Challenges

Case examples demonstrate that efforts to measure the benefit and economic impact of work-life balance policies on the ICT sector has been sporadic at best. Organisations are relying on anecdotal evidence, perception studies, intuition, or publicly available statistics. Even though it was relatively easy to identify work-life balance measures in the ICT sector, detailed evaluations of such programmes were unsystematic and scarce. In addition, work-life balance measures in companies do not tend to be assessed from a gender perspective, and are not always linked to specific gender-equality objectives. This is particularly the case when national legislation does not require gender-equality planning or monitoring of gender-equality progress.

There are plenty of reasons why ICT companies do not measure the impact of work-life balance measures. One of the main ones is the difficulty of carrying out such assessments. It is difficult to define performance outcomes, assess intangibles, and untie the impact of work-life balance initiatives from other organisational practices (such as company facilities, communication and CSR), as well as from changes taking place outside the organisation. Human-resource staff and other managers designing measures , may also lack gender expertise.

Despite these challenges, it has been possible to identify the organisational benefits of work-life balance practices within this study. Indicators to monitor and evaluate performance have also been developed, as well as a step-by-step guide to aid decision-makers measure the impact of work-life balance initiatives.