Great Practices Personal Profile: Gaining Work/Life Balance in Helsinki, Finland

Marita XXXXX was seeking a more balanced lifestyle. Work responsibilities and increasing personal life demands were becoming more difficult to manage for the Accenture specialist. To obtain more personal time, Marita decided to approach her supervisor and seek permission to work two days a week from home. Marita still works a full-time schedule, but now she has the opportunity to work from home two days per week.

Marita belongs to Helsinki's Knowledge Center which is a part of #Accenture's Knowledge Center Network within the Global Knowledge Management Organization. The Knowledge Center Network carries out research for Accenture's engagement teams and for business development. Marita focuses her research on industries, markets and competitive information; consultants use Marita's research for client work. A great deal of her work is done for Financial Services, but Marita also works for the Government practice and helps out in Communications & High Tech; she is also the team lead in Helsinki.

According to Marita, quite a few people in her unit work from home when they need to concentrate more effectively with fewer distractions, but she wanted a more fixed arrangement. In order to gain more work/life balance, Marita wanted to work from home one to two days a week on a more regular basis. She was able to make this an official arrangement.

Marita had never previously thought of requesting such a working arrangement during her two years with Accenture; however, in her team lead role involving quite a few administrative tasks besides research work, she realized that she could accomplish most of her responsibilities from home. The time she saves in commuting can be spent with her two children. Although #flexiblework arrangements have not become widespread yet, she knows her office does encourage such arrangements and some managers currently do work from home occasionally. These arrangements are implemented on a case-by-case basis depending on the individual's needs. As a mother of two children 3 and 5 years of age, Marita needed more time in her other full-time role.

"Combining children and full-time work is not always that easy," Marita said. "I thought it might be helpful working from home two days a week and save the time commuting. I can take my children to #daycare during the time saved from not having to commute."

Addressing work requirements from home rather than the office also allows her to concentrate more as there are fewer distractions at home.

"I'd like to emphasize that I don't have to do my overtime work in the office, and that I get to go home at almost the same time every day and do my overtime at home in the evening," she said. "That is very important to me."

Putting Marita's plan into action came with help from her supervisor Karl XXXXX, who is the Nordic lead for research and knowledge management and is based in Stockholm. Karl has always been in favor of addressing the needs of people's personal lives. Marita asked Karl to write a formal letter to Human Resources endorsing her at-home flexible arrangement, and an agreement was reached between the parties for implementation. Even with her new work situation, Marita realizes that she needs to be in the office to attend meetings and support the new people on her team. She also relishes the occasional interpersonal interaction.

According to Marita, working from home will be a successful proposition depending on the person's job responsibilities, the equipment they need to work from home as well as the individual's personality. For example, Marita is required to be at the office to attend team and other meetings and to support the new people on her team. However, she is able to overcome that challenge by organizing her meetings within a three-day timeframe as opposed to spreading them out throughout the entire week.

"If I need help from my colleagues in FS research, for example, I have to use email or phone anyway, so I'm not any closer to them from home or the office." In spite of her gained work/life balanced due to her two-days-at-home work arrangement, Marita relishes the interaction with colleagues.

"It's a question of personality, and I can't work too much more from home because it gets a bit lonely," she said. "The only challenge I've had is to remember to mark in the office directory that I'm working from home to let people know you're not there so they can provide your office space to someone else.”

Marita shares some other tips to making the arrangement work.

"People should have a good house modem and a mobile phone. Everyone in Helsinki has a company mobile phone and, of course, a laptop. The Internet is good from home, but for a Finance person the database systems may not work very well from home," Marita cautioned. "I think you need to be able to plan your week. Plan your meetings so you don't have them every day and can be away one or two days," she continued. "Try to schedule your meetings for when you are in the office. You need to be a little more systematic about how you plan your work activities." (Written by Don Scott while employed as an Accenture communications consultant)