Management

What is Quality of Work Life?

November 3, 2022

Work-life balance describes the when, where and how individuals work, leading them to be able to enjoy an optimal quality of life. Here we have discussed what is Quality of Work Life in HRM, Its meaning and various definitions given by different experts, Its factors, Its impact, and different ways to increase the work-life balance.

Work is considered an integral part of our everyday life. We spend around half of our day daily in the workplace, it does influence the overall quality of our life.

If an employee is happy with work-life it yields job satisfaction, gives peace of mind, and fulfillment of having done a task, as it is expected, without any flaw, and having spent the time fruitfully, constructively, and purposefully.

Even if it is a small step towards our lifetime goal, at the end of the day it gives satisfaction and eagerness to look forward to the next day.

Work-life balance is achieved when an individual’s right to a fulfilled life inside and outside paid work is accepted and respected as the norm, for the mutual benefit of the individual, business, and society.

► What is the Quality of Work Life in HRM?

The term Quality of Work Life in HRM means an attempt to change the entire organizational climate so that employees get a better opportunity to grow and develop which can benefit the company in terms of productivity, employee loyalty, and company reputation.

QWL is very beneficial to provide a more humanized and employee-centric work environment and also considers the socio-psychological needs of the employees.

It endeavors to serve different types of employee needs that help them to enhance work-life quality.

It seeks to outline many things like improving and imparting new skills to employees, should not put employees under undue stress, should not damage or degrading employee freedom and dignity in the workplace.

◉ Quality of Work-Life Meaning

Quality of work life is described as a concept that decides the favorableness or unfavorableness of the job environment of an organization for its employees.

In simple words, this term covers an employer’s feelings through various dimensions of his work e.g. economic incentives and rewards, job security, organization structure, working conditions, organizational and interpersonal relationships, etc.

Quality of Work Life is considered as a degree to which employees of an organization are able to satisfy their personal needs through experience in the organization. It main aim is to create a work environment where employees work in cooperation with each other and contribute to organizational objectives

◉ Definition of Work-Life Balance

“Quality of Work Life is the degree to which work in an organization contributes to the material and psychological well-being of its members.” – Harrison

“Quality of Work Life is a process of joint decision making, collaborations and building mutual respect between management and employees.” – D.S.Cohan

“Quality of Work Life is a process of work organization which enables its members at all levels to participate actively and effectively in shaping the organizations’ environment, methods, and outcomes. It is a value-based process which is aimed towards meeting the twin goals of enhanced effectiveness of the organization and improved quality of life at work for the employees”. – American Society of Training and Development

► Importance of Quality of Work Life

Decrease absenteeism and employee turnover in an organization
Ensure less number of accidents or employee injury
Improved management and employee relationship
Enhance the company’s corporate image and reputation
Positive employee attitudes toward their work and the company
Increased productivity and motivation of employee
Enhanced organizational effectiveness and provide a competitive advantage to the organization
Promote a sense of belongingness among employees toward the organization.

► Factors Affecting the Quality of Work Life

The factors that influence and decide the Quality of work life are:

Individual Attitude
Work Culture and Working Environment
Opportunities
Nature of Job
People
Reward and Recognition
Career Prospects

◉ Individual Attitude – It includes a commitment to work, enthusiasm, eagerness to learn, innovation, competitiveness, team spirit, interpersonal skills, leadership quality, etc.

◉ Work culture and working environment – It include organization structure, working style, organization policies, leadership style, employee behavior, workplace amenities, employee interpersonal behavior, communication style, etc.

◉ Opportunities – These include opportunities for promotion, participation in decision making

◉ Nature of Job – It includes complexity of task, basic or routine task, role, and responsibility, job title, designation, deadline, work pressure, stress, etc.

◉ People – It includes colleagues, bosses, superiors, juniors, team members, etc.

◉ Reward and Recognition – It includes incentives, fringe benefits, perks and remuneration, profit-sharing programs, remuneration, new job title, formal and informal acknowledgment of employees, etc.

◉ Career Prospects – It includes employee career planning and development, and opportunities to increase career.

► Positive Impact of Good quality Work Life

Positive Impact and Advantages of Good quality Work Life on employees.

Enhance job satisfaction
Positive attitude and optimistic
Increase motivation level
Ensure peace and tranquility
Promote happy personal and work-life balance
High employee loyalty
No stress
High creativity and innovation
Good physical and mental health

► Negative Impact of Poor Quality Work Life

Negative Impact and disadvantages of QWL on employees.

Develop negative attitude
Feel demotivated and have a low commitment to the job
Negative attitude and pessimistic
Low job satisfaction
High employee turnover
Low work productivity
High level of stress and anxiety
Poor physical and mental health
Addicted to drugs

► Ways to increase the Quality of Work Life

Ensuring a positive and high quality of work life is the priority of both organizations and individuals. There are some widely accepted and renowned techniques used to improve the QWL as given below:

Flexible Work Schedules
Job Redesign
Compensation, Recognization, and Reward
Opportunity for Development
Autonomous Work Groups
Employee Participation in management
Job and Social Security
Equitable and Fast Delivery of Justice
Recognition of Work-life Issues
Provide Training as per Requirement

✔ Flexible Work Schedules

Today’s workforce does not want to work for fixed hours or days. Employees demand alternative work schedules flexi-time, staggered hours, compressed work weeks, work from home, etc. The flexibility in their work schedule so that professional and personal life can be managed together.

✔ Job Redesign

One of the best ways to ensure good quality of work life is job redesigning or job enrichment or job enlargement.

All these techniques will end boredom and monotony in the work routine and provide exciting, interesting, stimulating, and challenging work. It helps to satisfy the higher-level needs of the employees.

✔ Compensation, Recognization, and Reward

For providing good quality of work life it is the duty of the organization to reward the employees for their exceptional efforts. There should be just an equitable balance between the effort and the reward.

If an organization reward or recognize an employee for work it should not only motivate that employee but also motivate other employees to push harder themselves if they want to reward and recognization.

✔ Opportunity for Development

Career development and growth is very important for ambitious and achievement-oriented employees. If an organization provide ample opportunities to employees for their advancement and growth, that makes employee highly motivated and their commitment toward task and the organization will increase sharply.

✔ Autonomous Work Groups

Autonomous work groups are self-managed work teams that not only have freedom of decision-making but are also responsible for their success or failures.

Currently, organizations adopt delegation as an essential constituent of organization structure which promotes freedom ensuring, open communication, respect and recognition, trust, etc.

✔ Employee’s Participation in management

Participation of employees in decision-making helps employees improve the Quality of Work Life. Organizations should adopt methods like Quality circles, Management by objectives, and suggestion system to ensure the participation of employees in management and also promote and maintain a work environment that results in excellence in results.

✔ Job and Social Security

Every employee wants stability of employment. If organizations provide job security and all social security measures that will definitely improve the Quality of Work Life to a large extent because now employees have a sense of relief that employee

✔ Equitable and Fast Delivery of Justice

One of the key and deciding approaches to ensure good work-life quality is equitable and timely delivery of justice.

Organization management ensures the implementation of equitable administrative justice in all disciplinary actions, grievance redressal procedures, performance appraisal, transfers, work assignments, etc.

✔ Recognition of Work-Life issues

Organizations should address employees’ issues related to work-life by framing their employees-centric policies and procedure.

The higher management of organizations like the Board of members and board of directors should take Suo moto cognizance of employees regarding why employees are not happy, do they need training, why employee morale is poor, and numerous other issues.

✔ Provide Training as per Requirement

One of the ways to enhance work-life quality and minimize job dissatisfaction is to provide regular training to the employee so that they feel more engaged toward work and minimize the incidence of error and accident which enhance employee confidence.