This survey of 332 HR professionals found that 24% of organizations have a formal work/life balance policy while 52% have an informal policy. Common elements of formal policies include allowing work during vacation (47%) and sick time (34%). Informal policies commonly include these elements as well (62% and 54%). Most supervisors (80%) encourage a healthy work/life balance and discourage work communication after hours (26%).

1. SHRM Survey Findings: Work/Life Balance
Policies
July 12, 2012

2. Definitions
 Wireless communication devices: For the purposes of this survey, wireless communication devices
include cell phones, smart phones (e.g., Blackberry, iPhone, Android), tablets
(e.g., iPad, Archos, PlayBook) and similar communication devices.
 Work/life balance policies: For the purposes of this survey, work/life balance policies include
programs that encourage flexible employee work arrangements that emphasize the value of making
work and life responsibilities more manageable for employees.
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3. Key Findings
 How prevalent are work/life balance policies? Twenty-four percent of organizations have a formal
work/life balance policy in place, whereas approximately one-half of organizations (52%) have an
informal work/life balance policy.
 What elements are included in work/life balance policies? Working during vacation time was
included in almost one-half of formal work/life balance policies (47%) and in over three-fifths of
informal policies (62%). Working during sick time was also included in roughly one-third of formal
policies (34%) and one-half of informal policies (54%).
 What are supervisors/management doing to encourage employees to take time away from work to
recharge? The majority of organizations (80%) indicated that their supervisors/managers encourage
a healthy work/life balance within their unit/work group. Approximately two-thirds of
supervisors/managers (67%) encourage employees to ask for help when necessary, and roughly one-
quarter of supervisors/managers (26%) discourage employees from answering e-mails or phone calls
via their wireless communication devices during nonworking hours.
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4. Organizations with Formal Work/Life Balance Policies
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5. Does your organization have a formal (i.e., written) work/life balance policy?
Yes 24%
No 76%
Note: n = 327. Respondents who answered “not sure” were excluded from this analysis.
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6. Please indicate the elements included in your formal work/life policy:
Percentage
Working during vacation time 47%
Working over a specified number of hours per week in the office or away
43%
from the office for both exempt and nonexempt employees
Working during sick time 34%
Flexible work arrangements* 10%
Other 9%
Note: n = 79. Only respondents whose organizations have formal work/life policies were asked this question. Percentages do not equal
100% due to multiple response options. An asterisk (*) indicates that this response option was developed from open-ended responses.
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7. Organizations with Informal Work/Life Balance Policies
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8. Does your organization have an informal (e.g., management practices) work/life
balance policy demonstrating organizational commitment to the importance of
employees taking time away from work to recharge?
Yes 52%
No 48%
Note: n = 254. Respondents who answered “not sure” were excluded from this analysis. Only respondents whose organizations
do not have formal work/life policies were asked this question.
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9. Please indicate the elements included in your informal work/life policy:
Percentage
Working during vacation time 62%
Working during sick time 54%
Working over a specified number of hours per week in the office or away
41%
from the office for both exempt and nonexempt employees
Flexible work arrangements* 9%
Other 8%
Note: n = 133. Only respondents whose organizations have informal work/life policies were asked this question. Percentages do not equal
100% due to multiple response options. An asterisk (*) indicates that this response option was developed from open-ended responses.
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10. Which management practices are utilized to encourage employees to take time
away from work to recharge?
Percentage
Supervisors/managers encourage a healthy work/life balance within their
80%
unit/work group.
Supervisors/managers encourage employees to ask for help when
necessary (e.g., when employee finds that he/she needs to work beyond 67%
specified work hours).
Supervisors/managers discourage employees from answering e-mails or
phone calls via their wireless communication devices during nonworking 26%
hours (e.g., weekends, evenings, holidays).
Supervisors/managers encourage the use of PTO/vacation and sick leave.* 7%
The organization has days or time when e-mail is not used (e.g., “E-mail-
1%
Free Fridays”, “No e-mail weekends”).
Other 4%
Note: n = 84. Only respondents whose organizations have informal work/life policies were asked this question. Percentages do not equal
100% due to multiple response options. An asterisk (*) indicates that this response option was developed from open-ended responses.
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11. Demographics: Organization Industry
Percentage
Manufacturing 17%
Finance and insurance 17%
Health care and social assistance 12%
Professional, scientific and technical services 10%
Other service except public administration 9%
Educational services 6%
Public administration 5%
Retail trade 4%
Construction 3%
Information, publishing industries 3%
Religious, grant-making, civic professional and similar organizations 3%
Transportation and warehousing 2%
Note: n = 332. Percentages do not equal 100% due to multiple response options.
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12. Demographics: Organization Industry (continued)
Percentage
Wholesale trade 2%
Utilities 2%
Accommodation and food services 2%
Administrative and support and waste management and remediation services 2%
Real estate, rental and leasing 2%
Arts, entertainment and recreation 1%
Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting 1%
Mining 1%
Repair and maintenance 1%
Management of companies and enterprises 1%
Personal and laundry services *
Note: n = 332. Percentages do not equal 100% due to multiple response options. An asterisk (*) indicates < 1%.
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13. Demographics: Organization Sector
Privately owned for-profit organization 49%
Publicly owned for-profit organization 22%
Nonprofit organization 19%
Government sector 7%
Other 3%
n = 332
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14. Demographics: Organization Staff Size
1 to 99 employees 26%
100 to 499 employees 31%
500 to 2,499 employees 16%
2,500 to 24,999 employees 22%
25,000 or more employees 5%
n = 330
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15. Demographics: Other
Does your organization have U.S.-based Is your organization a single-unit organization or a
operations (business units) only, or does multi-unit organization?
it operate multinationally?
Single-unit organization: An organization
U.S.-based operations only 74% in which the location and the 33%
organization are one and the same.
Multinational operations 26%
n = 329 Multi-unit organization: An organization
67%
that has more than one location.
n = 331
What is the HR department/function for For multi-unit organizations, are HR policies and
which you responded throughout this practices determined by the multi-unit
survey? headquarters, by each work location or by both?
Corporate (companywide) 70% Multi-unit headquarters determines HR
52%
Business unit/division 14% policies and practices.
Facility/location 16% Each work location determines HR
3%
policies and practices.
n = 230
A combination of both the work location
and the multi-unit headquarters 45%
determines HR policies and practices.
n = 230
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16. SHRM Survey Findings: Work/Life Balance Policies
Methodology
 Response rate = 12%
 Sample composed of 332 randomly selected HR professionals from
SHRM’s membership
 Margin of error +/-5%
 Survey fielded June 9 – June 27, 2011
For more poll findings, visit www.shrm.org/surveys
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SHRM_Research
Project leader:
Robert Boyd, survey research analyst, SHRM Research
Project contributors:
Mark Schmit, Ph.D., SPHR, vice president, SHRM Research
Evren Esen, manager, SHRM Research
Christina Lee, SHRM Research
Copy Editor:
Katya Scanlan, SHRM Knowledge Center
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