A Comparative Study on Work-life Balance in Banks of Bangladesh

Prepared by:Farhana Mofiz Roll- 61Mashrifa Islam Roll- 62Tazrian Shainam Shahid Roll- 68Farha Hasin Moushumi Roll- 70Sohel Sagar Roll - 75Shajid Islam Roll -108

Balance

Work–Life Balance

Work–life balance is a broad concept which essentially refers to proper prioritization between "work" i.e. career and ambition on the one hand and life i.e. health, pleasure, leisure, family and spiritual development, on the other.

[Boswell, Wendy, and Julie Olson-Buchanan (1993). ]

Work–Life Balance

WORK!!! LIFE!

!!

Importance of Work-life Balance

Symptoms of stress are manifested both physiologically and psychologically. Growth and profit impact. Full Engagement and customer service. Competitive advantage for talent. Health-care cost solution.

Banks in Focus

Bangladesh Bank - Central Bank of Bangladesh

BASIC Bank- A specialized development bankHongkong Shanghai Banking Corporation- A

multinational BankPrime Bank Limited- A locally owned bank

Policies in Focus

Special Leave ArrangementsParenting and Pregnancy Leave PoliciesFlexible Work ArrangementsAdditional Work ProvisionsMaintenance of Formality Employee Experience and Equity of Practice

Methodology

Objectives To find out the practice of “work- life balance” policies

in our banking industry. To compare the present work life balance structure of

4 different banks To investigate how employees rank certain work life

balance polices.

Data Source Both primary and secondary

Data Collection Questionnaire Survey (primary) Literature Review (secondary)

Limitations Lack of experience: Sample Size Time and resource constraints Non Co-operation by the respondents Bias

Special Leave Arrangements

  HSBCPrime Bank

BASIC Bank

Bangladesh Bank

Carer’s Leave*       

Study/ training leave       

Career breaks       

Festival leaves       

Bereavement Leave       

Pooling Leave Entitlement

       

Policy not available

Policy Available

Special Leave Arrangements

Festival leave is available in all 4 banks with high level of importance among the

employees

Carer’s leave did not rank very important.Berevement leave is only available in HSBC and Bangladesh Bank.Career Breaks are not available in any of

the 4 banks

Study and Training leave is only available in Bangladesh Bank. Academics is given high significance

in the Bangladeshi culture which is probably why all the employees gave this criterion high importance.

Pooling Leave arrangement is only available in HSBC. Maybe due to higher income brackets of employees.

Carer

’s L

eave

*

Study/

trai

ning le

ave

Caree

r bre

aks

Festiv

al le

aves

Berea

vem

ent L

eave

Poolin

g Lea

ve E

ntitle

men

t 0

2

4

6

HSBCPrimeBASICBB

Parenting & Pregnancy Policies

  HSBCPrime Bank

BASIC Bank

Bangladesh Bank

Unpaid maternity/paternity and adoption leave

       

Paid maternity leave       

Paid paternity leave       

Paid adoption leave       

Opportunity to return to the same job after maternity/paternity leave        

Safety at work during pregnancy        

Pre-natal leave       

Flexible work time for a fixed time period after maternity leave        

A carer’s room or day care facilities and bringing children to work options        

Employer assistance with childcare

       

Parenting & Pregnancy Policies

Unp

aid

mat

erni

ty/p

ater

nity

and

ado

ptio

n le

ave

Paid

mat

erni

ty le

ave

Paid

pat

erni

ty le

ave

Paid

ado

ptio

n le

ave

Opp

ortu

nity

to ret

urn

to th

e sa

me

job

afte

r m

ater

nity

leav

e

Safe

ty a

t wor

k du

ring

pre

gnan

cy

Pre-

nata

l lea

ve

Flexi

ble

wor

k tim

e fo

r a

fixed

tim

e pe

riod

afte

r m

ater

nity

leav

e

A car

er’s roo

m o

r da

y ca

re fa

cilit

ies an

d br

ingi

ng chi

ldre

n to

wor

k op

tions

Empl

oyer

ass

ista

nce

with

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HSBCPrimeBASICBB

Findings on Parenting and Pregnancy Leave Policies

Paid Maternity and Paternity leave received a very high level of importance

Unpaid maternity leave was not rated important.

Paid adoption leave received a low level of importance probably because adoption is not very popular in Bangladesh.

Opportunity to return to the same job after maternity leave - With increasing number female workers in the workforce, job security after maternity leave has become very important.

Safety at work during pregnancy- During pregnancy, safety is very important for the health of the baby hence this arrangement is given high rating of importance. Though not present as a structured policy this is however present as cultural norm in all organizations.

Pre-natal leave -There was no special provision for this leave. Employees generally use up their sick leaves in such cases.

Flexible work time for a fixed time period after maternity leave- most of the employees rated this leave arrangement important because even after the baby is six months it still needs special attention and care.

A carer’s room or day care facilities and bringing children to work options-Bangladesh bank and Prime bank rated this leave arrangement highly. In a decade where families are becoming more nuclear and domestic help short in supply this facility is an important benefit to employees.

Flexible Work Arrangements

  HSBCPrime Bank

BASIC Bank

Bangladesh Bank

Job sharing       

Telecommuting       

Maximum overtime allowed

       Opportunity to negotiate part-time work for full-time employees        Time/off in lieu for working on holidays        Flexible start and finish times

       Gradual retirement

       

Flexible work arrangements

0

2

4

6

HSBCPrimeBASICBB

Findings on Flexible work arrangements:

Culturally Bangladesh bank has more flexibility where as HSBC have least.

Job sharing was rated highly important in the job as it helps reduces stress. Gradual retirement which is not available in Bangladesh also helps reduce stress at old age.

Gradual retirement helps employees slowly adapt to different lifestyles and also helps reduce stress which becomes increasingly more difficult to handle as age elevates.

Additional Work Provisions

  HSBCPrime Bank

BASIC Bank

Bangladesh Bank

Telephone for personal use        

Counseling services for employees

       

Referral services for employees

       

Health program

       

Parenting or family support program

       

Exercise facilities

       

Relocation or placement assistance

       

Equal access to promotion, training and development        

Additional Work Provisions

Telep

hone

for per

sonal

use

Cou

nselin

g ser

vice

s fo

r em

ploye

es

Ref

erra

l ser

vice

s fo

r em

ploye

es

Hea

lth p

rogra

m

Paren

ting o

r fa

mily

suppor

t pro

gram

Exerc

ise

faci

litie

s

Rel

ocat

ion o

r pla

cem

ent as

sist

ance

Equal a

cces

s to

pro

mot

ion, t

rain

ing a

nd dev

elop

men

t0

1

2

3

4

5

6

HSBCPrimeBASICBB

Findings on Additional Work provision

Additional work provision arrangements are provided as fringe benefit that will achieve two-fold objectives of motivating the employees as well as take care of employee well-being.

These arrangements are drawn every month on top of monthly salaries.

In the four banks analyzed, employees showed higher level of importance for equal access to promotion and development, telephone for personal use and health programs.

Maintenance of Formalities

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Written copies of

their ‘work-life’ balance

policies

Seen or given a copy

of their ‘work-life’ balance policies

Ease of un-derstanding the work life

balance policies

0%

30%

60%

90%

Bangladesh BankBASIC BankHSBCPrime Bank

Employee Experience and Equity of Practice

Yes

No

Don’t

Know

Yes

No

Don’t

Know

Yes

No

Don’t

Know

Yes

No

Don’t

Know

Yes

No

Don’t

Know

Equivalent treatment of ‘work-life bal-

ance’ policies to all levels

Similar access to both male & fe-male employees

Similar treatment to both part-time & fulltime em-

ployees

Encouragement to use ‘work-life balance’ policies

Suitable time for social functions

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Bangladesh BankBASIC BankHSBCPrime Bank

Employee Experience and Equity of Practice

0

2

4

6

HSBCPrimeBASICBB

Findings on Employee Experience and Equity of Practice

With the rate of female employees rising in the workforce, it is not surprising that employees rated the similar access to both gender an important criterion.

Equivalent treatment policies to all levels of employees were also rated highly important on average.

Encouragement to use ‘work-life balance’ policies were also rated high depicting that the employers’ attitude towards work-life balance policy is important to the employees.

It is probably a reflection of the long hours that all bank employees have to put in that they have arbitrarily rated the allowance for suitable time for social functions as high.

Recommendations

Flexible hours- Arrangements for flexible hours working can be of particular benefits for parents with younger children, who need arrangements to drop and pick the children from school.

Parental leave- Parental leave by its nature is intended to cope with times of particular stress or change in the family especially in the dual-earning family.

Telecommuting- Telecommuting is a great way to achieve work life balance as one can save the time spent to communicate and escape the rigid office hours.

Eliminate discriminatory treatment

Day – care arrangements- The added cost will benefit the organization by reducing employee stress, increasing the focus and reducing employee turnover.

Facilitate professional help through Employee Assistance program (EAP)- Organization may initiate a program like employee assistance program which provides advisory services to the employees and that is for free of charge and confidential.

Part time work opportunities- Part-time work should be an attainable option without loss of benefits or becoming marginalized in the organization.

Job share- Job share is a particular type of collective part-time arrangement, where an individual can be assured that the job is being carried out properly by someone else when they are not working.

QUESTIONS???

Thank YouBalance