Work life balance: a balanced concept for a well-balanced life

The principle of work life balance has prevailed over the past few years and seems to be gaining momentum. The reason why is that a growing number of employees try to reconcile professional and individual activity the best they can. 

The ministry's campaign seems to confirm this trend and here are some of the first testimonies on the topic: for most people, work/family balance is an ideal compromise between working life and personal life. 'My wife and I have cut down our working time to 60 and 75% to spend more time with our family'. Someone else said: 'In my view, having a good working life and personal life balance means reconciling the two, reaching professional goals and finding the time to spend time with your family'. 

Family life remains a decisive factor

The Ministry's action that follows ' Actions positives ' (positive actions) is laid out as an interactive Advent Calendar with 24 videos encouraging gender equality. Through these testimonies, that were published until 24 December 2021, employees as well as company executives have opted for flexible work solutions (reducing the working time, flexible work schedule, etc.) so as to better organise work and leisure. 'I worked a lot at the expense of my family life, that is why I decided to work part-time', explained a company executive in his testimony. 

These 24 video messages that reflect personal experiences, show that this balance strengthens employees' motivation generally speaking. Men can get more involved in their family life and women can improve their participation on the employment market.

In this work life balance, businesses increasingly invest in management tools, in particular in flexible work solutions, with a view to making employees more productive, but also happier and more balanced. Both the employer and the employee bear the responsibility of striking and establishing an ideal balance between working life and personal life. 

Positive Actions label

In our day and age, labour equality between men and women is a major issue in our society. Even though Luxembourg is well underway on the path towards an egalitarian society, gaps between genders persist in many areas. The Ministry of Equality between Women and Men is committed to advocating projects aimed towards this path, in order to reach perfect equality as quickly as possible. One of these projects consists of awarding the Positive Actions label to businesses who make a special effort to reach equality.

Around 80 businesses took part in the 6th edition of the label and 6 of them were nominated. The project is about reviewing the situation of men and women employed in businesses that launched many gender equality actions in the context of recruitment, salaries, promotions, training and working life/personal life balance.

The Positive Actions programme is based on a voluntary process that was put in place by businesses. It is based on an external assessment funded by the Ministry, through which areas for improvement can be identified. Support is then provided to help the establishment set up their individual action plan.