Work-Life Balance Study, 2007: Employers' Survey

In 2000, the Government launched the Work-Life Balance Campaign, targeting employers to promote the benefits of flexible working for all employees. Although this campaign was not specifically aimed at parents or carers, the legislation restricted rights to apply for changes in the hours, timing or place of work to those employees with caring responsibilities. <br><br>The then Department for Education and Employment (later the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and now the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS)) carried out the first <i>Work-Life Balance Survey</i> (WLB1) in 2000 (held at the UK Data Archive under SN 4465). It was used to assess how far employers operated work-life balance practices and whether employees felt that existing practices met their needs. The first survey was followed up in 2003 by a second survey, a two-part survey of employees and employers (WLB2) (held under SNs 5079 and 5080) and by a third wave in 2006 and 2007 (WLB3) (held under SNs 7028 and 5787). The fourth employee survey was carried out in 2011 (held under SN 7112) and the fourth employers survey was completed in 2013 (held under SN 7775).<br><br> The WLB3 Employers' Survey was commissioned with three main aims in mind:<ul><li>to monitor changes since the previous work-life balance studies by collecting data on awareness, provision, take-up and demand in relation to work-life balance arrangements and on employers’ perceptions of positive benefits and detrimental impacts arising from the provision of these arrangements</li><li>to provide a robust baseline for future evaluation in relation to the provisions brought in under the Work and Families Act 2006</li><li>to examine other issues which relate to work-life balance, including differential provision and take-up between sub-groups of employees</li></ul>