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Aug 3

How to Improve Work-Life Balance

By: Lydia Adams

Advances in communications and internet availability have largely erased the lines that once differentiated work time from personal time. A 2017 Gallup poll found that only 15 percent of workers surveyed found it burdensome to check email outside of regular business hours. This leads to the question: how do we balance the flexibility that technology gives us with the need to disconnect from work for time with the family or personal time?

Shared Calendars

Once, setting up a meeting meant calling every party, again and again, to set up a date, place, and time. Those calls could only be made during business hours, so it was a long process. Now, through the use of online shared calendars, you can see at a glance your entire team’s schedule. Team members can easily block off hours for spending time with family or just getting some personal space. The process is more efficient since the scheduling can be done anytime, day or night, without a flurry of phone calls.

Geolocation

If you have a workforce that spends a great deal of time out in the field on sales calls, deliveries, or customer visits, using geolocation lets you see where each logged in member is at a particular moment so you can dispatch the nearest person when a new call comes in. That means your staff doesn’t have to trek to a central location or spend time on the phone calling in for updates. Getting work done more efficiently without wasted trips or extra miles traveled means more time for family and self.

The Wall Street Journal found in 2015 that 44 percent of workers use their smartphones to read and respond to work-related emails and texts after hours. Instead of getting all the work done in a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. environment, now it gets done at all hours of the day and night.

Automation is key to helping your team achieve a balance between work and home, and one-size-fits-all solutions don’t take into account the unique workflow of your business. For a custom solution built specifically for your operation, contact UNIM today.