Professional services careers are notorious for requiring long hours. It is common for employees of the large management consulting firms to work 60-70 hours per week (although some of those hours are for travel and client entertainment). These are demanding jobs that have higher-than-average compensation along with a hefty workload. But firm leaders need to look for ways to enable a better work-life balance in order to minimize burnout, improve morale, and decrease voluntary attrition. High attrition rates usually lead to firm underperformance.

It is important to point out that there are numerous professional services fields and the environment and expectations are different in each one. An accounting firm in the U.S. that does tax preparation for local businesses might work 35-hour weeks during the summer but 90-hour weeks from February through April (known as “tax season”). A boutique web design agency might work strictly from its office while a larger agency’s employees fly cross-country week after week. So, the demands and expectations of employees vary considerably by sector and firm.

Before discussing how and why professional services firms should ensure a healthy work-life balance for their employees, we should first define the term. Work-life balance is a state of equilibrium in which the demands of work do not encroach on one’s personal responsibilities and activities. Put simply, when employees have a good work-life balance, they can do their job well while fully enjoying their lives.

A Day in the Life

As an example of how grueling a consultant’s work can be, let’s look at a sample weekly schedule for a traveling consultant (affectionately known as a “road warrior”):

Sunday: Pack clothes for the week, send emails out to the team, work on Monday’s meeting agenda, prepare for the week. (Total time = 3 hours).

Monday: Get up at 4 a.m., drive to the airport, fly across the country, go straight to the client’s office, work until 6 p.m., team dinner until 8 p.m., check in to the hotel, follow up on emails, collapse in bed. (Total time = 14 hours).

Tuesday-Thursday: Team breakfast at 7 a.m., discuss plans for the day, meetings and work sessions throughout the day, mitigate client concerns, client sponsor dinner, team debrief at the hotel, work on client deliverables at night from the room, follow up on emails. (Total time per day = 12-14 hours).

Friday: Team breakfast at 7 a.m., half-day at the client’s office, head to the airport at 3 p.m., fly back home while working on the plane, drive home at 8 p.m. (Total time = 10 hours).

Saturday: Hopefully no work.

A person working this schedule would likely average more than 60-70 working hours per week, and this schedule could exist for months on end. While the working hours may be 60-70 per week, the hours the person is away from home are often well over 100 per week. For most road warriors, there may be a one or two-week break between engagements, but the majority of the year is spent with a schedule like the one above. For consultants earlier in their career, this type of schedule might be doable (even exciting at first), but over time, few people want to live this way.

The largest consultancies are notorious for using a brutal work schedule as an “up or out” mechanism. The consultants who can handle the travel and workload advance up through the organization and eventually make partner. But those who can’t endure the grind for months (or years) eventually wash out. This “burn and churn” model worked thirty years ago but is no longer as effective in the age of employee feedback websites like Glassdoor.

Why a Work-Life Balance is Important

Professional services firms are “people businesses”. Essentially all of the revenue generated by the firm comes from the labor of the billable personnel. If the employees all quit tonight, the revenue would be $0 starting tomorrow morning.

While there are many success drivers in professional services, two of the most fundamental ones are:

• Strong billable utilization: The firm will maximize revenue by keeping the workforce highly billable.
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• High-quality work: If work isn’t being done at a high level of quality, clients will be dissatisfied. This will result in either non-billable rework or distressed client relationships. Both negatively impact future revenue.
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Both of these success drivers are heavily influenced by the voluntary attrition rate of the firm. The voluntary attrition is calculated by dividing the number of employees who left the firm voluntarily over the past year by the average number of employees employed. When the voluntary attrition rate is high, both the utilization rate and the quality of work tend to suffer. When those suffer, both current and future revenues become distressed.

In addition to the pure economic reasons for ensuring a healthy work-life balance for employees, firm leaders should feel an ethical responsibility as well. What type of person wants to earn wealth by driving other people into the ground?

Ways to Improve Work-Life Balance

Since a healthy work-life balance is good for both the employee and the firm at large, let’s discuss some ways to improve it:

• Remote work – When employees are not “on the road”, being able to work from home is a big relief. It saves them commute time and is generally a more flexible work structure than being at the office.
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• Encourage vacation and personal leave – When billable employees hit the bench in-between assignments, recommend that they take some time off, enjoy a vacation, etc.
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• Fridays off – Within client contracts, negotiate four-day workweeks for travelling onsite personnel. Then, give those employees Fridays off. A three-day weekend can really recharge the batteries.
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• Gym membership – For employees who are working at the office, it is a nice benefit if they can get a workout in during the business day. Many office buildings have a complimentary gym or the firm can negotiate a discounted rate with a national gym chain (that can also be used when employees travel to remote cities).
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• Childcare – For workers who are parents, having onsite childcare is an incredible benefit.
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• Social events – It is important to regularly host company events such as happy hours, dinners, all-hands meetings, and the like. These events are a lot of fun for the entire team. If an employee would rather stay home and spend time with their family, that is fine as well.
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• Special Surprises – To show your appreciation for employees, have some unannounced surprise events like a Cinco de Mayo party at the office or bring in massage therapists to give free massages. Employee appreciation activities can have a bigger impact when they are unannounced.
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• Free Training – In-between engagements, many employees like to advance their skills. Pay for training classes, conventions, or seminars, including any travel expenses. These can be “learning vacations” for employees.
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• Limit Overtime – If employees like to work long hours, that may be fine to an extent. But if it becomes a weekly habit, you should have a conversation with the employee and reduce the risk of burn out.
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There are many other tactics that can be deployed to help improve work-life balance. Also, employees will have plenty of ideas that you can capture through an annual employee survey. It is ultimately much better for employees and the long-term prosperity of the firm if employees have a healthy work-life balance.