The study of work–life balance has undergone significant development in recent years as a result of changes in society and the growing importance of human resources (HR) for companies. Taking into account that human capital represents a critical success factor for businesses, the current context requires the development and implementation of HR management strategies aimed at attracting and retaining the most talented workers in order to obtain the expected results. The objective of this paper is to present an integrated model of work–life balance strategies, including the impacts of the different policies and practices on the retention of talented HR, which can be a basis for further academic developments on this subject, as well as a roadmap for managers. Hence, we will analyze a case study carried out in a multinational company—a leader in the technology and tourism sectors, and importantly dependent on valuable human capital, for which the HR strategy aims to improve the performance of the firm in the medium and long term through analysis, planning, and flexibility.

Investing Time and Resources for Work-Life Balance: The Effect on Talent Retention.

Assessing firms’ innovativeness is not an easy task. The literature recognises a number of innovativeness indicators. Most of them are technology-based indicators which perform well in high-tech industries but might be ineffective in other industries where patenting is not usual or in which R&D budgets are low or not formalised. In this paper, we critically review previous innovativeness indicators and we propose a new approach to assess firm innovativeness that is based not on the role of technology but on that of people. This new approach focuses on the existence of work-life balance benefits that are connected with motivation, engagement and creativity in the workplace. We argue that this could be an effective complementary means to assess the innovativeness of firms. It could be combined with previously used indicators and might have considerable advantages such as their suitability for application in any kind of firm regardless of its technological profile.

Firm innovativeness and work-life balance

La conciliacion entre trabajo y familia puede ser facilitada o dificultada desde la empresa. Las empresas son cada vez mas conscientes de que el equilibrio personal repercute en el rendimiento y en la roductividad. El articulo ofrece datos acerca de la situacion actual de las Empresas colombianas frente al tema de con- ciliacion, trabajo y familia, de modo que se puedan evaluar aquellas organizaciones cuyas politicas y practicas facilitan la conciliacion entre la vida familiar de sus empleados y el trabajo. El estudio concluye que aunque las empresas colombianas son cada vez mas conscientes de que el equilibrio personal entre trabajo y familia es esencial para el bienestar de los empleados y su capacidad de compromiso con la organizacion, y que repercuten en el rendimiento y la productividad, todavia el desarrollo e implementacion al interior de las empresas de este conocimiento es bastante incipiente.

Las políticas de conciliación trabajo–familia en las empresas colombianas

Managing diversity: Human resource strategies for transforming the workplace

La conciliación de la vida laboral y familiar

Work-life balance has become a topic of great relevance in today's business world. In this work we present both a theoretical review on the state of art in this issue and an analysis testing the validity of the positive impact of work-life balance policies in firm performance. For the empirical analyses of these policies on performance we evaluated a sample composed of firms listed in IBEX-35. Findings provide support for the idea that introducing work-life balance practices benefits the company with respect to talent retention and higher employee engagement, as well as achieving a positive impact on productivity, costs and business results.

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Laura Muñoz-Aguado

Papers

The Impact of Family and Work-Life Balance Policies on the Performance of Spanish Listed Companies