SIBM students learn to strike work-life balance

Work-life balance is a trade-off between what you do at work and what you do outside — this was the message given to students of Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Bangalore (SIBM Bangalore) at its annual human resource summit, ‘Audeamus 2011,’ which was held on Saturday.

The topic of work-life balance was chosen so that students understand the importance of having a balanced life.

The morning session commenced with the antaHakaRna, a panel discussion.

This session had presentations of best work-life practices by entrepreneurs from various corporate firms.

Priya Joshi, an HR generalist, while presenting the best work-life practices in Accenture, said, “It’s all about enabling your priorities in personal and professional work. You have to identify your priorities, and set a task and goal for yourself. The same goes for your personal life. The efficient management in handling both will help maintain work-life balance.”

Srinivas Velidanda, director (staffing), Honeywell, said: “Only when an employee is happy with his personal life will he be able to perform well in his profession. Usually, the stress levels at home or in personal life tend to overpower one’s performance at workplace. If you are content with your personal life, you are bound to perform better at work.”

For Ekta Singh, associate vice-president (talent) at Deloitte, work-life balance is completely individualistic.

“You will have to know your priorities in life. Only then can you define work-life balance,” said Ruchika MS, a first-year MBA student.

Aditya Narayanan, another freshman, said, “These summits are conducted every year in our institute. However, this time, we chose a human resources topic and it has proved to be beneficial.”