Lessons from Australia’s New Law on Work-Life Balance

Australia is introducing a new law giving employees the “right to disconnect”.

Australia’s new law on work-life balance will likely introduce regulatory changes aimed at improving the balance between professional and personal life for employees. The motivation behind the law, such as increasing productivity, enhancing mental health, or responding to changes in the workforce.

• Many countries have record-low unemployment. There are more positions than people available to fill them.
• According to the BCG Henderson Institute’s recent survey of 1,000 office-based workers worldwide, nearly half (45%) are at least passively job searching.
• BCG research shows that employees who enjoy their work are 49% less likely to consider a new job than employees who don’t.

Here are some opportunities for companies:
Take the opportunity to listen.
“What would improve your happiness at work?”
“How can we help you maintain a better work-life balance?”

Could you make sure performance is judged on outputs?
Studies have shown that long hours don’t necessarily increase productivity and that presenteeism doesn’t foster a healthy workplace culture.

Lead by example.
Leaders and middle managers should show the way to good self-management, set clear personal boundaries, communicate whether or not they can be disturbed during a vacation, and be transparent if a family situation needs to take priority, for example.

Could you foster a sense of belonging?
Companies must create a culture that makes people feel like everybody is pulling together for the greater good. We need to avoid an unhelpful ‘us versus them’ mentality and instead create workplaces where everybody feels like they belong and can contribute as valued team members.