Are you satisfied with your work/life balance?

In recent years, increasing attention has been given to the issue of work-life balance. Governments, institutions and individual businesses have recognised that achieving a healthy balance not only boosts workers' health and morale, but also their productivity, ultimately benefitting the business too.

In order to measure and quantify real-life working behaviours, rather than simply relying on perceptions, the Regus Work/Life Balance Index calibrates a number of different factors such as work enjoyment, sense of achievement, additional duties, working hours, time spent commuting and the time consumed by work-related tasks as opposed to life outside work.

The Index, which surveyed 16,000 professionals surveyed across more than 80 countries, revealed an encouraging 24 per cent rise between 2010 and 2012. In 2012, some 61 per cent of business people globally feel that their work-life balance has improved.

Today, just as in 2010, emerging economies such as Mexico, Brazil, China and India all scored well above the global average in terms of work/life balance, suggesting that economic development has gone hand-in-hand with increased employee wellbeing. Perhaps because of its more mature economy, or maybe just due to its often-bemoaned long-hours culture, Hong Kong scores 117 index points, below the global average of 124 but seven points higher than the figure for 2010.

What this means is that, while people in both Hong Kong and the wider world believe that work/life balance has improved, the global improvement has outstripped Hong Kong's. However, Hong Kong's results are still encouraging: seventy-two per cent of Hong Kong's workers enjoy work more than they used to.

Sixty-five per cent are satisfied with the amount of time they spend at home or on personal pursuits, and the vast majority (79 per cent) say they achieve more at work than in 2010.

The improvement registered in the mainland, although starting from a much higher base of over 140 Index points, is even smaller than that of Hong Kong. China's rating has grown by just four points, the smallest variation in the sample analysed, perhaps suggesting that work-life balance is not a priority for employers given the slight slowdown in the economy.

Conversely, Western economies that were hardest hit by the downturn have registered some of the biggest improvements since 2010. For example, Germany, while still low in the global ranking, has seen its score jump from 59 to 95, one of the biggest improvements in the Index.

Globally, it appears that workers are also happier: sixty-nine per cent of respondents say they enjoy work more than in 2010 and 59 per cent say they are happy with the amount of time they have for life outside work. Seventy-four per cent of workers globally also believe they achieve more at work than they used to.

Interestingly, the research found that smaller companies were taking better care of their workers: their staff reported a higher work-life balance rating than larger companies. In small firms, the work-life balance index was 130 points, compared to only 109 in larger businesses. This is good news for Hong Kong, where small businesses employ around half the workforce.

Robin Bishop, Chief Operating Officer for Community Business, an NGO that advocates on CSR issues in Asia, feels that the results of the Index reflect progress, but Hong Kong employers could still do more. Commenting on our survey, she said, "There is strong evidence that the long working hours which are commonplace in Hong Kong are resulting in a culture of presenteeism for some organisations – employees being present but not working to their full capability.

This is adversely affecting these companies' bottom line. Organisations could overcome this by giving employees greater control over when, where and how they work by adopting flexible working arrangements."

These observations confirm something that we've long known at Regus: happier workers make more productive employees. At least some Hong Kong businesses seem to agree – separate Regus research published earlier this year revealed that 75 per cent of Hong Kong companies that have adopted flexible working practices say their productivity has increased as a result. Even more strikingly, 72 per cent of these companies drew a direct link between increased revenues and flexible working. This should make interesting reading for companies that still work in more traditional ways.