Prateek N Kumar, Founder & MD, NeoNiche Shares Insight on Work Life Balance

by  EVENTFAQS Bureau Industry Watch | January 21, 2020 | News

Work-life balance is not a new concept. It simply means carving out the appropriate time for one’s professional and personal life. In the last decade, Asian developing economies have been experiencing rapid growth which has resulted in long working hours. However, this has severely impacted the health of the employees where lack of sleep, depression, anxiety, and several work-related illnesses have been on the rise. As per the ‘Understanding Work-Life Balance’ survey conducted by Monster.com of two thousand working professionals in India, 60% of the professionals have rated their current work-life balance from average to terrible.

Small businesses and start-ups have begun to understand their role in creating environments conducive to work-life success. It comes down to how a growing company can achieve maximum productivity at a reasonable cost to their employees’ time and well-being.

NeoNiche has been one of the fastest-growing companies in the experiential marketing industry with 45% growth rate year on year. The company has more than 120 full-time employees with diverse skill sets and expertise. However, people have always come first over everything else where we take time to understand the employees' work-life needs, based on their personalities and expectations from work.

Sharing insights on work-life balance, Prateek Kumar, Founder & MD, NeoNiche said, “As a company, we have undertaken several initiatives for balancing life and work which have benefited us.” Some examples are as follows:  

Creating a Flexible Work Environment

A flexible work environment is a key driver of employee satisfaction. At NeoNiche, we don’t believe in clocking in or clocking out the time spent in office. Employees are given the option to choose flexible working hours and the number of days for work or opt for a part-time assignment under special circumstances.

Encourage Mandatory Time-Off

As a quick growing company, it can be easy to burn out your staff. At our company, twice a year, we enforce mandatory Neovitalise leaves over and above the standard leaves. These leaves are exclusively given with the purpose to spend time with the family, preferably vacationing. Even the most committed employee needs time away from their job, time to relax and time to clear themselves away from the pressures of the job. We have found consistently that after taking some time away from the job, employees return more motivated, more productive and with a new level of commitment.

Bring Your Family to Work

We have a unique approach to creating work-life balance by including family at the workplace.

Like any organization, we too offer maternity leave, but we understand the struggles mothers face when returning back to work. We have provided an option for mothers to bring their babies to work where special arrangements would be made for them to nurse the baby.    

Additionally, we are a pet-friendly organization and understand that bringing pets to the workplace can act as a great stress buster and motivate the employee as he/she is not guilty of leaving their pet at home alone.  

Empower Employees  

With a few exceptions, employees are responsible for their own schedules. We find this flexibility, of being able to run his / her day in a way that they can be most beneficial for them and the company extremely empowering.

We keep ourselves productive by assigning clear deliverables with specific timelines and track how the time is being spent. This helps us attract and retain talented, passionate people who are result-driven.

Lead by Example

The best thing an entrepreneur can do to get the team to improve their work-life balance is by implementing it himself. I personally work for an hour or so from home in the mornings and then head to the office before heading for meetings. When people don’t have to worry about being at work when it doesn’t make sense for them to be there if they can’t be productive, they are more comfortable. The atmosphere in the office is always positive because people are happy to be there and fully engaged. I’m also proud to report that when a team member works from home or switches from their regular schedule, there is no drop in the quality of work they produce!

Trust Employees

By trusting your employees and allowing them the space to provide value and production on their time and terms as long as they are adhering to milestones and timelines, you can begin to promote an active work-life balance. We’ve stopped booking so many meetings and have allowed technology and processes to stimulate growth and in turn, a great culture. As a result, employees generally finish the work that’s required, follow through their commitment and keep our customers happy.

Facilitate a Work-Life Balance for Your Employees

Fostering a work-life balance for your employees requires a little creativity and discipline, but the results are more often than not positive. Making this a priority can eventually increase employee satisfaction, productivity and company image. So, why not try some of the examples above and reap the rewards yourself?