Throughout the world, companies are realizing that if they are going to attract and retain the people they need to fuel global growth ambitions, they are going to have to offer more than just money. What people expect today is that the company they work for respects that they have a life outside the workplace. They want to be able to balance their personal and professional spheres.

Indeed, 104 CEOs interviewed by U.K. market research firm, MORI, said they were “now less likely to sacrifice their own career than five years ago.” And in the Netherlands, a survey of students showed that 67 percent would like to work only four days a week. Findings like these are having a dramatic effect on how work will be organized in the future; at least by those companies that are taking people shortages seriously.

However, as Lucy Daniels points out in her book, The Work-Life Manual, “The long hours culture remains a serious obstacle to implementing work/life balance strategy. A tension exists between policies that are presented as family friendly and cultural practices that assume that committed workers work long hours.”

But there are some companies that have implemented extremely successful work/life balance initiatives and are reaping the rewards in terms of highly motivated employees who donÿt consider working with anyone else. According to cellular phone service provider, KPN Orangeÿs website, if you choose to work with them, you can, “keep fit in our gym, let our masseur spoil you rotten, leave your laundry with us in the morning and pick it up in the evening, let us also deliver your shopping at work, and not worry if your child isnÿt feeling well — our baby-sitter will take care of him at your house.” Despite having no reputation in Belgium where they are based, they found the staff they needed in record time and now have a waiting list to work there. Other companies are introducing similar services, including Texas Instruments (car repair teams), Autodesk (on-site gourmet chefs), and Sun Microsystem (on-call lactation consultant).

Other measures to ensure that organizations hold onto the people they need are relaxing anti-dating policies, extension of benefits to live-in same sex partners, overlooking minor drug offenses, and ignoring sexist workplace language, all in the chase for increasingly scarcer talent. But sometimes it doesnÿt take a fancy new idea to get people to stick as chemicals giant Hoescht Celanese discovered. It was suffering from a larger than average turnover of employees and simply took time to explain the massive benefit package that many employees took for granted—retention rates improved by 40 percent.

What people fundamentally want today is to find a workplace that matches their own values, that respects them as an individual, that knows that they have a personal life and gives them time for it. The new buzzword at Cisco Systems is “integration.” They encourage their people to blend “work and personal life seamless through the day.” But that may be different for different people. Those who want “hip” will probably look for a high-tech start-up. Those who want “sensitive” will seek, maybe, a not-for-profit corporation. Weÿve had niche marketing; weÿre now entering the era of the niche workplace. Companies will rise and fall on their reputation for offering real work/life balance to their employees.

It wonÿt be easy for organizations. To make it more complicated the work/life balance needs to differ by culture, by country, by region, and by age group. The one-size work/life balance initiative by no means fits all. Flexibility is, and will remain, the key.

Best practice is to build your own unique work/life balance culture that meets your own requirements, but make sure it is tailored to the people in your company that you want to keep and toward the sort of people you want to attract.

Bodil Jones is a partner with the firm Jones & Johnson, communications specialists located in Brussels.

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