Helping staff strike a balance between work and life away from the office or factory is a challenge facing all employers.

A recent Government survey claimed that more than half of workers in the North blamed an unbalanced lifestyle on the demands of work, although 73 per cent recognised that an employer's first responsibility is to ensure that the organisation achieves its goals.

In Sunderland, LE Group, formerly London Electricity, is one of the first in the region to introduce a series of "work life solutions" to enable employees to achieve a sensible balance between the demands of work and personal life.

Based at Doxford International business park, LE Group employs nearly 1,100 people providing a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week support and information service to nearly five million energy customers.

The LE Group Work Life Solutions scheme formalises policies to help staff adapt their working arrangements and to reflect their individual circumstances.

Proposals must take into account the needs of the business, customers and colleagues. The possibilities include special shift arrangements, annualised hours, term-time working, full-time/part-time shifting, career breaks, study leave and others.

With female workers making up nearly 70 per cent of the LE Group staff at Doxford, many of the flexible working provisions relate to childcare needs.

For example, the term-time working scheme allows employees to remain on permanent contract but gives them the right to unpaid leave of absence during school holidays.

Full-time/part-time swit-ching is also a popular option, particularly among women returning from maternity leave and those wanting to pursue further education. In total, about 300 Doxford employees of LE Group have had work life solution requests accepted. Most applications have been for changes to working hours - 42 per cent wanted to work a non-standard week and a further 26 per cent applied for a voluntary reduction in hours (and salary).

Sharon Hay, work life solutions coordinator, said: "Although we have had a high volume of applications, customer services work is linked to teamwork, and a specific team has been set up to discuss all applications received.

Where a negative impact on the business is evident, we endeavour to reach a compromise that suits both business needs and the employee."

The challenge for management has been to accommodate these requests while maintaining the required levels of service for customers. So far, the signs are that work life balance solutions have been integrated successfully into the LE customer services operation.

For example, in a competitive jobs market the company has successfully boosted staffing levels in line with increased responsibilities for the operation and, in a sector marked by relatively high staff turnover, LE claims that current levels of about 12 per cent per annum are about half of the industry average.

John Davies, general manager, said: "In operating the work life solutions everyone understands that local factors and business needs require different solutions and that not all proposals are workable.

"Respecting work life balance is an everyday job for a manager. Although we have the right to say no to requests, in most cases it is likely that there will be alternatives or a compromise that can be considered.

"We consider our people to be crucial to achieving success and encourage all of them to strike a sensible life work balance, so that they are able to do their jobs well."