3 Simple and Effective Ways to Promote Work-Life Balance at Your Company Make sure you're creating opportunity for employees to learn, grow and take care of themselves both in and outside the office.

Creating a balance between work and personal life is tricky for all of us, but as a business leader, encouraging your employees to find that sense of balance is essential—and simply offering vacation time isn't going to cut it.

Why? Because a real balance between work and home life—not just two weeks of staycation time that everyone hordes for the winter holidays—keeps your team energized and motivated to take on that next big project.

Here are three key ways to help your team achieve a better balance.

1. Ditch the need for "9-5.'

In today's gig economy, allowing employees to set their own work hours rather than demanding a standard 9 to 5 can go a long way in promoting work-life balance.

Flexible work schedules can take many forms. For example, make Friday an optional work-from-home day or allow employees to choose three days in the office and two days to work from a location of their choice. There are tons of easy ways to stay connected virtually through software like Slack or Voxer, so at the end of the day: everyone wins (and gets their work done, too)!

2. Get creative about staying healthy.

There's no better way to show your employees that you care about their work—and their lives—than by giving them the resources to make healthy decisions for themselves and their family. For example, rather than simply offering standard health insurance coverage, consider expanding benefits to include such features as nutrition counseling, fitness reimbursement and off-the-job accident insurance, which can help protect employees in case of unexpected injury.

According to the 2017 Aflac Workforces Report, nearly half of employees report that health and wellness discounts are significant value-added services. This can easily be done by putting in place Health Savings Incentives and Health Reimbursement Incentives that allow your employees to set aside tax-free dollars toward their health and wellness regimen.

3. Make time off mandatory.

It's easy to get caught up in the constant churn of our day-to-day work lives. But as a manager, it's important to help your employees see the importance of being able to step away from work. As a leader, you send this message loud and clear—whether you're trying to lead by example or not. Are you habitually sending emails at midnight on Sunday? If yes, then you're encouraging your employees to be plugged into work 24/7, too. Make it known when you're taking a break from the workplace and encourage employees to do the same.

This can be done in a range of simple ways. For one, you can require that employees use their vacation days each year rather than simply rolling them over. Make out-of-office replies standard practice and encourage employees to stay off their email when taking time off. Another way to foster this sense of balance is by offering retreat days when employees are invited to step out of the office and do something relaxing together as a group. All work and no play is sure to burn even your toughest team members out, so make sure you're building time into the workplace for a little fun.

After all, the great benefit of time off (besides spending time with your loved ones, exploring your passions, connecting with your community, and caring for yourself and others) is that your return to work feeling refreshed and ready to dive back in!

See how Aflac can help you and your employees today at aflac.com/smallbusiness.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a solicitation. Aflac herein means American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus and American Family Life Assurance Company of New York.

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