Work Life Balance Practices Adopted In Horticultural Farms In Kenya

Organisations in modern day competitive world can only perform at optimal levels if eachemployee is committed to the organisation's objectives and works as an effective teammember. An inability to create a balance between work and personal life could affectemployees’ effectiveness and productivity in the workplace. As the nature of the workforcecontinues to diversify, it will become increasingly important for organizations to considerall the factors influencing their employees’ ability to balance work and non-workcommitments, and to find a way of incorporating them into their operating policies. Theobjective of this study was to investigate the extent to which work life balance practices areadopted by horticultural farms in Kenya. The study adopted a census research design. Theresults of the study indicate that horticultural farms in Kenya have adopted practicesrelating to time and to the job to a great extent while practices relating to the place and tothe benefits have been adopted to a moderate extent only. The study recommends thatgreater attention should be paid to practices relating to the job as well as benefits as theyare the ones with the lower ratings than practices relating to time and place. In particular,the farms should introduce employee assistance programs and study leave in order toempower the employees to make better use of the other practices they have been provided.Further, the farms should consider introducing flexible working hours and increased workautonomy so that the employee can schedule their work in a manner that allows them toattend to non work matters during off peak working hours/seasons