Better Balance, Better Business - What Are the Options?

Family friendly work practices are not limited to maternity leave. There are a wide range of options available to you and your small business that will promote a healthy balance between work and family. Here are just a few of the practices that may be of interest to small business owners.

Family Friendly Practice

Benefit

Considerations

Job share is where two or more people share the responsibilities, hours, salary and benefits of one full time job. Business has access to highly skilled employees while outputs are achieved at a full time level.

Job sharers can access challenging and satisfying part time roles, and have the flexibility to cover for each other when family things come up.

Job sharers will need to communicate well and ensure continuity of tasks.Would they benefit from some crossover time?

Purchased annual leave or 48/52 enables an employee to purchase additional leave during the course of a year. For example, if working a 48/52 purchased leave arrangement, the employee will receive an extra four weeks' paid leave per year.

The employee’s salary of 48 weeks is paid over 52 weeks. Other variations of this leave include 46/52.

Parents can better manage care during school holidays, as unlike leave without pay, they can be at home with their kids and still have wages coming in. It also allows the business to plan well ahead to cover these absences.

You will need to cover the employee’s position for the extra time they are away. Employees will of course need to consider whether they can afford to live on the reduced wage and also how it will affect their super.

Employee choice rostering, also known
as self rostering, allows employees to select shifts, either on a permanent or rotating basis, that best suit their caring and other responsibilities.

Makes shift work more attractive as
it allows employees to plan around their day-to-day family responsibilities and one-off events. It also frees up some time for the owner to do non-rostering tasks.

How will employees negotiate with each other and with you to ensure that business needs are covered? Clear guidelines and a transparent process for negotiations and decision-making are essential.

A family friendly workplace tries to accommodate people’s family commitments at work. For example, you may be able to provide a private phone for emergency family phone calls, a carer’s or family room for lactation breaks, breastfeeding, or for children who are not at school due to a minor illness or holidays. Another simple thing you can do is to plan social events that families can come along to.

Reduces absenteeism and stress. Acts to boost employee loyalty and morale, leading to greater retention and reduced turnover costs.

How can disruptions and distractions to other employees be kept to a minimum?

Also, make sure that employees without dependents know that these practices are extended to the people they care about.

For details and further examples of other flexible work practices, check out this VECCI fact sheet.

CASE STUDY: Relief for rostering headaches

Photo of Dianne and PeeWee the dog.

Dianne Gibney gives her friend, PeeWee, a check-up. Photo: Gabriella Favretto.

Ballarat Family Pet Care Clinic co-owners Diane Gibney and Caroline McCutcheon have some unique issues to consider when rostering their staff. For example, pregnant veterinarians cannot take radiographs or administer certain anaesthetics. With 13 mums on their payroll, the clinic has been experimenting with different approaches to rostering.

Previously, each new staff member noted their availability and preferred shifts and the clinic did their best to accommodate them. However, it was extremely difficult to juggle everyone’s preferences, especially as most of the mums wanted similar shifts. Diane and Caroline often covered the gaps themselves, to the detriment of their own family commitments.

“To improve that process, our employees now take responsibility for any changes to their hours they might need”, Diane says. “If someone needs to take a half day for example, it’s up to them to talk to the other staff and organise someone to cover that time for them. It means that the roster is always changing and evolving, but the service is covered and our employees are able to have more flexibility, so we’re happy with how it’s going.”

Defining family

When you’re thinking about family friendly practices, keep in mind that families come in all shapes and sizes. Here is an example of a very broad and inclusive definition:

“By family, (this business) means those relationships defined as such by the employee. This includes all the people the employee provides support for.”

Children welcome

Photo of Carolyn on forklift at the Carman's factory.

Carolyn Cresswell enjoys the diverse aspects of her family friendly business, Carman's Fine Foods. Photo: Gabriella Favretto.

Carolyn Creswell bought her own muesli-making business when she was just 18 years old. Carman’s muesli and muesli bars are now stocked in all the major supermarkets throughout Australia, and are exported throughout the Asia-Pacific region and to the UK.

“When you own your own business, the space you create is up to you”, says Carolyn. “I try to make my business not only ‘family friendly’ but ‘people friendly."

Carolyn has made a conscious decision to advertise jobs in the local paper and to employ people who live locally. This makes it easier for mums to pick up their children from school. “I also created a ‘family room’ so that mothers can bring their kids back here after school, or the older children make their own way here. It means they’re supervised and their mums aren’t worrying about them. The family room is also handy if a child is too sick to go to school. It gets used just about every day.” The family room has chairs and a bed, a computer with games, a TV and DVDs. “I have found that if you go the extra mile for your staff, they really go the extra mile for you.”

Eighty percent of businesswomen who took part in a recent Westpac survey said they started their own business to create a more flexible schedule and balanced life for themselves. Read about the survey results.

Although many women start out with intentions to improve their lifestyle flexibility, many find the all-consuming passion of raising their ‘business baby’ causes them to lose sight of their original goals.

Does this sound familiar? Do you now find yourself overextended and struggling to fit in those things that you thought would be easier once you left the 9 to 5 grind behind?

Check out these articles for simple ways to keep yourself balanced while running your own business.

Leaving corporate culture behind– harder than it sounds

Photo of Kerry Melbourne and her two children.

Kerry Melbourne started her business, Copy Crew, to ensure she wouldn't miss out on her kids' growing up. Photo: Gabriella Favretto.

Kerry Melbourne started her own printing business, Copy Crew, because she felt she had ‘missed out’ on her first child’s early years of schooling due to her demanding job as a skincare/cosmetics representative, when long hours and frequent travel kept her away from home.

“When my second child started school, I was determined to find a way to take control of my own hours and give my family greater priority”, Kerry says. Kerry realised that the skincare/cosmetics industry has an insatiable appetite for printing, and that with her contacts and insider’s knowledge, this was the perfect business opportunity for her. "Initially I felt guilty about leaving my business at 2.30pm each day to pick up the kids from school. I was concerned that my staff and customers might doubt my level of commitment. I guess I’m still in the process of changing that old mind set about work – that you’ve got to be there all the time.”

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