increased workload for current team members. So, of course the balance between our working lives and our work lives can suffer.
In many ways, businesses have become victims of our national economic success. The better the market, the more we will look to develop our teams – and the more we will have to compete for the best people.
Suffice to say there is no easy answer to this issue. However, it does highlight the need for businesses to plan ahead and formulate their business (and possibly their recruitment) plans well in advance. With sufficient time it is usually possible to identify the right people – while the last minute rush will tend to end in short-term disappointment. If you have the right people in the right positions then a suitable work-life balance within your team can be catered for – but without the correct mix, as many of us know instinctively, businesses will struggle.
Rod Commins
Patterson Houen & Commins
April, 2007
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