The Workplace Project

An overall aim of the Government's Work-Life Balance Programme is to provide best practice information and tools to public and private sector New Zealand workplaces to assist them to develop work-life balance solutions that meet the needs of both their businesses and their employees. In support of this objective, the Workplace Project aims to assist 14 large organisations with advice and information to enable them to develop and trial practical work-life balance tools. The tools will be evaluated following their implementation and the resulting best practice information will be made widely available to workplaces, employers, employees, and unions.

Project aims and objectives

From this Project, the Department hopes to gather practical tools and resources that have been tested and proven successful in New Zealand workplaces, as well as information about which work-life balance "solutions" are best suited to particular working arrangements. Where possible, the Department will build on existing tools and resources, including the recent resource on work-life balance produced by the State Services Commission.^[3] This information will then be disseminated to other New Zealand employers. As such, a goal of the project is to "test" some tailored work-life balance solutions in order to develop tools that match the needs of New Zealand workplaces.

Key principles

The Project operates on the basis of a number of principles including:

• using an approach that balances individuals and organisational needs (win-win solutions);
• operating under a partnership model, where employers, employees, and other parties in the workplace, such as unions, each have a voice;
• facilitating inclusive and innovative problem-solving and decision-making processes; and
• a commitment to improving the organisation of work at all levels.

What the project involves for participants

While each organisation may tailor the project to suit the needs and nature of their business, the following are some of the critical steps in the process:

• identifying current work-life balance policies and practices in the organization
• conducting an employee survey and/or focus groups with managers and staff (all questionnaires etc developed and administered by the Project Team) to assess current work-life balance problems;
• gathering baseline data including statistics related to retention and staff turnover;
• establishing a working group with staff and union representation, where there are unions represented in the workplace;
• working with a specialist human resources consultant to identify issues, develop and agree changes to work patterns;
• implementing new ways of working that meet the needs of the business and employees (which might range from very minor to fundamental); and
• participating in a series of evaluations of how the work-life solutions have impacted on employee statistics, satisfaction and business performance.

Who are the participants?

How were they selected?

The workplaces were recruited from industries where there are existing skill shortages as well as recruitment and retention issues. An analysis of skill shortages areas and work arrangements associated with work-life conflict suggested that appropriate sectors included manufacturing; hospitality; roading construction; retail; and information technology. Priority was also given to organisations employing more vulnerable workers in low paid and lower skilled occupations.

^[2] Note that different estimates of union density will be derived depending on the proportion of the workforce regarded as the potential unionisation catchment. These figures are from Appendix I.