Better balance, better business

Women now own more than 30% of Australian small businesses. In 2007 WIRE conducted the 'Women's Business - Family Friendly Business' project which set out to help 12 women who run their own small business to identify, design and implement policies that would create more family friendly workplaces and achieve their own work family balance. Read more...

Getting the balance right

In 2006 WIRE worked with a group of women who were managers of small women’s not-for-profit organisations on a project designed to assist them to create more family friendly workplaces. Read more...

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Better balance, better business: creating family friendly workplaces for women who run their own small businesses.

The 'Women's Business - Family Friendly Business' project was conducted by WIRE - Women's Information, Queen Victoria Women's Centre with funding provided by Industrial Relations Victoria.

Twelve women who own 11 businesses employing a total of 84 people were recruited and provided with support to implement family friendly practices in their workplaces. This included focus groups where the owners were brought together to discuss their experiences; including practices they had already put in place as well as identifying future challenges for work family balance in their businesses.

Two project workers also visited each owner at their workplace to help them assess what options might be adapted to suit their needs.

One of the tools created to assist participants was a template handbook(pdf 132Kb) of Family Friendly Policies and Practices which can be adapted to suit the needs of individual businesses.

Another output of this project is the 'Better balance, better business' booklet we have created to help women who run their own small businesses to find better work family balance and create more family friendly workplaces.

It is filled with case studies drawn from the businesswomen who participated in the project and outlines options available to enhance flexibility in the workplace, such as job share, purchased annual leave and self-rostering are outlined, as well as easy common sense ideas like inviting families along to work social events.

Setting up a family room in the workplace where children can come after school is one simple idea that participant Carolyn Cresswell, owner of Carman's Fine Foods, has implemented.

'When you own your own business the space you create is up to you,' says Carolyn. 'I have found that if you go the extra mile for your staff, they really go the extra mile for you.'
It also summarises the business case for going family friendly, has suggestions for promoting businesses as being family friendly, as well as a list of useful contacts for further information and support.

Download the 'Better balance, better business' booklet here (pdf 1.83Mb).

To view an interactive version of the booklet with additional links throughout go to www.qvwc.org.au/infohub.

To order free copies of 'Better balance, better business' call WIRE on 1300 134 130, email us or fax a publication form (pdf 300Kb) to 03 9921 0888.

To find out more about the project contact Samiro Douglas, CEO of WIRE on 03 9921 0875.

Key findings

Women now own more than 30% of Australian small businesses, and according to a recent Westpac survey, 80% of those women started their own business in order to achieve greater work life balance.

These figures were supported by the 12 small business owners who participated in the 'Women's Business - Family Friendly Business' project, who also said that work family balance was a major motivation for starting their own business.

According to participant Diane Gibney, part owner of Ballarat Family Pet Care Clinic, this was often a difficult goal to achieve in practice. 'Starting a business is like having a baby,' Diane said. 'You give birth to it and then it takes on a life of its own.'

It was also found that female business owners often felt stretched thin between work and family commitments. Many reported feeling guilty if they had to leave their family to attend to the business and guilty about leaving their ‘other family’, their staff if they had to attend to their family. They were also often nervous about revealing their family obligations to their clients.

Family friendly practices can reduce turnover and absenteeism. See the table below.

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Getting the balance right: Creating family friendly workplaces for women in small non government organisations

Juggling work and family has always been a very live issue for many women, and it has become a hot topic for debate in the media as well as the subject of a Parliamentary Inquiry.

According to the Business Council of Australia's submission to that inquiry, their members report that family-friendly work practices are still seen as 'women's business' and this is a major impediment to their adoption.

While we at WIRE would all like to see these issues taken seriously by men, in 2006 we decided to tackle these issues in our own backyard. To this end, along with our partners the Queen Victoria Women's Centre and URCOT we ran a project to support women's NGO's to implement family friendly practices.

One of the outputs of this project is the ‘Getting the balance right: Creating family friendly workplaces for women in small non government organisations’ booklet.

The project and this booklet were made possible through grants from Industrial Relations Victoria (Better Work and Family Balance Grants) and the Victorian Women's Trust.
View the booklet here (pdf 2.65Mb)

To view an interactive version of the booklet with links to useful resources go to the 'Work Family Balance' section of the InfoHub click here.

To order your free copies of the booklet call WIRE on 1300 134 130, email us or fax a publication form (pdf 290Kb) to 03 9921 0888.

What’s in the booklet?

This booklet addresses the questions:

• Why should we make our workplace more family friendly?

• What options are available to help people balance work and family life?

• How can we make these options a reality in our workplace?

• How can small organisations overcome common barriers like lack of time, human resources and money to put family friendly options into action?

• Where can I find more information and support?

A more detailed, interactive version of this booklet will be available online by October 19 InfoHub also offers many other resources and tools to help you make family friendly changes in your workplace.

Whether you are a manager, staff member or on the board, we hope you will find some good ideas and be inspired by the women who participated in our project to give it a go.

Key findings

Participating organisations ranged from the Immigrant Women’s Domestic Violence Service to the Girl Guides, but some common barriers that these organisations face when trying to balance life and family emerged.

Many managers felt they didn’t have the time to focus on these issues due to operational demands. Just keeping up the levels of membership or funding to make sure staff keep their jobs was the priority.

Another problem many organisations cited was small staff numbers making it difficult to cover service delivery, for example during school holidays, when people want time off but when demand on many services like domestic violence support also goes up.

Staff were also often extremely committed - if their client needs them, well of course they'll work overtime. But because that need never stops, they never get to make that time up. This has a negative impact on their work family balance.

A lack of knowledge of the different options available was also a barrier.

To read an information sheet about our project produced by the granting body Industrial Relations Victoria, click here

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