An Australian study discovered that finding a good balance between work and life is based on being able to balance three elements:

1. Time: the amount spent on work and non-work roles.

2. Involvement: the level of psychological involvement in, or commitment to, work and non-work roles.

3. Satisfaction: the amount of satisfaction you get from work and non-work roles.

I think it’s also valuable to define what we mean by ‘work’ and ‘life’. How about:

• Work = what you do for a living.

• Life = everything else i.e. leisure, family, friends, romance, errands, laundry, going to the dentist.

So we can say that work-life balance is the optimum combination of ‘what we do for a living’ and ‘what we do the rest of the time’.

For a lot of us, finding this balance can be pretty simple. You go to work and do what’s needed, then you go home and tend to your life. However, there are a few things that can help you mess up the balance:

• Working for yourself: it can be hard to switch off when you are a small business owner.

• Being ambitious: you want to go way beyond what is expected of you to advance in your career quickly.

• Being connected to work round-the-clock via your phone or laptop.

If you are struggling with balancing work activities with life activities, there are a few things you might want to try:

• Make sure you are using your work hours as efficiently as possible and that you haven’t simply gotten into the habit of drawing your workday out.

• Give yourself goals like ‘I will leave the office on time at least three times a week’.

• Avoid doing work at home outside of office hours. If you simply must do work at home, make sure you take some time off in lieu when things are less busy.

• Leave your work mobile and laptop at the office if you don’t have a specific task to finish.

If you can do one or of these and find some balance between work and the rest of your life, you will be more effective at both sides of life: more efficient and alert at work and more engaged and relaxed in the rest of your life.

Do you have any other tips for getting work-life balance we’ve missed?

Working out exactly what you want out of your career is an important activity, no matter what stage of it you are at. If you don’t, you may find yourself in a career you never wanted.

‘It’s really important to know exactly what you are aiming for—and to be able to recognise it when you get it,’ says Blue Sky Director Roisin Duffy. ‘Otherwise you’ll find yourself halfway down a career path you don’t want and have to either start all over again or stick it out to the end.’

A good way to find out is by asking yourself a few questions and being absolutely honest in your answers. Remember—your answers are only for you, not to please anyone else.

Start with some big general questions like these:

• What do you really value? Why?

• What are your personal, financial, recreational, educational and professional goals? Why?
• What do you want out of life in the short-term, say, this year? What about the next three or four years? The next decade?

Then, incorporating everything from your answers to the above, describe a work day in your perfect lifestyle.

Once you have worked out what you really want, the key to achieving your goals is action. As this article puts it nicely:

Do not wait; the time will never be ‘just right’. Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.

Formulate a plan for yourself that starts from right now and includes specific activities that you need to complete to get to your dream life.

Even with all this planning work, be prepared to adapt to any changes that occur. Your own interests, wants and needs change over time, as do external circumstances.

And of course, always keep in mind what your particular brand of success will look like so you know when you get there.

The types of jobs available are changing fast, and not just because of developments in technology. There are new fields and roles opening up all the time in environmental policy and engineering, health, and organic agriculture.

The statistics in this video presentation on global populations and technology paint a compelling picture of the fast-changing times we live in.

There are literally hundreds of articles on this topic online. It’s news compelling news for a few reasons. It’s interesting because it opens the possibilities of what jobs are available. It tells people about jobs they probably haven’t heard of. It’s breaking news. It’s novel.

And as a quick Google search will show you, it also lends itself to snappy headlines like ‘Five Careers that Didn’t Exist Five Years Ago’, which means editors are more likely to publish them.

As job options change, are you prepared for the employment market of the future?

‘This shift is not because people are changing, but because we are responding to the changing economic environment,’ Blue Sky Director Roisin Duffy explains.

‘The needs of employers are evolving constantly which means that flexibility and continuous learning are absolutely necessary for staying employable. Moving between roles and organisations is one of the most effective ways you can make sure you are always gaining new skills and knowledge.’

There are many benefits to employees of this new status quo. The experience of different working styles and environments helps you to discover what you enjoy, what you’re interested in, the styles of management and working that you respond to best. It enables you to assemble a unique skill set so that you can offer something no one else can. You learn from lots of different people, often across different industries. If you don’t mesh with the people you work with you can move on without much fuss. If you get bored you don’t have to stay that way.

Employers also benefit from this arrangement. Fresh staff members can renew the enthusiasm of whole teams and bring considerable knowledge transfer of systems and strategies from other organisations. As people move around and make connections with each other, industry networks form across and between companies, adding a layer of information and strength to the workforce as a whole. Companies have more options for fulfilling their needs as each candidate is unique, offering idiosyncratic ways of meeting the requirements of a company.

This mobility is also one of the main reasons recruitment consultancies like Blue Sky exist, so we quite enjoy it as well.

We all know how profoundly a workplace culture affects how you feel about your job, and while it might sound touchy-feely, how you feel about where you spend more than half your waking hours is pretty important. It has an enormous bearing on how productive you are, how satisfied you are with your work, and how long you are likely to stay with your employer.

So what makes a positive workplace culture?

The Business Strategy Blog lists four important features that positive workplace cultures share:

1. People are respected and valued

2. You look forward to, or at least don’t actively dread, going to work

3. Managers value and take on board feedback and ideas from employees

4. All staff members share a sense of ownership of and accountability for achieving the organisation’s objectives.

It’s not difficult to imagine that workplaces that boast all four of these features help people to be engaged in their work and motivated to deliver their best work.

Of course, there are other elements that help to create an engaged, happy workforce. For instance, the work itself needs to be interesting and varied and people need to be able to grow and develop professionally.

So if you are trying to improve the culture of your workplace, a good starting point is to see which of the above four items you can tick off, then go to work on nurturing any that are missing.

If, on the other hand, you are looking to move on, it’s a good idea to try to get an idea of the culture of a prospective new workplace. According to Career Rocketeer, you also need to sit down and think hard about what kinds of cultural behaviours you enjoy and those you don’t.

Do you enjoy socialising with workmates or do you prefer to keep work and social life separate? Do you respond well to managers who are up front about problems or do you prefer a subtler approach?

Once you have a list of cultural pros and cons tailored just for you, you can start looking for a working environment you can be confident you will enjoy.

Services are moving online increasingly, especially as a first point of contact. Easier to test the waters anonymously without any commitment. There are even some online-only agencies appearing such as Recruitment Genius in the UK. CEO Geoff Newman says “Times have changed and so must agencies” by offering the same results for a fraction of the cost

The perks of running an online agency are the same as taking any other business online: you can work from anywhere at any time, less overheads like rent and support staff. However, online agencies like eRecruit Solutions don’t seem to do anything that a standard agency wouldn’t do: post ads on online job sites, receive applications and refine them to a short list. They seem to have made their cost savings simply by cutting out the extra screening process of meeting with candidates in person, handing the process over to clients after selecting the best applications.

“I think recruitment will always have a face-to-face element,” Blue Sky Director Roisin Duffy said. “However, as online tools become more sophisticated and user-friendly, face-to-face time might be reduced as candidates and recruiters have other channels of communication. We also still need the expertise and intuition of people to provide a really top-notch service.”

“Cost is another issue often brought up when discussing taking things online,” she continued. “There’s a prevailing wisdom that moving services online results in huge cost savings. I don’t think that’s really the case. There are some savings, but digital tools still require expertise to set up and manage.”

Australian industry blogger Ross Cennett agrees, saying that when clients ask why they should hire a recruitment consultant, they had better “… be able to answer emphatically or risk death by irrelevance.” He gives seven reasons consultants are still necessary. I recommend reading through the comments at the end too.