How HR can promote work-life balance

Want to cultivate a culture that encourages work-life balance? Be the change you want to see in the workplace.

“HR needs to set the example,” Sam DeMase, career expert at ZipRecruiter, said during a recent episode of HR Brew’s People Person podcast, later elaborating, “When I was leading a team, I tried to go off the philosophy of authenticity, transparency. If I’m setting a boundary, I’m explaining to my team why. If I’m leaving for an appointment, I’m being radically honest about it.”

And urge leadership to do the same. “Just because [leaders] work 9-to-6 doesn’t mean [employees] have to work 9-to-6, without a lunch,” she said. “Let them be outcome-oriented instead of hours focused.”

DeMase discussed work-life balance—how to define it, promote it, and prioritize it—with Kate Noel, SVP and head of people operations at Morning Brew.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

How are you defining “balance” right now?

For me, it means I’m happy in my life and I’m happy in my work. It’s finding joy in both and not being overwhelmed by one or the other.

When you think about work-life balance, I feel like people tend to think, “Oh, I’m not working,” or time off. Is there more to it?

It’s not just about the time off. Time off is one aspect of work-life balance, but there’s plenty of other aspects…are you balancing your hobbies, your personal interests, things that fuel you outside of work? Those things are what really add balance to the phrase “work-life balance.”

As HR people, we tend to think about work-life balance for others, not ourselves. Do you think that’s important?

Organizations where HR is not setting an example, the work-life balance is going to be non-existent, pretty much, because I think HR sets the tone. And HR should also be honestly educating leadership across teams on how to set the great example for work-life balance for their team. So it trickles down, it cascades down.

How, as an HR person, can I do that?

You have to make the time to prioritize it. And I think one easy way HR can do it is just with a little bit of authenticity and a little bit of transparency and communication…The HR leaders who go silent and don’t set boundaries, that instills a culture of fear and that makes people think like, “All right, well if you’re not doing it, that certainly means I can never take a moment to go do something else. I need to be on 24/7”...It’s not just what you do—it’s also what you don’t do.

Earlier you mentioned educating leadership—as an HR person, how do I educate leadership?

One thing that has really helped me in the past when it comes to leadership education has been the phrase “outcomes over hours”...sometimes, [leaders] get really attached to monitoring their team’s hours. Are you clocked in? Is your mouse moving? That is not where impact comes from…it’s really about: Are you setting goals with your team? Are you clear about your expectations? Are you setting very, very clear goals that your team can hit? Then in that case, let them do it how it works for them. It doesn’t have to be on your schedule.

What do you think are the benefits, the protocols, the processes, the things that employees actually care about when it comes to implementing a work-life balance?

Flex work is number one. So not tying people to an office location, but saying you can work from anywhere as long as you’re getting your work done…Gen Z sees work-life balance not as a perk, but as a fundamental, right? They see it as they saw their parents and their grandparents get burnt out, struggle with work their whole lives. So now this flexibility, this balance, it’s not just a nice to have—it’s a must. They’re going to advocate for it regardless. They’re going to push for it. So I think we need to get ahead of it and say, we know this is a core value for you, so here’s how we’re looking at it.

I could see an HR person, in any space, say, “Well, it’s not a priority right now.” What would you say to that?

If it’s not a priority, you need to rearrange your priorities, because data shows that workers who have some sort of balance or have some sort of ability to explore their passions while they’re working are going to do their best work…And maybe it’s not about doing better. Maybe it’s about doing different. But I think a lot of people don’t look to their teams for that guidance and look to just implement the policy and then the team feels like it’s happening to them instead of for them.

For more from this conversation, tune into the People Person podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube, or watch it below.