New research from the health and wellbeing chain Holland & Barrett has looked into the best cities for a better work-life balance.
Within this study, factors such as hours of sleep, time spent in the sun and at work were taken into account to create the Sunlight Cities Index.
Amsterdam, Netherlands, took the top spot with an average of 30.41 hours worked per week, an average sleep of 8.45 hours, leaving those living and working in Amsterdam 9.47 hours a day to relax and unwind with family.
Marseille, France, ranked in second position (31.48 hours worked per week and 8.49 sleeping hours per day), with Alice Springs in Australia coming in third (31.82 working hours per week and 8.56 sleeping hours per day).
See a full list of the top ten cities for work-life balance below.
Rank | Country | City | Working hours per week | Sleeping hours per day |
1 | Netherlands | Amsterdam | 30.41 | 8.45 |
2 | France | Marseille | 31.48 | 8.49 |
3 | Australia | Alice Springs | 31.82 | 8.56 |
4 | Austria | Vienna | 31.82 | 8.48 |
5 | New Zealand | Auckland | 33.00 | 8.76 |
6 | United Kingdom | London | 33.48 | 8.06 |
7 | Belgium | Brussels | 33.80 | 8.39 |
8 | Denmark | Copenhagen | 34.00 | 8.13 |
9 | Norway | Oslo | 34.00 | 8.09 |
10 | Italy | Rome | 34.15 | 8.28 |
Oslo, Norway, and Rome, Italy, were also included in the rankings but were lower down on the list.
Commenting on the results, Alex Glover, Senior Nutritionist at Holland & Barrett, said that making time for leisure activities and spending time with family and friends is crucial for physical and mental wellbeing.
“...It's great to see all these cities offering a good work-life balance. Stress can impact our health in so many ways so it's vital to take time to unwind and in such uncertain times it's never been more important to invest our leisure time in self-care."
The importance of work-life balance
Maintaining a good work-life balance is crucial for many reasons, such as it can help reduce stress and help to prevent burnout in the workplace – both of which can have a damaging impact on the individual and the business.
With many employees still working at home in light of the coronavirus crisis, it is possible that some employees are putting in extra hours at work, largely due to a lack of the daily commute.
In fact, a study from the National Bureau of Economic Relations – which looked at staff behaviours before and after COVID-19 lockdown periods – found that the working day lasted almost an hour longer.
Elsewhere, separate data from NordVPN found that when a large portion of UK businesses started to work from home in March, the majority of professionals were putting in an extra two hours outside of their usual day.
If employees are putting in longer hours, then their work-life balance could take a hit and could cause problems for both the employee and HR.
To promote a better work-life balance, Hayley Randall, People Development Manager at ICD Property, previously told HR Grapevine that people teams can encourage staff to have a ‘dedicated office area’ to try and separate personal and professional life.
The people lead also recommended that remote staff log off on time to avoid ‘just jumping on for five minutes and it turning into two hours’.
Lastly, ensuring that managers actively engage in these practices themselves is key to provide further validation to staff that this is “supported and encouraged”.
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