Introduction
In the contemporary business world, the work environment is constantly changing, so as the structure that defines the jobs, employees, and employment practices. The rise of globalization has allowed the employees to choose and have a voice in their place of work, and hence forcing the companies to rethink about the future contemporary and future means of acquiring, planning, and using physical space. Therefore, in order for a company to change and enhance the workplace performance, it is important to consider the most interesting issues that affect the contemporary and future work environment. The two most interesting issues in the work environment include work-life balance and the women in the workplace.
Khan and Agha argue that it is evident that the contemporary workplace has become complex, and consequently making the lives of the employees more stressful and complex. (2013, p.103). To some extent, the workplace today affects the lives of the employees more detrimental even beyond the physical boundaries of the firm. Similarly, the issue of women in the workplace has captured the attention of many people, especially those who are fighting for the gender equality in the workplace. In the traditional society, women's role was perceived to be the caretaker of the family, while women were the provider. However, in the contemporary world, the participation of women in the work environment is rising. With this light, this paper provides an insight into these two issues and explain how they can influence contemporary and future work environment.
Work-life balance
According to Redmond et al., work-life balance is defined as the "policies that strive to achieve a greater complementarity and balance between work and home responsibility" (2006, p.15). In other words, work-life balance is defined as flexible working and family friendly policies in the work environment (Khan & Agha, 2013 p.105). Such policies aim to create a family friendly work environment among the employees. Various organizations in the contemporary word are challenged by the ability to develop a balance between employee's life at work and their individual lives. As a result, human resource managements in the various organization are striving to embrace a comprehensive approach concerning the employment management that focus on the life-work needs of the employees in the organization. According to Khan and Agha, the growth of new technology and knowledge has led to the evolution of the society and organizations have become an integral part of the society (2013, p.104). Therefore, the organizations must adopt new means to meet the demand of the society through addressing issues such as work-life balance.
Impact of work-balance policies in the organization
External drivers
The external drivers are the motivating factors, found outside the organization that facilitates the implementation of the work-life balance policies. These drivers include flexible working arrangements, the public image of the organization, competition, and customer relation among others. According to Dhar argues that that the flexible working environment is one of the influencing factors of implementing the work-life balance (2008, p.96). The author argues that one of the reasons many companies have an irregular layout of the flexible working arrangements in their workforce is that they are no aware of the benefits derived from the work-life balance (Dhar, 2008, p.96).
Organization also implements the work-life balance to achieve a competitive advantage as well as maintaining the public image of the organization. As illustrated in the above paragraph, work-life balance enhances the flexible working arrangement in the organization (Cookson, 2016). Consequently, the flexible working arrangement helps the form to gain the competitive advantage in the global economy by providing flexibility in the supply of products and services. In addition, flexible working arrangements enable the firms to operate in different time zones and hence increase the opportunities for the international business (Redmond et al. 2006, p.33). According to Holbeche, work-life initiates facilitate cutting-edge competitiveness not only offering the most innovative and generous initiatives but also focusing on the creation of supportive working environment (2012, p.338). Work-life balance initiatives are essential in promoting positive organization's public image. In addition, the implementation of such initiative helps the organization to be identified as the employer of choice in the industry (Redmond et al., 2006, p.33; Holneche, 2012, p.338).
Internal drivers
The internal drivers are the appealing factors found within the organization and include employer of choice and influence employee health and wellbeing. In the contemporary business world, the emerging concept of the employees to identify the employer as their choice has gained popularity. Therefore, the work-life balance policies are necessary to ensure that the organization has the supportive working environment that attracts the employees. In this case, the contemporary organizations are striving to build a working environment that not only attracts high profile employees but also retaining the talented and experienced staff (Redmond et al. 2006, p.34). Consequently, this helps to promote the corporate image. The contemporary and future organizations are required to implement the work-life balance to enhance the employee health and wellbeing. The work-life balance policies help the employees to have health promotion policies that are related to the reduction in adverse stress and consequent policies (Redmond et al., 2006 p.34). The work-life balance creates work flexibility and helps the employees to address the impact of heavy workloads and change (Holneche, 2012, p.339). The increasing demand for the flexible working has pressurized the employers "to extend the right to all employees, regardless of carer responsibilities" (Holneche, 2012, p.339). As illustrated by these drivers, it is evident that the work-life balance has a significant impact on jobs, employees, and the workplace in the contemporary and the future business world.
Women in the workplace
In the contemporary world, the human resource management has emerged to be strategic, proactive, and pervasive process focused on the management of people in the workplace (Khan & Agha, 2013). As a result, the HRM has enhanced the workplace to develop a supportive environment that attracts more women to join the workforce. In addition, many countries across the world have participated in the movement in the gender equality in the workplace. Therefore, the issue of women in the workplace is one of the significant issues that allows the organization to create jobs where employees can enjoy and access similar rewards, opportunities, and resources regardless of their gender (Commonwealth Government of Australia, 2016). In the modern business environment, concerns have been raised on the men's violence against women in the work environment. Therefore, before the organizations addressing other issues, it is important to address the issues of women in the workplace through advancing the equality of women (Holmes & Flood, 2013). Holmes and Flood argue, "any actions that advocate for work and workplaces to be gender-equitable will have an impact far beyond the workplace itself" (2013, p.9). However, research has shown that women continue to receive fewer privileges and more violated than men do.
The impact of women in workplace on work, jobs and workplaces
Women in the workplace contribute significantly and add immeasurable value to the organization, hence positively enhancing the business in the global environment. One impact of the women in the workplace is that they have contributed significantly to the work-life balance. According to Khan and Agha, females are expected to possess nurturing, caring, and listening skills, taking up a mothering role" (2013, p.106). Therefore, the employers have more pressure to develop initiatives that offer a comfortable and homely environment in the workplace and allow women to take care of their homes and children. A study has indicated that some women are willing to retain their fundamental role associated with the childcare and household and their jobs (Khan & Agha, 2013, p.106). Therefore, this necessitates the need for a workplace that provides favorable work-life environment irrespective of gender. However, despite the significant contribution of women to the work-life environment, their ratio of work participation has remained low. Khan and Agha argue that male worker occupies more management positions compared to women.
Similar to the work-life balance issue, women at workplace contribute to the competitive advantage and the public image of the organization. According to Commonwealth Government of Australia (2016), the participation of women in the workplace facilitate efficient use of resources, human talent and enhance productivity and economic growth. In the contemporary world, the competitiveness of the organization depends on various factors such as the ability of the company to educate and utilize female talent. In addition, women have the ability to do more, utilize fewer resources, and create a political awareness of its own (Skibola, 2010). Skibola (2010) also argues that women leaves and reenter the workplace more frequently than men, and hence have more experience and diverse skills than the male counterparts do. In addition, the public has put more pressure on the human resource management to enhance gender equality in the workplace. Khan and Agha argue that the contemporary companies are empowering women, especially in the top management position because they give them a competitive edge and build their public image (2013). Women in the workplace are essential because they help to achieve a more diverse workforce, and hence promote the company's corporate image and competitive edge (Mellon, 2015).
Issues and possible approaches to the management of future workforces
Women in the workforce are facing challenges such as gender bias, sexual harassment, work-life imbalance, and security among others. According to Reddy (2015), women face gender bias to the extent that the some jobs are allocated to men and not women. For instance, the jobs that require physical exertion and frequent travel are more open to men than women because they are perceived as eligible to men. Given that the women are the home and children caretakers, they are facing the problem of work-life balance in the contemporary world. However, the contemporary and future work environment should address the growing recognition that women and men constantly need to facilitate their career decisions and to balance between family responsibilities and their career (Dhar, 2008, p.165). In the modern workplace, the organizations have diverse workers belonging from various genders, age groups, cultures, educational qualification, work experiences, and beliefs. Therefore, there is a need to adopt the work-life balance approach that is all-inclusive and address the needs of all stakeholders in the work environment (Khan & Agha, 2013).
In the contemporary and future workplace, a widespread work-life balance approach is important to satisfy the needs of both women and men in the organization. Instead of utilizing a myopic and selective approach for a particular segment workforce, the organization should develop an all-inclusive approach that takes into account all segments of the workforce. Consequently, such approach can help the organization to address the issues of the women in the workforce and work-life balance.
Interview response
After conducting an interview with the Human Resource Director of one of the reputable organization, eBay, various issues regarding women in the workplace and work-life balance were addressed. The first question was about the significance of female workers in the struggle for talent. The director answered that in the contemporary and future work environment, search for talent is a global issue that requires recruiting and retaining diverse employees to gain a competitive edge. Recruitment and retaining women in the workforce mirror the diversity of the company's customer base. For instance, the eBay have identified women are the most participant of the consumer shopping and hence engaging women in the decision-making provides a better understanding of the company's customer base. He added that women are an integral part of the workforce diversity effort. The directory admitted that there are still exist challenges for women in the workforce, but the company is striving to develop successful women in the leadership. According to the interview, leaders should identify the underlying issues that constrain women from achieving their goals in the workplace and then develop a strategy to solve them.
Another issue that was addressed in the interview was the connection of the work-life balance and the issues affecting women in the workplace. The director responded that the flexibility in the workplace matter to not only women but also the younger workers in the organization. Women working in the organization has indicated that career is an important part of their lives. They have declared to be part of developing a significant, enduring success, and changing the global business environment. However, the directory suggested that it is important for an organization to create a flexible working environment and all-inclusive approach that address the need for all employees in the organization.
Conclusion
The report has identified that the work-life balance and the women in the workplace are an important part of the contemporary and future work environment. The report has indicated that human resource management should strive to embrace a comprehensive approach concerning the employment management that focus on the life-work needs of the employees. This is because work-life balance initiatives help in enhancing the productivity, corporate image, and competitive edge of the organization. On the other hand, women in the workplace contributes to productivity. Work-life balance, competitive edge, and public image of the organization. The report has indicated that the two issues are interrelated in a way that they influence each other. The interview also indicated that recruitment and retaining women in the workforce mirror the diversity of the company's customer base. Therefore, the Human resource management should adopt the work-life balance approach that is all-inclusive and address the needs of all stakeholders in the work environment, instead of a myopic approach.
Bibliography
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