The concept of Work-Life Balance

The concept of Work-Life Balance Introduction The concept of Work Life Balance has always existed, it just wasn’t until recently that experts put a name to it. Employment has been traditionally thought of the means to which you support your personal life, with Work Life Balance principles employers can now gain competitive advantage from creating a more symbiotic relationship with a persons home and work. This allows for lower stress in the work place and greater enjoyment in the home. The results of this are increased performance in the work place and great repertoire for marketing to new employers. As this is difficult to establish in any industry and this is very true with recruitment agencies. The following is breakdown of the Work Life Balance principles along with a company analysis of the Irish Recruitment company CPL. Work Life Balance The major concept of Work Life Balance in employment is that the employer gives the employee the ability to handle their responsibilities in and out of work while generating self worth. This can be done by a multitude of ways: Flexibility Although hard in many industries the company’s structure should enable an employee to work flexible times so that they can satisfy their out of work obligations. This can include anything from leaving early to pick up their children from school to being allowed to work via the Internet when the employee is required to handle home problems like construction work. The requirement of this is simple as the balance of work and life is not something that you can attach an actual number to. Certain weeks your personal life will require more time and other weeks your professional life will need a greater investment, with flexibility in the work place and home you can ensure neither will be neglected.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Achievement As this is a balance between life and work an employee must have the ability to succeed in their profession. The employee needs to be able to succeed in and out of work to achieve this. The structure of the person’s professional life needs to allow for progression in accordance to performance. Through this the person can truly shape their own destiny generating self worth and in conjunction with other work life balance concepts they will be able achieve in home life as well. Enjoyment There are many employees who can be happy in any situation as long as they view it accordingly. Enjoying life is something that everyone can do and is integral to the work life balance. A person must be able to work in a setting that they can not only achieve but also enjoy their success. Tied in with the concept of flexibility a person needs to understand that in order to do well in work you need to be enjoying work and life. A happy person will be able to perform better through increased energy and drive which helps the organization maintain their competitive advantage. â€Å"Conceptually the idea of Work Life Balance seems relatively simple. If you can maintain flexibility, achieve well and enjoy life you can add value to your life† (Holden and Renshaw, 2004, pg 91). This system gets complicated as employers try to help everyone who has similar responsibilities outside of work which creates a strain on the whole performance. The balance itself is there to support the employees so that they support the firm, symbiotic relationships like this are always fragile from their codependence and true balance is near impossible to maintain in certain industries. Recruitment is one of those hard industries. Advantages The main advantage occurring from Work Life Balance policies in an organization is the improved performance from your employees. It has been proven that an employee who has the flexibility in their job to handle their personal lives will produce the following: 1. Higher quality work 2. Less missed time 3. More employer loyalty 4. An overall more enjoyable workplace as all employees are achieving and enjoying 5. More innovative ideas as employees care about their job 6. Strong recruitment marketing for future employees which increase the talent pool This all results in a greater competitive advantage for the firm which will enable them to reach their own goals (Holden and Renshaw, 2004). Irish Recruitment Industry Ireland’s economy is booming but is also in close proximity to the powerful pound of the UK. This has resulted in a very cutthroat recruitment industry where people vie for coveted positions. The result of this has been a large hindrance for employees ability to manage their Work Life balance. Several forces are the result of this trend. Company example- CPL Background Information CPL was founded in 1989 to capitalize on the strengthening information technology industry in Ireland. The founded, Anne Heraty worked as a self employed recruiter until she managed to gain enough clients to hire more and expand. The company went public in 1999 for added investor support to promote their current expansion trends. From there the company has grown to employing over 2,750 temporary staff at any one point and being the largest recruitment company in Ireland. Current actions to promote work life balance Educational Policy Promoting greater opportunities within the work place, CPL has used a very flexible educational policy to promote a work life balance. Within their scheme they are willing to pay for an employees education as long as it is something that will benefit the firm. On top of this any employee currently studying receives five extra days of holiday on top of their regular annual leave to further encourage self improvement.   Being an employee with them means that you are entitled to any number of their educational schemes including: 1. Conflict Management- where they learn about how to deal with problems with other employees, clients or suppliers 2. 5 minute manager- learn general management skills 3. Business strategy- learn basic competitive strategy principles 4. Any education- any external education can be funded by CPL and given the extra holiday time. Leave Policies CPL strives to ensure that large leave requirements are handled as fairly as possible. They are ranked in the top 25 companies in Ireland to work for and one of their main strengths is the benefits they give their employees for certain personal life requirements. This includes paid leave for pregnancy, marriage, family tragedy, illness. Along with this they also give guaranteed job placement after these leaves should the employees return as added incentive. Problems Personal Performance Recruiters work under a single company name but the main bulk of their wages is dependent on personal performance. A recruiter normally is required to establish new clients for the firm and they are paid in accordance to the amount of employees they place. Within this the recruiters all have their own team of temporary employees in which they find work for from the client field. Being paid in accordance to these principles makes it very difficult for employees to operate within a Work Life Balance as they are required to work longer hours to earn more money as well as constantly recruit new talent to further their goals. Flexible hours in this situation are near impossible to do as CPL expects their recruiters to perform for the client as well as any time taken off directly affects your wages. This is slightly different for the placed temporary employees but they still are required to perform exceptionally well in each job they take to ensure that they will be given another. The jobs they take are normally to cover someone who needed leave for personal responsibilities or to handle increased work load, either one the employers expect the worker to fill in the gaps and take little to no time off for themselves. Personal performance standards do not just hurt the required working hours for the employee but also takes away from the job enjoyment. Trying to find new clients can sometimes place the recruiters into direct competition with each other that increases the overall stress in the work place. This leaves room for professional achievement but little for personal enjoyment which is detrimental to the balance. Client Orientated hours- Not work load orientated The recruiters and temporary workers both are required to adhere to the volume of jobs available instead of a standard work load. CPL employees do not know when the demand for their services will increase or decrease and neither does CPL management, what this ends in is you are required to work around your client’s needs. Working around the needs of your client disables your ability to take flexible hours for your self as if CPL cannot handle the clients needs when they need it then they will just go to the next recruiter. Not having a standard amount of work to complete in the course of the day automatically hinders the employees Work Life Balance. Having low volume of work does not mean that the employee can take time off for personal reasons as that may not be required at the time. For a person to establish work life balance they need to have both flexible. Cutthroat industry standards The recruitment industry is extremely competitive as they all strive for the same competitive advantages. The cost of the temp employees is dictate by the job not by the standard at which the temp agency operates. That means all recruiters are trying to operate on the highest quality to ensure they maintain high volume performance. Having an entire industry based around this means everyone needs to be fighting for their own positions or they will lose contractors and clients. Recruiters are expected to work those extra hours in order to produce results and increase client relationships for future work. CPL is an industry leader in Ireland for these reasons which once again gives strong opportunities for employees to achieve and enjoy their professional life but difficult for the flexibility requirement in their personal life. Volume orientated performance A recruiter is paid based on the amount of employees they place in jobs. The nature of this payment means right away that in order to succeed the recruiter will be required to sacrifice more time. Work Life Balance in this situation cannot exist as for the employee to achieve and enjoy one, they must sacrifice the other. End Result Work Life Balance in the recruitment industry is near impossible to maintain. Employees are required to work around the requirements of the clients instead of what is set forth by the company. On top of this employees also are paid in accordance to the volume of service they provide with a requirement to continue to produce high quality. This results in a system which requires the employees to achieve only within the company and is forced to constantly be on call for client requirements. This makes it very difficult for employees to establish a solid Work Life Balance as all their professional achievement is based on catering to the job first. Recommendations Remote Working As recruiters are basically operating as small businesses on their own within CPL, they should have the option of working from home if required. Company calling cards and remote internet access will allow the recruiter to stay in touch with clients and employees at all times to handle any problems should they arise. Although this should not be the norm, it will allow for employees to establish a more balance life outside of work so that they can lower stress and perform better within the job. Client Contacts As the normal case for recruitment agencies is that each recruiter has their own contractor squad and own set of repeat clients it would be very effective to the Work Life Balance for recruiters to stop working on a personal performance standard and focused more on their ability to perform as a team. By having key contacts for a client but not necessarily only one contact can enable for some flexibility in the work place along with a more diverse employee pool to satisfy the client needs. This also helps with increasing the enjoyment and achievement within the organization as employees are now working towards a great good together instead of being in competition with each other. Cross Training CPL had it right by offering educational programs for their employees. Educating the employees allows for them to not only be happier in the job but also gives them opportunities to stretch out into new fields which can be very fulfilling. Within this they should try and institute cross training practices to create an internal structure in the organization that can support many stresses. Having employees who can cover for each other will create a sense of unity along with enabling people who have other responsibilities to handle those as well. These concepts are key to the Work Life Balance. Employee Services CPL is a large enough organization that they should look into having services which can help support employees personal lives. Several example services to support the employees Work Life Balance are as follows: 1. Day care center 2. Dog walking service 3. Activity days for employees 4. Career counseling 5. Benefit packages Implementation Plan Remote working is something that can be started right away as it only requires minimal IT servicing to set up a remote portal. Calling cards or company mobiles can also be purchased and given out with little work. The cross training program can fall under the current policies that they have for education but will require an analysis of current operations to see what training will be required. Employee services will require a longer implementation period as the needs and plausibility of each service will need to be accessed then the resources will need to be found in order to create the required packages. Conclusion Work Life Balance is hard to be developed in industry which is highly competitive and based on personal performance. An employee cannot establish a balance as there is a teeter totter effect occurring with work performance. For an employee to succeed within a recruitment agency, they need skill but they also need to invest time. Recruiters them selves see a direct comparison to the amount of time they spend in a job and how much they earn while the contractors need to commit large amounts of time to a job where they cannot satisfy any other personal responsibilities as the client is paying for stability. As a company within recruitment CPL is trying to help establish this balance but their current situation makes it hard for them to be a front runner on these ideals. CPL can institute policies which will help alleviate the strain on an employees balance but it will always be difficult to establish equilibrium as per the industry standards. Bibliography Holden, Robert and Renshaw, Ben. Balancing Life and Work Dorling Kindersley, 2004. â€Å"CPL homepage† http://www.cpl.ie   update March 2005. Accessed April 16th 2005. â€Å"CIPD- The human resources development website† http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/wrkgtime/leave updated August 17 2004. Accessed 16th April 2005.

Connecting Sociological Theory and Social Issues

Running Head: Connecting Sociological Theory and Social Issues Connecting Sociological Theory and Social Issues The topic of choice is the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States and around the world. HIV/AIDS has been a main concern for the world since its emergence in the 1980’s. â€Å"The prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the United States through 2009 was about 1 million cases. Worldwide, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS varies from less than 0. 1 percent to 15–28 percent of a country’s population†. (Schaefer 394)This essay will explore the three major socialization perspectives on this issue; the interactionist perspective, the conflict perspective, and the functionalist perspective. Each perspective will give a greater insight on how society reasons. The functionalist perspective is described as â€Å"a sociological approach that emphasizes the way in which the parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability†. (Schaefer 440) On the topic of HIV/A IDS, a functionalist will most likely focus on how this issue has affected health care for those infected with the disease.Without proper healthcare, there will be a sociological imbalance. So in order to bring back balance and stability, other alternatives have to be established. A functionalist will emphasize that â€Å"if established social institutions cannot meet a crucial need, new social networks are likely to emerge to perform that function. In the case of AIDS, self-help groups have organized, especially in the gay communities of major cities, to care for the sick, educate the healthy, and lobby for more responsive public policies†. Schaefer 395) On the other hand, the conflict perspective is focused on the tension that comes about with the HIV/AIDS epidemic. For a long time AIDS was seen as a homosexual, drug user, African American disease. From the conflict viewpoint this could be a reason why the government did not respond as quickly as they should have. â€Å"St udies show that African Americans and Latinos are diagnosed later and are slower to receive treatment than other racial and ethnic roups. † (Schaefer 395) However, to correct the injustice there has been new programs to reach out to minorities and those less fortunate to receive treatments. An interactionist perspective looks at an issue on a smaller scale (micro) than the conflict and functionalist perspective. The interactionist is defined as â€Å"a sociological approach that generalizes about everyday forms of social interaction in order to explain society as a whole†. Schaefer 441) The HIV/AIDS epidemic on a micro level was predicted that the outbreak â€Å"would lead to a more conservative sexual climate among both homosexuals and heterosexuals, in which people would be much more cautious about becoming involved with new partners. † (Schaefer 395) However, statistics have shown quite the opposite. â€Å"People in the United States have not heeded precautio ns about â€Å"safe sex. † Data from studies conducted in the early 1990s indicated a growing complacency about AIDS, even among those who were most vulnerable. † (Schaefer 395)To conclude, no sociological perspective or approach is the precise method of viewing society as a whole. It is best to take a little bit of each perspective. Although, each perspective is different, they all depict that HIV/AIDS is a huge concern for society. If we do not continue to make progress and become lax in spreading the education on HIV/AIDS, history will have a way of repeating itself. Reference Schaefer, Richard T.. Sociology: A Brief Introduction, 9th Edition. McGraw-Hill Learning Solutions, 2011. .

Security and Payment Issues Faced by e-commerce Business...

1. INTRODUCTION In recent years, experts have expressed alarm about the rise in internet privacy violations and cyber-attacks to e-commerce systems especially in the hospitality industry. â€Å"In 2011, Trustwave SpiderLabs conducted 42 percent more data breach investigations than in the previous year. More than 85 percent of these data breaches occurred in the food and beverage, retail and hospitality industries.† (Savitz Percoco, 2012). It seems logical that any business would understand that building a secure business is important to long term success. (Vacca, 2012). E-commerce as a catalyst has led to the diversification and availability of various electronic means of payment. It is therefore necessary, that an emerging e-commerce†¦show more content†¦2. SECURITY Oxford and Merriam Webster dictionary defines security in different contexts and the word â€Å"security† will be used in both contexts in this paper. Therefore for this study, security can be defined as the safety of an organization or measures taken by an organization against espionage, theft, terrorism, and criminal attack. (Oxford dictionary, n.d) (Merriam-Webster dictionary, n.d) According to (Kurose Ross, 2013). Secure communication has some desirable properties which include Confidentiality, Integrity, Authentication, Operational Security and Availability. Thus these properties need to be considered when creating a secure e-commerce system. It is, however, possible for one or more of these properties to be more applicable in specific scenarios than others. (Rossouw Johan, 2013) 2.1. OBSTACLES OF BUILDING A SECURE E-COMMERCE SYSTEM â€Å"The Internet and computer networks are exposed to an increasing number of security threats. With new types of attacks appearing continually, developing flexible and adaptive security oriented approaches is a severe challenge.† (Garcia-Teodoro, Diaz-Verdejo, Macià ¡-Fernà ¡ndez, Và ¡zquez, 2009) Security is inconvenient, and the more robust the mechanisms, the more inconvenient the process becomes. Employees want to get to work right away, but security mechanisms slow the process down and over the years, this results in hours of lost productivity. Across a large organization this lost productivity could prove significantShow MoreRelatedPayment Gateway : Introduction And Overview3292 Words   |  14 PagesElectronic Business Assignment-2 Payment Gateway 11/12/2014 Submitted To: Prof. Prabhat Yadav Visiting Faculty, SPM, PDPU, Gandhinagar Submitted By: Aalap Pandya – 20135001 Abhishek Satija- 20135002 Abhishek Shukla- 20135003 Amartya Gupta- 20135004 Ambarish Nigam- 20135005 Amit Kumar- 20135006 Table of Contents Payment Gateway: Introduction and Overview ..................................................................................... 1 Literature Review ......................................Read MoreA study on customer perception towards E Banking facilities12297 Words   |  50 Pagesthe middle stage of E-banking growth and development. Competition and changes in technology and lifestyle in the last five years have changed the face of banking. The changes that have taken place impose on banks tough standards of competition and compliance. The issue here is – â€Å"Where does India stand in the scheme of E banking†. E-banking is likely to bring a host of opportunities as well as unprecedented risks to the fundamental nature of banking in India. The impact of E- Banking in Indi adoptionRead MoreChallenges Facing Emirates Motor Company6080 Words   |  25 PagesChallenges Facing Emirates Motor Company in the Importation of Automobiles from Germany to UAE Name of Student Name of Instructor Name of Institution Date of Submission Executive Summary There are a number of challenges faced by organizations wishing to conduct business with other firms in a foreign country. The reason behind this is that the organization will be required to engage either in the importation or exportation of goods or services. The Emirates Motor Company has for many years engagedRead MoreBritish Airways Report6804 Words   |  28 PagesTable of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 1. COMPANY OVERVIEW 2 1.1 RECENT PROBLEMS FACED BY BA 3 2. CURRENT STRATEGIC POSITION OF BRITSH AIRWAYS 3 2.1 BRITISH MERGER AND ALLIANCES 4 3. EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS 5 3.1 PESTEL ANALYSIS 5 3.2 FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS 11 3.3 LAYERS OF THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT 14 3.4 COMPETITORS ANALYSIS 15 3.5 STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS 17 3.5.1 STAKEHOLDERS MAPPING: The Power/Interest Matrix 18 4. INTERNAL ANALYSIS 22 4.1 RESOURCES-BASEDRead MoreA Comprehensive Analysis of Hyatt Hotels Corporation and How It Relates to Competition Within the Hotel Industry27390 Words   |  110 PagesA COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF HYATT HOTELS CORPORATION AND HOW IT RELATES TO COMPETITION WITHIN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS 3 General Environment 3 Demographic Segment 3 Technology Segment 7 Economic Segment 11 Political / Legal Segment 14 Socio-cultural Segment 16 Nature Segment 18 Global Segment 19 Industry Environment 21 Intensity of rivalry 21 Supplier power 22 Buyer Power 22 Threat of substitutes 22 Read MoreI Love Reading Essay69689 Words   |  279 PagesGovernment of India b i n n o v a i c u l t u r w u s i n e s f E N T R E P R E N E UR S H I P m n a d c a t i o n u o n P l o y m e n t l t h e v i r o n m e n t n a n c e A Study by National Knowledge Commission Entrepreneurship in India National Knowledge Commission 2008  ©National Knowledge Commission, 2008 This report has been prepared by Amlanjyoti Goswami, Namita Dalmia and Megha Pradhan with support and guidance from Dr. Ashok Kolaskar and Mr. Sunil Bahri. TableRead MoreEntrepreneurship in Pakistan20067 Words   |  81 PagesEconomics Islamabad, Pakistan E-mail: publications@p ide.org.pk Website: http://www.pide.org.pk Fax: +92-51-9210886 Designed, composed, and finished at the Publications Division, PIDE. C O N T E N TS Page Abstract v 1. Introduction 1 2. Understanding Entrepreneurship 2 (a) What Makes up an Entrepreneurial Economy? 5 (b) Entrepreneurship as Rent-seeking 5 3. The Nature of Pakistani State 7 4. How Did Entrepreneurship Develop in Pakistan? 9 (a) The Big Push for Industry 9 (b) The Neglect of theRead MoreProcess Design and Management 8953 Words   |  36 Pagesdesign and process design in manufacturing sector, however it is impossible in practice to separate service design and process design. This is because many services (especially high visibility services) are the same thing. Even in manufacturing industries there has recently been considerable effort put into examining the overlap between product and process design. There is a growing recognition that the design of products has a major effect on the cost of making them. Many of the decisions were takenRead MoreMultinational Corporations11610 Words   |  47 PagesSr no | Topic | Pg no | | IntroductionCharacteristics of MNC’sSignificance of MNC’sAdvantages amp; Disadvantages of MNC’sCultural Problems faced by MNC’sMarket ImperfectionInternational powersManagement Functions in MNC’sGrowth of MNC’sMNC’s and Developing WorldConsequences of MNC’s on developing countriesMNC’s in IndiaForeign Collaborations in India10 Best MNC’s all overConclusionbibliography | | Introduction A  multinational corporation  (MNC) or  multinational enterprise  (MNE) is a  corporation  thatRead MoreArticle: Performance Appraisal and Performance Management35812 Words   |  144 PagesIOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSRJBM) ISSN: 2278-487X Volume 3, Issue 5 (Sep,-Oct. 2012), PP 01-06 www.iosrjournals.org From Performance Appraisal to Performance Management 1 Ms. Leena Toppo, 2Dr. (Mrs.) Twinkle Prusty 1,2 (Faculty of Commerce, Banaras Hindu University, INDIA) ABSTRACT: Performance appraisal and performance management were one of the emerging issues since last decade. Many organizations have shifted from employee’s performance appraisal system to employee’s

`` Pen And Ink `` By Louisa May Alcott - 1716 Words

Similarly to how painters illustrate their lives in the canvas, authors utilize pen and ink in order to portray their lives in their stories. An example of this is the American author Louisa May Alcott, who utilizes her life as primary source of inspiration for her stories. Born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, Alcott studied informally with her father as a tutor and other family friends. Many of her tutors were prominent literary figures, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Henry Thoreau and Theodore Parker. Due to her family s poverty, she seeked different jobs and served as a nurse in Washington D.C during Civil War (Biography.com). In addition to her will to work, one of Louisa’s most noticeable traits was her defiance of social construct†¦show more content†¦After this major success she continued to write books, including some sequels to the famous Little Women which allowed her to gain financial stability and make a living out of her writing. Alcott died in March 6, 1888 and was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord (louisamayalcott.org). Alcott’s writings are rather unique as her life experiences influence her story and she utilizes different techniques, such as employing the story’s setting to convey a theme, using unique narration techniques and developing her characters, in order to create a piece of literature attractive to her large audience. A particular trait in Alcott’s writing is her usage of setting in order to convey themes, particularly the usage of the North during the times of the Civil War in order to illustrate the topic of patriotism. This is evident in the short story Scarlet Stockings where the character of Belle exhibits a rabid love and pride for the Union by wishing well to her substitute for the war and refusing to accept Henry Lennox’s - her friend- lack of nationalist feelings. When Henry, who is clearly reluctant to participate in the war, asks for reasons why he should join the Northern army Belle responds by saying â€Å"Why should you? What a question! Because you have health, and strength, and courage, and money to help on the good cause, and every man should give his best, and not dare to stay at home when he is needed.† (Alcott). Here, Belle