All 22 of the pioneering organisations involved, some small and medium sized businesses as well as large blue-chip organisations, have one thing in common. We all believe that our organisations have benefited from the introduction of work-life balance policies and that the principles of such policies are key to our success in the future. By putting work-life balance at the heart of our corporate culture we have, for instance, been able to improve morale, reduce absenteeism and employee turnover.

Over the past year, the organisations Employers for Work-Life Balance have been a great source of information and advice and a good starting point for companies wishing to find out more about work-life policies. We continue to see an appetite by businesses wanting to take further action in this area. Well over half a million hits to our website last year are testimony to this and has contributed to our decision to continue our work into a second year.

We are delighted that the Government has also announced a range of new activities to support work-life balance and we look forward to continuing to work with them to achieve our joint objectives.

The Employers for Work-Life Balance organisations do not have all the answers. We are all at the beginning of this process and there is much more still to be achieved, but we hope that what we have learnt will continue to be of value to those employers looking at this issue for the first time.

Peter Ellwood, Chairman Employers for Work-Life Balance
and Group Chief Executive, Lloyds TSB Group plc.