Business & Money | Sunday 10 March, 2019 2:00 pm |

A new poll conducted by Bayt.com – the Middle East’s #1 Job Site – titled Work-Life Balance in the MENA Workplace explores its effect on performance, morale and commitment among MENA professionals. A whopping 90% of survey respondents consider work-life balance to be “extremely important”. In fact, it is so important that 65% of poll takers have considered leaving their current job to find better work-life balance at some point during the past 12 months.

Balanced employees tend to feel more motivated and less stressed out at work, which increases company productivity and reduces the number of conflicts among coworkers and management. Having a good balance between a personal life and career is the top priority for MENA professionals, 66% cite their family as the most important factor influencing their happiness, followed by their job (16%), salary (7%) hobbies and activities (4%), and friends and colleagues (3%).

Commenting on this matter, Suhail Masri Vice of Employer Solutions at Bayt.com said: “Empowering professionals to take control over their lives can have a profound impact on job satisfaction and performance, the latest Bayt.com survey explores the benefits of finding a balance between work and home lives, which impacts employee happiness and company’s ability to attract and retain talent. We arm our job seekers and employers with the tools to act based on such information. Our 35+ million job seekers have the ability to browse thousands of jobs online to choose what suits their preferences and goals. Companies can play a key role in highlighting their culture and attention to work-life balance through their company profiles, job posts, and all hiring activities that are done online.”

Reducing stress to increase performance in all aspects of life – including one’s job – is the ultimate goal of work-life balance. MENA employers are playing an active role in the wellbeing of their employees – 74% survey respondents said that their leadership respects their time and work-life balance and 79% say that they have time to exercise and take care of their health and 77% have time to pursue their hobbies and passions. In general, 75% of MENA employees feel that they maintain a healthy work-life balance.

However, not all workplaces are the same and workload fluctuates overtime– at one point or another during the past year, 65% of employees have considered leaving their current job because of a lack of work-life balance. At the same time, more than half of professionals (57%) say that they neglect some personal and family responsibilities due to work.

Long workhours is directly associated with lower work-life balance. In the MENA region, 45% of professionals said they work more than 40 hours a week. About three-quarters of professionals (74%) said they often have to work overtime or put in extra hours from home.

Modern employees demand greater control over their lives and a bigger say in the structure of their jobs and an influence on their own schedules in order to striking a most sustained balance between their career and family obligations and personal matters.

Data for the Bayt.com’s Work-Life Balance in the MENA Workplace survey was collected online from January 9, 2019 to February 27, 2019. Results are based on a sample of 9,833 respondents. Countries assessed include UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Sudan.