Work/life balance: Employers will have to change their attitudes and provide more flexible working arrangements in response to changes in the make-up of the workforce over the next decade.
According to Prof John FitzGerald of the Economic and Social Research Institute, the demand will arise because of the increasing proportion of female graduates and the fact that the biggest age cohort in the population at present is 20 to 25 year olds.
Prof FitzGerald told a conference on work/life balance in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, that in 10 years a large proportion of highly skilled workers would be women with young children. Employers would need to attract and retain such women, he said.
"At the moment employers are calling the shots, but that is going to change," he added. "This will also have implications for childcare. There is a problem now in relation to childcare, but you haven't seen anything yet."
Prof FitzGerald said it needed to become the norm for both women and men to take leave to look after children. While the differential in male and female earnings in general has fallen significantly, there was "a very high penalty for every year out of the labour market". Such leave is usually taken by women.
The age at which Irish women have their first baby was rising rapidly and was now among the highest in the EU.
"My suspicion is that this is because the labour market penalises them so heavily," he said at the conference organised by the North Western Health Board (NWHB).
Prof FitzGerald said there needed to be a cultural change, and compulsory paternity leave could help change attitudes. In Sweden, men get two months leave which must be taken after the woman has returned to work.
Dr Eileen Drew of Trinity College, Dublin, outlined the findings of a major study on work/life balance in Ireland. Off The Treadmill, compiled by Dr Drew and two colleagues under the Sustaining Progress national agreement, surveyed both employers and employees. A key finding was "the prevalence and growth of long hours culture".
"People are being pressured to work longer than standard hours in a typical week," she said.
It was found that workers believed, and were correct in believing, their careers would suffer if they availed of flexible working arrangements. Managers generally did not take options such as flexi-time, job sharing, term time working, or work sharing and they therefore thought less of those who did.
Dr Drew said a business case had to be made to convince employers and managers of the benefits. Workers were more productive when they were less stressed, and with imaginative thinking it was possible to ensure that both the needs of employers and employees were met.
Managers, she said, should be appraised on their success in helping workers achieve a work/life balance, and they should also be encouraged to lead by example as this could convince them that productivity could be improved.
Men, in particular, needed to be persuaded of the health and safety issues involved "before they die on their feet". Pay and pay-related costs would be reduced proportionately as workers reduced their hours, she said.
The conference also heard about a work/life balance strategy and action plan drawn up in a project involving the NWHB, Donegal County Council and a number of community and voluntary groups. Entitled Tipping the Scales, it highlights the benefits including improved productivity and performance, less stress, absenteeism and illness, improved staff retention and a more creative and diverse workforce.
It found flexible working arrangements already existed to varying degrees within the partner organisations but practices were "at times ad hoc, inconsistent and not systematically thought through in relation to their impact on service or employee needs".