In the first leg of our survey, we attempted to understand if the work-life balance as a concept is still relevant in today's day and age. Guess what? An overwhelming 76% of those surveyed felt that this concept still holds relevance. Interestingly, a small but relevant number of people had a different opinion - 15% of those surveyed believed that work-life balance is no longer as relevant because of the rise of remote work/work-from-home (WFH) model. This is interesting considering the recent employee-employer battle raged on the benefits of WFH. But that is a topic for another day.

Coming back to our survey, our findings further cement our belief that work-life balance is an absolute must for everyone. Maintaining a healthy balance in everything we pursue in life is the key to personal and collective success. Especially now, when the importance of mental health is taking center stage, organizations must focus on providing a working model and a workplace that enables employees to see the purpose of their work and the results they derive from it. Organizations must focus on driving productivity at the workplace rather than driving the number of hours an employee puts in.

With hybrid working gaining popularity among employees and to a certain extent, more acceptance from organizations as well, is it time to think about replacing work-life balance with work-life integration? Through our survey, we posed the same question.

What is work-life integration? It is the practice of combining work and personal life to create a more fulfilling life. This does not view both work and personal life as two different entities but as necessary pieces of the same puzzle, intertwined with each other to enable a better life for the individual. Nearly 70% of our respondents stressed the need to replace the concept of balance with integration, if not fully then at least as a hybrid concept . A large share of these respondents have experienced the positive impact of work-from-home models, both from a personal and professional point of view. However, a solid 30% still stand firm in their belief that both work and life are two separate entities, and their integration cannot be successful.

While adopting a one-size-fits-all approach might not be the best way forward, one recommendation was that the work-life integration concept could be more apt for young organizations/startups where the pace of work & availability demands are typically higher. A work-life integration approach will enable employees to prioritize their work and daily life without choosing one over the other. Employees can organize their day as they like, giving them greater control over their time and availability.

While organizations figure out multiple ways to keep their employees engaged and hence retained, one of the most important parameters to measure this is the intent and hence the action of the employers to genuinely care for their employees. This has driven organizations to implement various initiatives around mental health awareness as well as a window for employees to share some of their mental health-related hurdles and seek some answers. However, employees don't recognize these efforts as genuine. 65% of the surveyed population feels that organizations are not genuinely conscious and concerned about improving work-life balance. Only 20% felt otherwise. This is a far cry from what Indian organizations have always wanted to achieve - the organization being a large extended family that takes care of its members. There seems to be a massive disconnect between the culture and thought process Indian organizations seek to drive and the reality of what employees feel.

Conclusion

As the adage goes – employees do not leave organizations but managers. It will be the key responsibility of the people managers in the system to enable discipline around work including setting realistic deadlines & boundaries, and bringing cohesion in the team to ultimately drive everyone towards achieving higher productivity and gaining better quality learning thereby enhancing their own knowledge base.

The people managers (together with HR), need to genuinely invest their time and organizational resources to make their team members better prepared for the evolving needs of the organization. It is important to call out that we all need to move out of the subservient mindset that the Indian ecosystem seems to have gotten into and be able to voice our opinions, suggestions, and expectations to our managers, thereby enabling a balanced equation between all stakeholders involved.