We all understand the importance of hard work.  Any organisation, regardless of size or industry, relies on its staff putting in the effort to keep the business progressing.  But, as vital as individual and collective effort is to a prosperous future, is it possible that some or all of a company's employees might be overworked?

Everyone has tasks they need to complete at work; everyone is aware of demands on their time and the need for key jobs to be completed.  After all, the company depends on those tasks being completed - which really doesn't seem to equate with being overworked; the employee has been hired (or chosen) to do a job, so how can it be unreasonable to expect that job to be completed?

Except that the amount of work might not be able to be done in the time available - a survey by the union Unison in 2007 found that almost two-thirds of workers believed that they had more work than it was possible for them to do, and a slightly higher proportion still would describe their job as stressful.  The most glaring impact of this is that the work might not be done to deadline as intended, but there is a deeper and potentially more detrimental issue to be addressed.

We all need a life outside of work; it can bring us both pleasure and relaxation, and relief from concerns that we might not have enough time for our family or friends.  None of this is to say that work ought make way for the considerations of home, nor vice versa - rather, it is to say that a healthy work-life balance needs to be maintained, to ensure that staff have both the time to do their work, and the time to get away from work and the stresses it entails.

The value of this balance is illustrated by research (again carried out by Unison in 2007) showing that maintaining a work-life balance considered beneficial by employees is also inherently beneficial to employers, and can reduce sickness absence from an average of 12percent to an average of 2 percent - a very substantial drop which can markedly boost the productivity of your organisation.  In the medium- to long-term, such a policy has also been shown to significantly improve retention rates for staff and make the business more attractive to prospective applicants, helping to improve the effectiveness of your staff and further augmenting productivity.

Such questions of balance are not new, however, and many employers, government officials and prominent industry figures have spoken of the need to address such imbalance as clearly exists in many parts of the economy.  Sadly, this has led less to any widespread improvement (although many individual businesses have made great leaps themselves) than to a noticeable gap between rhetoric and reality, between the ideals of a happy equilibrium and the reality of often overstretched and overstressed staff working diligently (but less productively) in an economic environment that is often very taxing for businesses.  It's not only those in charge who carry the can for this disparity, either - there exists a widely held belief that asking to work more flexibly, to jobshare or to move to a part-time position, will damage career prospects; it isn't a belief that's generally supported by practical evidence, but it exists nonetheless, and must be combated if maintaining balance is to be a policy that gains a strong position in the working mentality.

What, then, can be done?  If you have a number of employees to manage, you may well have a wholly genuine and reasonable desire to promote a sound balance for them (and for yourself, indeed).  But the rhetoric-reality gap survives often because alternatives are not immediately obvious.  There are answers, though - and the first, and most important, is to understand that there can never be a one-size fits all solution to this issue.  You may have employees who have young or disabled children, and employees who have to act as carers - both have the right to request flexible working guaranteed by law, although many may not act on this guarantee, either through not knowing that they have the right or through a fear of harm to their career.  But you may also have employees without children, who still require the balance to be maintained for the good of their physical and emotional health.

Flexibility is thus the key; the flexibility to accommodate a variety of needs, and also a flexibility of thinking and approach, to understand that allowing people to adapt their working will assist and not hinder the enterprise.  A good place to start in building this flexibility would be with those who require it - talk to your staff, encourage them to come forward with requests and ideas.  That way, you can build a framework for flexible working that suits the needs of your company and your workforce - remember, just as there is a balance between work and life, so there is a balance between business and worker, and in both cases success is to be found in identifying an equilibrium that suits all concerned. 

A happy and healthy workforce is a productive and diligent workforce, so if all work together to provide the environment that allow your staff this equilibrium you will see clear benefits for your organisation.  And the advantages can even run beyond the reduced sickness and increased retention already mentioned - for example, if your business is in a service-led industry, to give employees the chance to work earlier of later than normal office hours means giving customers access to your business at times that might suit them.  Flexible working conditions shouldn't be given grudgingly - with a little imagination, you and your staff can help make a more prosperous future for your company.

Employees want to work, and know that the progress of their career and of the company are inherently intertwined.  But it is up to employers to create the best environment for both kinds of progress to take place in.  Statistics prove that overwork and inflexible practices, though no doubt put in place with the best of intentions, are very much a false economy.  A short training course can help you take advantage of all the benefits that flexible working and maintaining balance can bring to your organisation, and you can help ensure that the future looks happier for your employees and more prosperous for the enterprise.