Kathmandu. According to the Human Resource Satisfaction Study Report released by the Insurance Authority of Nepal, the condition of ‘Work Life Balance’ (balance between work and personal life) in the insurance sector is satisfactory but is surrounded by some serious challenges and dissatisfactions. This issue has been clarified in the report through various indicators and open feedback from employees.
The report shows an average score of 3.44 on the ease of working hours and an average score of 3.26 on how to maintain a work-personal life balance. Although this score shows that most employees are moderately satisfied with this issue, there is also a large dissatisfied section. The report was prepared by the authority on the basis of a survey among a total of 3,767 employees of life, non-life and micro insurance companies.
Like in Nepal’s banks and other financial institutions, the ‘work-life balance’ is not easy in the insurance sector. Compared to banks and multinational companies, the employees have found it very difficult to balance their personal life and job in the insurance sector due to the pressure of work in the insurance sector, uncontrolled office hours and especially the compulsion to work in the market and outside the field.
The main complaint of most of the employees is the reminders and phone calls from the top management to meet the target in the morning, evening or even on holidays before the scheduled office hours. The personal and family life of the employees has been disrupted due to the tendency to be forced to work at the end of the month and during the financial closing of the year without additional pay or overtime benefits.
Moreover, when the underwriting employees work in the office for a long time, there is no provision of food and snacks for the employees concerned from the head office. If it is late at night, the branch manager or the head of the department at the head office does not even consider it necessary to make arrangements to take the women employees home safely. After the underwriting work is over, sometimes the women employees have to take a lot of risk when they have to go home in the middle of the night without safety ride-sharing or their own two-wheeler.
According to the employees of some of the insurers contacted by Insurance News, the bosses do not hesitate to say that they should stay a little late today because of the closing, but when the night falls, they take you home in the office car, do not tell you to be sure, they do. “The same thing happens in the head office!” they complained.
The Labor Act 2074 and Labor Rules 2075 have a provision that if a woman employee has to work in the office till late at night, the employer concerned should take her to the doorstep safely. However, according to the aggrieved employees, the upper management does not take ownership of the safety of the women employees even after understanding the sensitivity of such issues. Once they complain about such problems, they assure that necessary arrangements will be made from the next time, but the aggrieved employees complain that the behavior and attitude are repeated.
Main causes of dissatisfaction:
Disrupted Family Life and Remote Posting: There is no environment to devote time to the family, especially for the employees deployed in the branches and sub-branch offices outside the valley and far away from the family.
Adequate Manpower: When there is a shortage of staff in branch offices, one employee has to handle multiple tasks, which makes them stressed.
Lack of Compulsory Leave Unlike in banks, the provision of ‘force leave’ or annual leave for mental freshness to the employees is not effective in most insurance companies, which has also made the employees dissatisfied with the work-life balance. Compulsory leave is given in banks, because it is necessary for the productivity of the employees.
Other holidays as per the law: In banks, the concerned employees are also required to enter the details in the HR software regarding other holidays available as per the rules. They do not have to go to the boss’s desk or the office of the Chief Executive Officer to get the leave approved. They are not in a dilemma whether to make arrangements for travel with the family or not, whether to buy tickets or not, they enjoy the holidays prescribed by the Labor Act 2074 and the Bank Employees Bylaws.
