The National Assembly is backing a drive to encourage more flexible work practices to help employees achieve a balance between their work and life outside work.
Work-Life Balance recognises that working patterns are changing. Customers increasingly expect to access services outside traditional office hours and working practices are changing to meet this demand. More and more businesses see it as part of good human resource management to help employees balance their work and their life outside work.
The UK Work-Life Balance Campaign was launched by the Prime Minister in March in tandem with a launch by the National Assembly. A discussion document "Changing Patterns in a Changing World" was launched to promote the business case for work-life balance and to invite comments on how best to put it into practice. The Assembly is now working closely with Chwarae Teg to promote the initiative across Wales and three regional seminars have been organised as part of the campaign.
Addressing the first of the seminars in St Asaph, Assembly Secretary for Education and Training Tom Middlehurst said: "Each one of us as an employer or employee faces a daily juggling act of trying to balance our duties at work with our busy lives outside. And we all have to cope with the pressures, challenges and frustrations this can bring.
"If Wales is to have a successful economy, businesses in all sectors must make the best use of their most valuable resource – people. They must be responsive to the needs and responsibilities their employees have – both in and outside work.
"There is an extremely strong business case for employers introducing policies that help their employees balance work with other aspects of their lives.
"Flexibility is the key. People will flourish and the workplace will benefit when employees are given the opportunity to strike the right balance between work and the rest of their lives. More opportunities are created if working practices become more flexible to meet needs."
Equal Opportunities is one of the key themes of ‘Better Wales’ – the National Assembly’s strategic plan which was launched earlier this week. The Assembly is committed to encouraging more flexible human resource practices and job opportunities and closely monitors its own policies on this issue.
"We are also giving practical help to businesses on work-life balance by setting up a £50,000 Challenge Fund to build on the Welsh Development Agency’s SME Gender Equality Project." Mr Middlehurst said. "The fund will be to provide financial support for businesses to undertake projects around the work-life balance agenda and further details will be announced shortly."