Balance

A good barometer reading for an organisation's health is its level of employee attrition. At ByBox, attrition is less than 2%. We achieve this partly through formal policies but, more effectively, through a culture that does not make heroes of workaholics.

It is easy to write policies that instruct people to take all their allocated holiday, or that limit their weekly working hours. But if the culture of the organisation supports the opposite then what is the point? There are tell-tale signs of this sort of thing. What sort of people get promoted? Are results applauded, or just effort?

At ByBox, we work hard to create and sustain a culture of healthy commitment at work, but do not make heroes of people who work too much. This is underpinned by a set of principles including:

• A holiday policy that insists that holiday is taken, even if it is inconvenient for the company
• An employee awards system that always results in an extra day's holiday and a weekend away for the employee and their partner
• A ban on working at weekends unless it is absolutely necessary. This is actually the biggest culprit to achieving a sustainable work-life balance; weekends are precious and should be protected at virtually all costs
• Flexible working arrangements that allow working mothers to balance their home and professional responsibilities; this includes optional 4-day weeks as well as hours of work that accommodate everyday duties such as the school-run.

It is also worth remembering that the work-life balance is exactly that: a balance between work and non-work, rather than a dogmatic but superficial set of statements aimed at forcing people to work less. It is easy to forget that work is a critical part of our self-esteem, so we need to make sure we don't go too far the other way. If you're not sure about this, just ask somebody who is unemployed.