Gender Diversity Toolkit No. 4: Balance at the Top: Encouraging Work-Life Effectiveness for Executives

The fourth in a series of information resources that address key issues identified by women executives as hallmarks of a women-friendly organization.

Document Highlights

Work-life effectiveness is a priority issue for executive women While this issue is of concern to all employees, female executives are faced with unique challenges. Considering Canada’s current leadership crunch, providing an environment where work-life issues are a priority can influence female executives to remain in organizations and can elevate firms as ’employers of choice.’

It is essential that organizations recognize that:

• fulfilling their work and personal commitments can be a challenge for executives;
• female and male executives in general face different work-life issues;
• the response to executive work-life issues must address the organization’s culture regarding flexibility, control, and capacity, and practical solutions must be tailored to the individual executive’s needs.