Balancing Professional Development & Flexible Works

Given that most senior professionals face an increasing challenge separating their work and home lives, and younger workers are particularly concerned about advancement and balance, leaders in every organization should examine the influence that role models have on less senior members. An online survey showed the three main reasons for professionals’ leaving their current job were : working conditions (schedule, hours and assignments), work/life balance and desire for change takes the last place. The ability to achieve balance has an impact on employee retention. How to address this issue?. Let’s talk about this a bit more…

Management in most sectors shows benefits accruing from interactions between company’s leaders and less experienced professionals in the top talent pool. Beyond achieving the stated objectives, these programs, meetings, social events and mentoring relationships also allowed people to share information and learn more about each other and their organizations.


Make sure all Professionals get the message

Leaders in the profession agree that recruiting and retaining top talent are critical to the strategic mission of their organizations. If work/life balance programs, and professional development programs are part of your strategic plan, let your professionals hear about it often! Here are some suggestions to get the word out:

[1]. Agree on a message and share it.
Once your leadership team has identified the programs that are mission-critical, share this information with your staff. Successful firms use Web sites, e-mail and newsletters to inform employees about professional development and work/life balance programs. Some have created databases that allow employees to share success stories or to contact colleagues for support on issues of balance and advancement. Providing access to networking events and mentors also reinforces the message that management values the whole person.

[2]. Involve senior leadership.
Is your organization relying on human resources representatives to be the primary messenger on issues of workplace flexibility and professional development? If so, your firm may be overlooking a very effective messenger—senior leadership. Having senior leaders encourage participation in these programs increases involvement and may change the perceived importance of these programs. Hold conferences on these issues, make them part of the annual professional review and address them in meetings to keep the message at the forefront. Leaders who themselves use these programs serve as valuable role models to younger professionals.

[3]. Keep focused.
It’s easy for messages on work/life balance and advancement to get less emphasis as most professional career cope with the challenges of their daily work. But it is often just when those challenges become most intense that professionals need the balance and advancement programs the most. Let your employees know that since they are a priority, these programs are, too.

Establish A Basic Action Plan

Organizations that seek to recruit talented professionals must provide opportunities for advancement and balance in order to retain them. Successful organizations must:

[1]. Understand the top talent level.

An increasing number of professionals strive to balance their professional and personal lives. The strategies that support the recruitment and retention of top talent are often incompatible with the traditional “giving more to the company is better” business models of professional services.
Talented professionals often believe the best opportunities for advancement lie outside their organizations. Talented professionals and managers want communication with top management, so companies and firms must develop avenues to achieve this. Good results come when these two groups meet, talk and learn more about the challenges they each face.

[2]. Provide professional and leadership development opportunities.

Networking, interaction, leadership and mentoring programs provide valuable benefits for both top talented and their organizations. Employers that provided access to resources and support for their top talent reported improved rates of advancement for all level.

[3]. Recognize the value of positive role models.

Broadcast the message generated by the leading role models in your organization—the hours they keep, the values they hold and the examples they set—and don’t underestimate how these role models influence the career paths of less senior members of the talent pool. Provide access to mentoring programs within the organization.

[4]. Establish and support flexible work arrangements and alternative career paths.

Reap the benefits of flexible work arrangements. In conversations with human resources directors as part of their research, the survey’s authors learned that when employers offered various work scheduling arrangements, they saw improvements in retention rates and morale of their professional staff—bonuses that helped offset the cost of the programs.

Communicate

Organizations with successful flexible work programs credited the leadership team with reinforcing the value of such programs to their strategic plan. Human resources directors acknowledge the role of positive messages from senior leadership—not only explicit messages about how work/life balance advances the goals of the firm but also more personal messages about how senior leaders manage balance in their own careers.