Balance must be a priority for both executives and employees

If the executives running a company are not worried about work/life balance in their own lives, they probably won't worry about helping their employees achieve it either, right?

Assuming that's correct, the workers of the world should be concerned with the results of a recent poll from Robert Half Management Resources, provider of senior-level accounting and finance professionals on a project and interim basis.

The company surveyed 1,400 CFOs from a random sample of U.S. companies with 20 or more employees, asking, "In your opinion, which one of the following is the greatest challenge for financial executives today?"

The executives ranked time management as the top challenge, with 38 percent choosing that response. Another 30 percent said keeping up with technology was the top challenge, while 19 percent said staying current with accounting regulations.

Only 13 percent said achieving work/life balance was the biggest challenge facing them today.

Granted, this was a survey of CFOs, so their ranking of accounting regulations ahead of work/life balance is understandable. But I was still surprised that the balance response finished last in the poll.

"Although having too little time is hardly a new predicament, the current business environment is exerting greater pressure on executives and their teams to do more with less," said Paul McDonald, senior executive director of Robert Half Management Resources, in a press release. "As CFOs revive projects postponed during the downturn and build out plans for business growth, they're having difficulty allocating time, technology, resources and staff to these initiatives."

How many times have all of us been asked to "do more with less" the last few years? It's been a common theme around our newsroom, and really in the entire news industry.

But I don't believe the need to get more done with fewer resources excuses companies from encouraging their employees to find balance in their lives.

During the last few weeks, I've talked to several work/life balance experts about the issue. One of them is Ed Ford, president of Ed Ford and Associates. He told me that his work with corporations has led him to believe that the thing they want most from their employees is to have them buy into the company vision, or mission statement.