Article - Ms Dhanya Nair
Article - Ms Dhanya Nair
Article - Ms Dhanya Nair
Ms Dhanya Nair
Mail id – [email protected]
Abstract:
Work – life balance is one of the most central issues & concerns for 21st century to day in all
the sectors like IT, Education, Banking, Medical etc. Now a days dramatic change has been
observed in the banking sector of India. Long working hours, excessive work pressure and
handling demanding & unique customers in banks has become a great task. The present paper
attempts to reveal the status of work-life balance in the banking sector and its relation with
employee performance. For this the researcher has drawn the sample from four types of banks
such as Federal Bank, SBI, HDFC and Canara Bank. The researcher has used the structured
questionnaire to solicit the responses from the bank employees. The variables under study like
gender, hierarchy, work load, impact of work at home, family & spouse support, job
performance etc were used. This study will benefit the banks to formulate the policies for the
bank employees.
Key – words: Work-life balance, job performance, stress, job satisfaction, family, health,
career.
1) Introduction:
Work life balance is a method which helps employees of an organization to balance their
personal and professional lives. Work life balance encourages employees to divide their time
on the basis on priorities and maintain a balance by devoting time to family, health, vacations
etc. along with making a career, business travel etc.
It is an important concept in the world of business as it helps to motivate the employees and
increases their loyalty towards the company.
Importance of work life balance
Working on a job for a company and making a career can be an extremely time consuming
duty for any employee. Employees are busy at their offices throughout the day and sometimes
even on weekends. This gives them very little time to interact with their family.
Because of high pressure of work, often family members get neglected. Also, stressful jobs
cause the health of employees to deteriorate. This is where work life balance come into the
picture. Work life balance concept allows an employee to maintain a fine balance in the time
he or she gives to work as well as to personal matters. By having a good balance, people can
have a quality of work life.
This helps to increase productivity at workplace as the employee is relaxed about his personal
commitments. It also allows the employee to give quality time with family to spend vacations,
leisure time, work on his/her health etc. Hence work life balance is extremely important for
employees and increases their motivation to work for the company.
The below image depicts a work life balance scenario, where an employee has to balance
his/her life between personal (family, friends & self) and professional (job, career)
commitments.
Work-Life Balance in Banking Sector
Now a days work-life balance is an important concept in all fields. Being a fastest growing
economy in the world, India has marked its presence among the emerging super powers. With
the onset of liberalization and increasing competition from global corporations, Indian banks
have raised the benchmarks on efficiency and quality of services offered. Demanding careers
in such environment is leading the employees with the problem of stress and other health
related issues which has to be addressed and resolved.
Now a days banks plays a significant role in the economy. Banks plays a crucial role in capital
formation and stimulate the level of industrialization, poverty alleviation and human
development. Work-personal life imbalance occurs when the burden, obligation and
responsibilities of work and family roles become incompatible. Obligation of one can force an
individual to neglect the other.
1. Time based
2. Strain based
3. Behaviour based conflict
1. Time based reasons: A decade back, employees used to have fixed working hours like
9 to 5 from Monday to Friday. The boundary between the work and home has
disappeared with time. Instead of 7 to 8 a day, people are spending 12 to 16 hours every
day in bank.
2. Strain based reasons: Now a days banks are giving more importance to CRM(customer
relationship management) activities. Increasing customer service and satisfaction is
given more importance. It is agreat task for the bank employees to retain and to get new
customers. At the family end, role to be played by the individual at home of spouse,
father/mother, son/daughter also brings the effect on individual’s work-life balance.
3. Behaviour based reasons: The speed of advancement of information technology,
increasing competition in the talent supply market has led to a “performance driven”
culture creating pressure and expectation to performance more and better every time.
Many people finds difficult to say ”No” to others especially to their superiors. They
ends with over burdening themselves with work.
2) Content:
• Objectives:
1. To understand the concept and to study the factors influencing work-life balance among
bank employees.
2. To find out the impact of work-life balance in the job performance of the employees.
• Research Methodology:
The present research design adopted in the study was descriptive nature. The study is based on
primary data. The data has been collected from users through the questionnaire and
interview.The sampling technique used in this study is random sampling. Samples of 50
respondents were taken into study. A structured questionnaire is used to collect the dats. The
questionnaire consists of multiple choice questions to achieve the objective of research. The
tools used in this study are correlation and chi-square test.
• Literature Review:
1) Work-life balance in banking sector: A comparative study of public and private
sector banks by Salvi Kavita(2020). This research has been undertaken to assess the
levels of work-life balance of public and private sector bank employees, assess the
contribution of factors of work-life balance, understand the perception of employees
towards work-life balance. It has been identified that life of male employees is more
balanced than female employees, male employees are satisfied with financial security,
salary is according to the designation etc. It is revealed that more sacrifice is done by
public sector bank employees but they are job secured. Private sector bank respondents
are unable to sleep well, feel anxious, job security and confused.
2) Work-life balance of employees in banking sector, a comparative study by Sebah
Begum(2020). This study explores the factors behind the work-life balance of
employees concerned of selected banks like SBI & ICICI bank. It deals with all the
dimensions of the balance of working life & personal(family) life of these bank
employees. The study found that the “job related strain” creates difficulty and difficulty
in balancing the demand between job & family in SBI bank while the job strain factor
is high & demand between job & family factor interference is very low in the family
life of ICICI employees. Family support and family relationship were significantly,
moderately correlated with the work life balance of SBI & ICICI bank shows that
family support & family relationship may result in great organization performance.
3) Impact of work life balance on job performance among women employees of new
generation banks in Chennai by Kalpana P(2022). There is an increase in the number
of working women to manage the families & work at par with men. This study analyzed
the factors on balancing work & life of working women & provides some insights in
solving work & life balance.The study finds that balancing work & personal life is a
difficult task for female employees in banks. Women employees said that their severe
workload was a major source of job stress but benefit packages help to motivate
employees for high level of performance. The most significant feature of job
performance according to respondents is efficient use of time and materials.
• Data Analysis and Interpretation
1.Chi-Square Test
H0 :- There is no significant relation between work life balance and job performance.
H1 :- There is significant relation between work life balance and job performance.
Work-Life balance
Yes No Rarely Total
Job Performance
Always 8 5 6 19
Never 4 8 9 21
Rarely 3 6 1 10
15 19 16 50
Observed Expected
Values Values ∑(O-E)2 ∑(O-E)2/E
(O) (E)
8 5.7 5.29 0.93
5 7.22 4.92 0.68
6 6.08 0.64 0.11
4 6.3 5.29 0.83
8 7.98 0.0004 5.01
9 6.72 5.19 0.77
3 3 0 0
6 3.8 4.84 1.27
1 3.2 4.84 1.5
Total 11.1
CV = 11.1
TB = 9.488
Analysis –
As per the result calculated, it shows that there is significant relation between work life balance
and job performance. Since the calculated value is 11.1 and table value with four degree of
freedom is 9.488(0.05% of significance level), we reject H0.
2. Correlation
From the data calculated through questionnaire, there are Branch Heads – 3, Executives- 3,
Officers – 15, Award Staffs – 24 and Sub-Staffs – 5. Here variable “X” is received through
rating.
y
x
(Rating Given for x2 y2 xy
(Hierarchy)
Stress Level)
15 14 225 196 210
12 13 144 169 156
45 52 2025 2704 2340
48 62 2304 3844 2976
5 8 25 64 40
125 149 3601 6977 5722
N*∑xy - ∑x*∑y
--------------------------------------------------------
Analysis:
As per the correlation data received, there is high positive correlation between the
hierarchy level of employees and stress level. This shows that as the hierarchy level
increases, the stress level among them also increases. Here correlation received is 0.99
which shows there is a strong positive correlation between the hierarchy level of
employees and stress level.
• Findings:
1. From the studies, it is understood that work life balance is having a direct influence in
the performance of staff.
2. It is inferred that stress of staffs working in private sector bank is more than those
working in public sector bank.
3. Most of the respondents mentioned that the level of difficulty in achieving work-life
balance is moderate to high, which shows that the stress level is more especially in case
of private sector bank.
4. Most of the respondents said that the factors like lack of co-operation from the superior,
lack of proper training, work load, staff shortage, leaves and other administrative issues
leads to overstress in the bank.
5. The level of employees suffering from stress related diseases like eye sight problem,
headache, body pain, obesity etc is high.
6. During the month end the staffs are forced to work more than 12 hours for achieving
their targets.
7. From the questionnaire collected, it shows that some banks are not at all conducting
stress free activities and some banks are rarely conducting stress free activities.
8. From the correlation calculated as per the data received through questionnaire, it shows
that as the hierarchy level increases from the award staff to branch head, stress level
also increases which means stress level is more for officers when compared to award
staff.
9. There is significant relation between work life balance and job performance. From the
chi-square test performed, it show that the person who is able to satisfy his/her work
life balance properly, is able to achieve their monthly or yearly target.
• Suggestions:
1. The superiors should cooperate and support subordinates i.e. proper support and
appreciation from the superiors and institutions can have a positive impact in the
performance of the employees.
2. The banks should conduct stress free activities at least twice or thrice yearly.
3. The banks should regularly review work load, manage staff requirements and other
administrative issues.
4. The branch head or HR department should collect yearly or half yearly views, opinions,
suggestions etc from the other employees.
5. Banks should organize meetings atleast once in a week to understand where each employee
stands.
6. Banks should provide proper training to the newly joined employees.
3) Conclusion :
Investigating the impact of work life balance on job performance in the selected banks
functioning in Palakkad District was the primary aim of this research study. The studies
revealed that there is a significant impact of work life balance on employee performance. The
employees are facing work load and stress based on their hierarchical level. The employees
working in lower cadre is comparatively enjoying good atmosphere than officers and
executives. From the discussions had with the staff of various banks, they are facing severe
issues in availing leaves due to staff shortage and also have difficulties in completing daily
works. The officers in particular feels it difficult to manage families because of frequent
transfers, posting at distant places, late night sitting at offices etc. Studies conducted using the
statistical tools showed that the changes in work life balance has a great impact on employees
job performance.
4) References:
• https://www.wikipedia.org/