New research to be revealed at The Safety Conference in October will show that work-life balance is the number-one factor in attracting and retaining staff, and is even more important than salary. In his October 29 address to engineering, mining, manufacturing and electrical delegates at the conference, being held in Sydney, Converge International chief executive officer, Dr Lindsay McMillan will explain his assertion that:
“Any employer who is serious about signing up the best talent available, maintaining low levels of staff turnover and securing their business for tomorrow will recognise the need to do something about work-life balance now.”
McMillan is on to something. For ages now I’ve definitely had what I prefer to call work-life M & A. (That’s where your job merges into your life and acquires it.) While my partner tells me that I am half the problem (”darling: don’t think of so many ideas,” he says) the fact is that I enjoy my job but I just don’t want there to be so much of it. I want more of my life!
Until recently I’d thought leaving my job was the only way to solve it. I can see I’ve been guilty of a bit of blinkered thinking because when I think of my job I never think of it as being anything other than really really full time. And yet, when employees are valued - and I know that I am - and employers want to keep them, then maybe there are other options to arrive at so that they can retain that talent for at least some of the time. I have been vacillating between should I go now? and should I go later. I hadn’t seriously thought that it didn’t need to be so black and white.
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