Abstract:
Introduction: Work-Life Balance (WLB) has grown in its significance in the eyes of both employees and employers in the past few decades. Studies have indicated that there is a positive relationship between WLB and employee’s performance as well as organization’s performance. Organizations play a big role in setting up practices that will help employees to balance their work and life responsibilities. This study aimed to assess implementation of Work-Life Balance (WLB) practices among employees working in the health sector Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Tanzania.
Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional study deploying mixed methods was used to collect data from 282 sampled employees working in 5 NGOs in the health sector in Kinondoni Municipality. Quantitative data were collected using a questionnaire with structured questions and data were analyzed using SPSS software. For qualitative data, Key Informant Interviews (KII) were conducted with nine (9) experienced human resource officers among them 7 were female. Data collected were thematically analyzed.
Results: From 282 respondents, 83%, of employees were aware of WLB practices of which women are 54% more aware of the WLB practices. Annual leave, working hours in a day and working days in the week were the commonly utilized WLB practices and considered basic for all employees. Male employees have shown a lower utilization percentage in all basic WLB practices annual leave, working hours in a day and working days in a week at 38.3%, 15.6% and 8.5% compared to their counterpart female employees who reported utilization of the same WLB practices at 42.6%,17% and 28.4% respectively. Moreover, almost 30% of the participants confirmed not being able to balance their work and personal affairs and they spend longer hours (average of 45 hours per week) working than the standard hours. From interviews with nine (9) key informants, we found that attitude of top management team of the organization and supervisor’s towards WLB plays a big role in determining WLB practices implementation among employees working in the health sector NGOs in Tanzania.
Conclusions and Recommendations: Organizations should have effective strategies and regular follow ups to enhance WLB implementation among NGO employees in the health sector especially among male employees. Trainings to supervisors and to all staffs is among the strategies to enhance WLB implementation among NGO employees.
