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International Conference on Management and Information Systems September 25-26, 2017
ISBN 978-1-943295-07-4 17
Enablers of Work Life Balance: An Insight
Anita Singh
anitasinghims@yahoo.com
Institute of Management Studies
Timira Shukla
timirashukla@gmail.com
Jaipuria School of Business
With rapid change in the environment there is increase in the prevalence of work-life conflicts and concern for
work-life issues, that poses both challenge and opportunity for Human Resource managers. It is necessary to
understand that employees can only be productive when they are stretched positively and so HR professionals
must create enabling systems to equip employees for this. The focus of the study is to identify enablers of work-
life balance among Indian BPO employees in Delhi/ NCR area. Data was collected through questionnaire and
exploratory factor analysis was done. The results may have further implications for industry and society
Keywords – BPO, Technology, Work Environment, Management Support
1. Introduction
The ITeS-BPO witnessed phenomenal growth in India primarily due to availability of skilled manpower at a
cost advantage as compared to other countries. The work environment in the 24/7 fast-paced BPO is radically
different from organisational environment in a traditional organisation. At present India‟s 150 billion
outsourcing industry is facing uncertain future due to external sources beyond its control. Once India lauded as
destination for high quality and low cost technology skills and considered as wealth engine and job creator, is
facing a great challenge to cater with changed expectations of the customers and to keep pace with the shift in
business model towards software platforms to reignite growth. Automation and digital businesses is grabbing
everybody‟s attention and this transition is leading towards a period of flux for BPO Industry. The impact is also
on hiring with fewer people required in a sector adapting automation and robotics to revitalise itself.
This uncertain environment is creating a stressful environment for the employees. They are required to update
their skill as well as ensure their performance. The customer-oriented nature of work at a work-station with little
room for movement and the continuous tracking by supervisors tends to be very restrictive. The work timings in
shifts often during night hours can be very exhausting physically and mentally; the performance standards and
targets add to the pressure as there is very little scope for recreation. The employees confined to their work are
more than not stressed-out. The team leaders and supervisors who have risen from the ranks do not make it any
easy for them as management expectation becomes an over-riding concern and productivity measurement
designed for service excellence; a parameter for growth in the BPO. The line between personal and professional
is blurred; this is compounded further due to increased connectivity in the mobile technology and crowd-
sourcing era.
The fundamental question that arises is where the responsibility lies for ensuring that employees lead a
balanced work life. The general feeling is that employers have a responsibility to the health of their employees;
apart from the moral responsibility, stressed-out employees are less productive and more likely to make errors.
Though there is no acceptable definition of the term „work-life balance‟ it refers to the level of prioritisation
between personal and professional activities in an individual‟s life and the level to which activities related to
their job are present in the home. In the information economy mental stress has been identified as a significant
economic and health problem, causing by a perceived need of employees to do more in less time. Most HR
practitioners agree that work-life balance is an important determinant of organisations‟ wellbeing and are
reframing their HR policies to cater to the aspirations of every employee.
In the light of above it was deemed appropriate to undertake a preliminary investigation to identify the
practices followed by the HR department in relation to a BPO. The main purpose is to identify the enablers that
help an employee achieve a state of equilibrium between the work-related priorities and their private lifestyle.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Defining Work Life Balance
Clark (2000) has posited that satisfaction and good functioning at work and at home with a minimum of role
conflict is referred to as work life balance. It implies that it is important to integrate career objectives and
personal and family needs; it is an important parameter to develop adaptive coping strategies in life to handle
stressful situations either at work place or at home. Crooker etal (2002) defined it as the stability characterized
International Conference on Management and Information Systems September 25-26, 2017
ISBN 978-1-943295-07-4 18
by balancing an individuals‟ wok life complexity with personal resources such as family, society and
personality. In the words of Greenblatt (2002), work-life balance is characterized by the absence of unacceptable
levels of conflict between work and non-work demands. Bedeian et al (1988) inferred that there is linkage
between high work-life complexity and low life satisfaction
Moore, 2007 defines work life balance as a situation where employees feel that they are able to balance their
work and non-work commitment for most of the time. Workers' everyday experiences showed that work and
family are both sources of growth and support as well as burdens and strains (Barnett, 1998; Barnett and Hyde,
2001; Crouter, 1984). Work life balance is the separation between work life and personal life of an employee in
the organization. It is advocated to achieve a more harmonious balance between their work responsibilities, their
private responsibilities and personal interests and achieving balance needs to be considered from multiple
perspectives (Hudson, 2005).
2.2 Benefits of Work life Balance
Research suggests that work life has many pulls and pressures. It is highly complex and demanding that
involves expectations to meet ample commitments and deadlines. The increasing demands at workplace and
home are creating imbalances in work life (Vasudha, 2010; Sujatha, 2010). According to Kofodimos (1993)
work imbalance arouses high level of stress and detracts quality of life of individuals that result in the reduced
effectiveness at work. It is observed from the previous literature that on family sphere, nuclear families, dual
working parents and at times working in different locations, single parenting and increasing household work has
impacted the work life balance it is pertinent to maintain healthy balance between work and private lives.
Employees having better work life balance contribute efficiently towards the success of the organization and in
return render better customer service (Kumaraswamy M., Ashwini S., 2014). Bagastos (2011) has
conceptualized the quality of work life as multidimensional construct considering working condition and
environments that includes job safety, job security and job stress, family work balance, satisfactory physical
surroundings and working hours. A study conducted by Srivastava (2013) on employees of call centre of
Gurgaon , in India suggests that a healthy work life(WLB) balance helps the organization to reduce employee
turnover ,enhanced productivity ,image ,loyalty and retention , employee perceive that WLB provides autonomy
,good health, increases job satisfaction, and job security.
2.3 Determinants of Work Life Balance
A study conducted by Greenhaus and Beutell (1985) suggests that work domain factors such as, role conflict,
role ambiguity, working hours and inflexibility of the work schedule have a vital role in developing work family
conflict. An empirical study by Hill et al on 6,451 employees of IBM in USA identified the significance of
flexible work timings and location of work place as an important aspect of employee‟s work life imbalance. It
suggests that employees with the perceived job flexibility were willing to work for long working hours and were
benefited from good work life balance .They were able to effectively handle their work and family
responsibilities with reduced family conflict and enhanced work performance. Further Wayne et al.(2004),
observed that reduced work hours may benefit the employees with increased work family balance and reduced
work family conflict. Jeffrey H. Greenhaus, Karen M. Collins & Jason D. Shaw (2003) suggests that that work
family conflict can be resolved and quality of life of an individual can be enhanced by investing equal time and
involvement in work and family.
A study conducted by Lieva et al. (2012), identified that supportive culture mediates the availability of WLB
practices in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).According to Sahibzada (2012) colleague support and
job resources are positively related with the work life balance whereas unfair criticism at job has negative
impact on work life balance. The other influencing factor identified by Lester (1999) in his study is technology
.The study suggests that by creating more flexible and accessible environment , the employees are supposed to
work anywhere , anytime day or night .Thus technology can facilitate or hinder WKL. Later it was investigated
by Waller and Ragsdell (2012) that organization dominated by e-mail culture impacts employees‟ lives outside
working hours. It was observed that this type of culture has positive as well as negative impact on employees.
BPO as work organization is marked with unusual work schedule, excessive work targets and irate callers,
competitive performance measurement with quality assurance; employees are exposed to stressors and burnout
as compared to other organizations (Broek et al, 2004; BPA/P, 2007). Long working hours and commuting time
in metro cites of India are seriously affecting the work life balance of working fathers .The firms needs to
address the demands of job interfere with family life (Drago, 2009) that can be underlying factor in order to
achieve maximum contribution from their workers. According to Han and Zaho (2012), Human resource
management can have a competitive edge by achieving a healthy balance between employee‟s personal and
professional life. Further he advocates that job security and fair remuneration provides stable income with
security and flexibility during economic uncertainty.
From the literature reviewed it is quite obvious that several researchers has highlighted the significance of
work life balance though the awareness is there among employers regarding the importance of employees
International Conference on Management and Information Systems September 25-26, 2017
ISBN 978-1-943295-07-4 19
quality of work life but no fruitful action is taken to cope with this challenge prevailing in the organization.
They should understand that employees are likely to feel stressed if they are pushed too far, impacting their
health, overall well being and productivity. It is important for the managers to define objectives and goals to the
employees and must create enabling systems to equip them .This will allow them to prioritize and understand
the different facets of life .It will create an understanding of not only the key result areas but also aspire them for
their future career advancement.
3. Conceptual Framework
Based on the literature review it can be viewed that enablers of work life balance may vary organisation to
organisation but their role is important for overall wellbeing of employees and business performance. The
conceptual framework of this study is as under
Figure 1 Conceptual Framework
It can be seen that human capital is the most crucial resource for the BPO sector in India. Though work and
career are important for an employee; family is the primary group of an individual. The nature of the job, the
work station (which is akin to confinement), odd work hours, monotony, few avenues for career advancement
are the areas which lead to physical, mental and emotional drain and subsequent burnout.
In the light of above it was deemed appropriate to undertake a preliminary investigation to identify the
practices followed by the HR department in relation to a BPO. The main purpose is to identify the enablers that
help an employee achieve a state of equilibrium between the work-related priorities and their private lifestyle.
The secondary objective is to investigate BPO workers‟ perception of their work-life balance condition in their
respective organizations.
4. Research Methodology
The study is exploratory in nature as the main purpose is to obtain a first-hand opinion from employees about
their feelings about the working conditions, work pressure and other factors which impact work-life as BPO
sector is 24x7 job with shifts and often odd timings. A pilot study was undertaken using a structured
questionnaire to obtain an insight into various human resource practices in the BPO sector. The data has been
collected from organisations such as Accenture, Convergys, TCS and Cognizant from Noida and Gurgaon. The
responses were recorded on a 5-point Likert scale with 1 representing a high score and 5 representing a low
score
The sample size is 112; the method used is purposive sampling. The sampling unit is the different BPO
organisations; the sampling elements are the BPO employees working in the organisation.
Descriptive statistics is calculated; followed by EFA to extract the enabling factors that can provide a direction
to identify the crucial drivers for growth in this highly competitive industry.
5. Findings and Discussion
The Table 1 given below gives a profile of the respondents. The Tables 2a and 2b show cross-tabulation of
gender and education and gender and type of working environment respectively. It can be observed that majority
of the respondents belongs to age group of 20-30 years and the number of male and female graduates is almost
same; however more female employees opine that the working environment is bureaucratic. Table 3 shows the
mean and standard for each attribute measured. It can be seen from table 3 that the mean for reduced leisure
time and supportive peer group is high. This implies that less time for leisure would mean less recreation and
relaxation which can be detrimental to the repetitive nature of the low-end jobs. The other attribute supportive
peer group augurs well as this is shared by the employees.
The calculated Cronbach alpha for the five-point Likert –scaled items is 0.892 which proves that data
reliability (Table 4).
Results
Employee wellbeing
&
Business Performance
Enablers
Leadership
Strategy
People value
Work-life balance
International Conference on Management and Information Systems September 25-26, 2017
ISBN 978-1-943295-07-4 20
Table 1 Respondents’ Profile
Variable
Categories
Summary measures
Gender
Male
57 (50.9%)
Female
55 (49.1)
Age
20-30 years
63 (56.3%)
31-40 years
34(30.4%)
41-50 years
15 (13.4%)
Education
Completed school
26 (23.2%)
Graduate
57 (50.9%)
Post-graduate
29 (25.9%)
Type of working environment
Autonomous
40 (35.7%)
Participative
23 (20.5%)
Bureaucratic
49 (43.8%)
Table 2a Cross-tabulation of Gender * Education Qualification
Education Qualification
Total
School education
Graduate
Post-Graduate
MALE
16
29
12
57
FEMALE
10
28
17
55
Total
26
57
29
112
Table 2b Cross-Tabulation of Gender * Type of Working Environment in Organisation
Type of Working Environment in Organisation?
Total
Autonomous
Participative
Bureaucratic
MALE
23
12
22
57
FEMALE
17
11
27
55
Total
40
23
49
112
Table 3 Descriptive Statistics
N
Minimum
Maximum
Mean
Std. Deviation
satisfactory working conditions
112
1
5
3.04
1.342
High work pressure
112
1
5
3.33
1.181
Regular counselling programs
112
1
5
3.27
1.139
Productive work life balance policies
112
1
5
3.41
1.053
Satisfactory compensation & rewards
112
1
5
3.46
1.114
Flexible timings
112
1
5
3.49
1.090
Reduced Leisure Time
112
1
5
3.58
1.062
Committed Management to attain good work life balance
112
1
5
3.50
1.082
Supportive Peers
112
1
5
3.58
1.136
Fair Pay
112
1
5
3.43
1.191
Promotion Opportunities
112
1
5
3.43
1.168
Job assigned as per skills
112
1
5
3.55
1.038
Table 4 Reliability Statistics
Cronbach's Alpha
N of Items
.892
12
International Conference on Management and Information Systems September 25-26, 2017
ISBN 978-1-943295-07-4 21
Factor Analysis
In KMO and Bartlett‟s test the KMO adequacy is 0.821 which is far greater than 0.6(refer Table 5). According
to Coakes et al (1997), Bartlett‟s Test of Sphericity is very significant; it indicates the acceptance of the
components in the questionnaire. The Table no.6 shows the total variance extracted which is 69.7 %. This shows
that only 30.3% of variation is lost; therefore it is a good extraction. It is able to economize on the number of
choice factor i.e., from 12 factors to 3 factor having Eigen value exceeding 1, (refer Table 7 and 8).
Table 5 KMO and Bartlett's Test
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy.
.821
Bartlett's Test of Sphericity
Approx. Chi-Square
753.060
Df
66
Sig.
.000
Table 6 Total Variance Explained
Component
Initial Eigenvalues
Extraction Sums of
Squared Loadings
Rotation Sums of Squared
Loadings
Total
% of
Variance
Cumulative
%
Total
% of
Variance
Total
% of Variance
Cumulative
%
1
5.623
46.854
46.854
5.623
46.854
3.547
29.562
29.562
2
1.518
12.653
59.507
1.518
12.653
2.549
21.243
50.805
3
1.223
10.193
69.700
1.223
10.193
2.267
18.894
69.700
4
.889
7.407
77.107
5
.591
4.921
82.028
6
.508
4.230
86.257
7
.418
3.487
89.744
8
.386
3.219
92.964
9
.259
2.157
95.121
10
.229
1.906
97.027
11
.203
1.694
98.721
12
.154
1.279
100.000
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis
Table 7 Rotated Component Matrixa
Component
1
2
3
satisfactory working conditions
.218
.234
.763
High work pressure
-.003
.132
.857
Regular counselling programs
.443
.170
.707
Productive work life balance policies
.692
.114
.399
Satisfactory compensation & rewards
.763
.052
.313
Flexible timings
.707
.191
.196
Reduced Leisure Time
.126
.671
.286
Committed Management to attain good work life balance
.356
.795
.194
Supportive Peers
.145
.854
.160
Fair Pay
.632
.547
-.069
Promotion Opportunities
.719
.476
-.018
Job assigned as per skills
.814
.241
.070
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.
a. Rotation converged in 6 iterations.
International Conference on Management and Information Systems September 25-26, 2017
ISBN 978-1-943295-07-4 22
Table 8 Factor Matrix
Items
Factor Loadings
% Variance Explained
Enabling Factor
Productive work life balance policies
.692
29.562
Strategy
Satisfactory compensation & rewards
.763
Flexible timings
.707
Fair Pay
.632
Promotion Opportunities
.719
Job assigned as per skills
.814
Reduced Leisure Time
.671
21.243
Leadership
Committed Management to attain good work life balance
.795
Supportive Peers
.854
satisfactory working conditions
.763
18.894
People Value
High work pressure
.857
Regular counselling programs
.707
Source: Author’s Own
Factor Discussion
Factor1: Strategy
The most important factor enabling work life balance is the strategy of the organisation with 29.52% of variance
The research suggests that for ITES /BPO it is necessary to implement stakeholder focused strategy. Productive
work life balance policy ,plans, objectives and processes should be developed and deployed to deliver the
strategy .Employees perceive that satisfactory compensation & rewards, flexible timings, fair pay, promotion
opportunities (Bagastos ,2011) and ,Job assigned as per skills motivates them to perform better.
Factor2: Leadership
Research suggests that Leadership with 21.243% of variance is the next enabling factor for sustained success of
the organization. It depicts that the organisation with strong leadership and clear strategic direction shape the
future of the organisation as well as the future of the employees working in the organisation by creating a
supportive work culture and commitment towards implementation of plans , process and procedures that support
work life balance. Lieva et al. Suggests that supportive culture mediates the availability of WLB practices.
Factor3: People Value
Respondents are of the opinion that the next enabler for developing work life balance is the „People value „, with
18.894 % of variance. Research suggests that good organization value their people and provide satisfactory
working condition (Bagastos, 2011), regular feedback and counselling during high work pressure. They develop
the capabilities of the employees and promote equality and fairness that motivates them to be committed and use
their skill and knowledge for the benefit of the organisation.
6. Inferences
6.1 Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above study that work life imbalance can spell disaster in this fiercely competitive
market. The execution of strategy at all levels including team leaders, line managers and staff is an important
ingredient of work-life balance. When an employee is sacrificing work-hours the organisation should try to give
some tangible as well as intangible benefits to create a sense of purpose amongst the employees. Productive
work life balance policy, plans, objectives and processes should be developed and deployed to deliver the
strategy in the BPOs and should organise special programs to foster a sense of belongingness through which the
employees feel relaxed. They should provide supportive work culture, develop the capabilities of the employees
and promote equality and fairness that motivates them to be committed and proper utilization of their skill and
knowledge for the benefit of the organisation. The organisation should undertake periodic reviews to find out
what are the reasons for work imbalances, if any to enable employees to manage their personal life and
professional life smoothly. It has been suggested that an effectiveness of work-life balance policies and practices
must incorporate supervisor support of employee‟s efforts to balance work and family responsibilities.
6.2 Limitations
The study is a preliminary investigation and the findings cannot be generalised to a larger population. It is also
pertinent to mention that there are no hard-and-fast rules on what constitutes an acceptable work/life balance -
this will depend on the operational requirements of the business, competition and the needs of the employees.
International Conference on Management and Information Systems September 25-26, 2017
ISBN 978-1-943295-07-4 23
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