National Families Week: Useful Links
Practical Tips for a Better Work/Family Balance
The websites below have a range of tips, including career advice, to help balance work and family. Families Australia has provided these links for your information. This does not imply an endorsement of any kind. Excerpts from each website are provided to give an idea of the information available.
Government
Work and Family Balance for Parents
Australian Government parenting website with helpful hints on maintaining the balance between families and work and guides to family-friendly workplace policies.
Workplace.gov.au – Organisations and Individuals
Australian Government website with a variety of facts sheets for organisations and individuals to help develop, evaluate and maintain work and family balance.
Workplace.gov.au – Work life balance
Povides fact sheets dealing with issues such as how to make a family friendly workplace, as well as information on parental leave and personal/carer’s leave.
Workplace.gov.au – Father friendly workplaces
Work and family balance is not just a ‘women’s’ issue, as is sometimes supposed. Many men are also finding it difficult to juggle priorities, which for many include deep-seated needs to care for their children. Therefore it is important that organisations design policies which recognise and cater for the particular needs of both men and women.
Worplace.gov.au - Evaluating work and family strategies in your workplace
Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency
EOWA works with employers to improve equal opportunity outcomes for women in the workplace.
Queensland Department of Employment and Industrial Relations
The Queensland Government recognises the increasingly complex interplay between people’s work and personal lives and the challenges involved in managing work, family and lifestyle responsibilities. It is committed to helping employers and employees establish workplace practices that improve work-life balance, and have introduced a variety of initiatives on work and family.
Queensland Office for Women - Work and Life
Work is a part of Queensland women's daily lives. It may be through a job in the paid workforce, in a volunteer role or caring for family or sick or aged relatives.
New South Wales Office of Industrial Relations
The New South Wales Government recognises that managing work and family responsibilities is one of the toughest challenges that employers and employees face. We are committed to helping NSW businesses work with their employees to establish effective work and family practices.
Business Victoria - Working Families Program
Flexible work practices that assist employees with family responsibilities can increase productivity and reduce costs as employers' interests and employees' responsibilities are matched. It's important to build some flexibility into your work procedures. Babies don't always arrive on their due dates and health concerns are often unpredictable. It's good practice to allow your employees the time they need to deal with their personal and childcare responsibilities. The State Government's Working Families Program seeks to assist employees and employers to balance work and family needs.
Educational
Centre for Work + Life
The Centre for Work + Life (CWL) is part of the Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies at the University of South Australia. It is a national research centre that investigates work and its intersection with household, family, community and social life in Australia.
The Centre for Work + Life aims to generate innovative thinking about work and life in Australia, making sense of experience in order to improve the well-being of Australians.
Raising Children Network
Striking a balance between work and family can be difficult. When you are on top of it, the rewards can outweigh the challenges, but when you are still trying to find that balance, it’s not uncommon to experience a range of conflicting emotions.