Careers A balancing act I Work/life balance is bandied around as a term, but what should business leaders consider when formulating a policy on the issue? Liam Kay reports t is 9pm, and your phone lights up. An urgent email has come through from the Singapore office, and your immediate help is requested. Should you answer that email? Or should your company in fact have prevented it from being sent in the first place? Work/life balance is a frequently used term in market research and beyond. And yet it means very different things to different people. It can range from time off for caring duties or a family emergency and hybrid or flexible working, to the opportunity to work in another country. It can be as basic as the ability to ignore emails after a certain time of day, or it could involve a more complex arrangement such as taking a year-long sabbatical to study or travel. Does the market research industry do enough to promote a healthy work/life balance? In research for Impact, Hall & Partners surveyed 29 market research employees and found that 21 felt their company helped their work/life balance, while eight said it was hindered by their employer. A survey of 500 non-research employees from multiple industries found that 62.4% reported that they were helped by their company to have a positive balance while 37.6% said they were hindered. Sue Klinck, chief people officer at Hall & Partners, says that hybrid working has helped build a community feel at the firm, and has been heavily influenced by the pandemic. At Hall & Partners, office-based working averages about two days a week, but is planned on an ad-hoc basis around 42 Impact ISSUE 39 2022_pp42-43_Careers.indd 42 26/09/2022 10:26