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Originally found at Gallup Workplace, by Emily Wetherell and Nate Dvorak
Work-life balance matters to your employees.
In the U.S., women and millennials in particular say that they seek companies with flexible policies when looking for a new job because work-life balance is so important to them. Many organizations have responded by offering flexible work arrangements, alternative work schedules and remote work options.
However, not every job can be flexible — you can’t tend to a hospital patient remotely or run a manufacturing line from a coffee shop — and maintaining a culture that supports flexible work arrangements isn’t always easy.
The good news: Gallup’s data show that having realistic performance goals is actually a better predictor of work-life balance than having flexible work arrangements. Further, among full-time U.S. employees, workers who strongly agree that they have realistic performance goals are 2.4 times more likely to also strongly agree that they have a healthy work-life balance....
The Benefits of Realistic Goals
Too much pressure, unclear expectations and unfair consequences can incentivize unethical behavior -- lying and cheating, for example. In fact, an Academy of Management Perspectives article, Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Overprescribing Goal Setting, states that "managers and scholars need to conceptualize goal setting as a prescription-strength medication that requires careful dosing, consideration of harmful side effects and close supervision."
Continue reading this article at Gallup Workplace.
Read the original research in Academy of Management Perspectives
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