Independent Banker - February 2019 - 60

city over a small town, offering a variety of worklife
balance options is an increasingly important
strategy for community banks.
Stress-reduction strategy
Joe Robinson, a work-life balance and stress
management trainer at Optimal Performance
Strategies in Santa Monica, Calif., says a lack
of work-life balance ultimately leads to stress.
" Stress is a function of how much control you
feel you have over your demands, " he says. " If
you feel overwhelmed by your demands, you will
experience stress. "
"
Getting rid
of the idea
that work life
and home
life need
to balance
each other
perfectly
allows me to
release guilt
on both sides
of the scale. "
-Julie Croak
Waddle, FNB
Community
Bank
Stress can be the result of working too many
hours or working beyond coping capacity during
regular hours. Robinson says burnout, the last
stage of chronic stress, is a significant problem
these days. " Burnout is a state of total physical,
mental and emotional exhaustion, " he explains.
The impact of stress and burnout on
employees? According to Robinson, research
shows that people who work more than 51
hours a week are prone to increased risk of heart
disease and diabetes. Excess stress can lead to
excess absenteeism and increased health care
costs overall. " In terms of burnout in specific,
it is five times more expensive to treat than the
average workplace malady, " he says. " This is not
only not good for the employees experiencing
it, but also not good for the banks themselves,
because the employees have no energy to
get their work done, and they also tend to
experience depersonalization, meaning that they
aren't relating well to clients and customers. "
In fact, numerous studies show that worklife
balance improves employee engagement,
according to Robinson. " In addition, one
research report found that employees who
feel they have good work-life balance are 28
percent more productive, " he says. " We are in
the 'knowledge economy' now, so productivity is
really a function of how refreshed and energized
employees are. "
The less time employees have to " recharge,
reset and reboot " their brains, he adds, the
less productive they are going to be. " In sum,
after years of studying this, I have come to the
60 Q ICBA Independent Banker Q February 2019
conclusion that, if you have life satisfaction, you
are probably also going to have job satisfaction, "
Robinson says. " The two go hand in hand. "
Robinson believes that the top two work-life
benefits that community banks should consider
offering are flexible work hours and being able to
work remotely when possible. " Most employees
love these options, " he says. " Even one day a
week of being able to work remotely can make a
big difference to employees. "
In addition, community banks should focus
on boundaries. With all of the communication
technologies in place these days, employees
often feel compelled to be " on " all the time. Even
when they are not actually physically present in
their workplaces, employees may have trouble
detaching themselves from work.
" Banks should pay attention to making sure
that employees can feel unplugged after they
leave work, " Robinson adds.
Building work-life integration
Julie Croak Waddle, assistant vice president and
digital marketing manager for $470 millionasset
FNB Community Bank of Midwest City,
Okla., is very aware of the importance of worklife
balance initiatives. " The ability to work
from home occasionally is extremely appealing
to me, because it allows me to fit work into my
schedule, " she says. " Because my job at the
bank is mostly done on a computer and is not
customer-facing, I am able to partake of this
perk more than my peers. "
Waddle adds that working remotely allows her
to be less distracted and better able to focus on
completing certain projects.
Having flexible time off that rolls over to the
next year is also key. " Right now, I am trying
to save up my sick days so I can use them after
giving birth in a couple of years, " she says.
The latest perk at FNB Community Bank?
Onsite massages. " We aren't sure if this will be
a one-time event or reoccurring, but many of
my peers and I are excited for our 15-minute
massages to come in a couple of weeks, "
Waddle says. She believes being able to work
in a comfortable environment that offers some
Independent Banker - February 2019

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