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

Prepared by: Farhana Mofiz Mashrifa Islam Tazrian Shainam Shahid Farha Hasin Moushumi Sohel Sagar Shajid Islam

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WorkLife Balance
Worklife 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). ]

WorkLife Balance

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 bank

Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corporation- A

multinational Bank Prime Bank Limited- A locally owned bank

Policies in Focus
Special Leave Arrangements

Parenting and Pregnancy Leave Policies

Flexible Work Arrangements Additional Work Provisions

Maintenance 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

HSBC
Carers Leave* Study/ training leave Career breaks Festival leaves Bereavement Leave Pooling Leave Entitlement Policy not available

Prime BASIC Bangladesh Bank Bank Bank

Policy Available

Special Leave Arrangements

6 5

4
3 2 1

HSBC Prime BASIC BB

Carers Leave* Study/ Career breaks training leave Festival leaves Bereavement Leave Pooling Leave Entitlement

Festival leave is available in all 4 banks with high Study and Training leave is only available in Bangladesh Bank. Carersleave is among the employeesculture leave did Academics isimportancenot available in HSBC Bangladeshi Berevementgiven high significance in very HSBC. Maybe. level of arrangementonly rankthe in important Pooling Leave is only available which is probably why all areemployees gave this any of the Career Breaks the and to higher income Bank. ofnot available incriterion high 4 due Bangladesh brackets employees. importance. banks

Parenting & Pregnancy Policies

Prime BASIC HSBC Bank 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 carers room or day care facilities and bringing children to work options Employer assistance with childcare

Bangladesh Bank

Parenting & Pregnancy Policies

6 5 4

3
2 1 0
Unpaid Paid maternity leave Paid paternity leave Paid adoption leave Opportunity to Safety at work during maternity/paternity return to the same pregnancy and adoption leave job after maternity leave Pre-natal leave Flexible work time A carers room or day Employer assistance for a fixed time care facilities and with childcare bringing children to period after maternity leave work options

HSBC Prime BASIC BB

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 carers 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

HSBC
Job sharing Telecommuting

Prime Bank

BASIC Bank

Bangladesh Bank

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

6 5 4 3 2

1
0
Job sharing Telecommuting Maximum overtime allowed Opportunity to Time/off in lieu Flexible start negotiate part- for working on and finish times time work for holidays full-time employees Gradual retirement

HSBC Prime BASIC BB

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

Prime Bank BASIC Bank Bangladesh Bank

HSBC
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

6 5 4 3 2 HSBC Prime BASIC BB

1
0

Telephone Counseling for personal services for use employees

Referral services for employees

Health program

Parenting or family support program

Exercise facilities

Relocation or Equal access placement to assistance promotion, training and development

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

100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

Bangladesh Bank BASIC Bank HSBC

Yes No Yes No Yes No

Prime Bank

Written copies Seen or given a Ease of of their workcopy of their understanding life balance work-life the work life policies balance balance policies policies

Employee Experience and Equity of Practice

90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 Bangladesh Bank

BASIC Bank
HSBC Prime Bank

10
0 Yes No Dont Know Yes No Dont Know Yes No Dont Know Yes No Dont Know Yes No Dont Know

Equivalent treatment Similar access to both Similar treatment to of work-life balance male & female both part-time & employees fulltime employees policies to all levels

Encouragement to use work-life balance policies

Suitable time for social functions

Employee Experience and Equity of Practice

6 5 4 3 2 1 HSBC Prime BASIC BB

Equivalent Similar access to Similar treatment Encouragement Suitable time for treatment of both male & to both part-time to use work-life social functions work-life balance policies female employees & fulltime balance policies employees to all levels

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. also rated highly important on average.

Equivalent treatment policies to all levels of employees were

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.

Thank You