FOR the team at Rossendale-based Shuttleworth Veterinary Centre, juggling the balance between work and life is a piece of cake. The practice is the first in the UK and only one of six businesses in the North West to achieve the prestigious Work-Life Balance standard.

The Work-Life Balance Model has been designed to offer a practical guide for businesses to establish an approach to balancing the demands of work and home for all employees, regardless of their personal circumstances.

Devised by Investors in People UK and delivered through Business Link, the Work-Life Balance Model helps to ensure greater harmony between what employees do at work and outside it.

Owner of Shuttleworth Veterinary Centre, Sue Shuttleworth, has championed the Model, committing to the standard in February 2003. Over the past eighteen months, Sue and her team of twenty staff have implemented new working methods to help adjust and balance their roles between their working and private lives.

Through the standard, each employee has been encouraged to take ownership of their role, working and planning together as a team to co-ordinate their working days, so the practice runs like a well-oiled machine.

Sue Shuttleworth said: "Providing a happy and motivated environment for employees is crucial in the day-to-day working of the practice and I feel it is essential to give employees a certain amount of choice and control over their roles.

"Positions at the Practice do not fit within your typical nine to five - there is a strong element of shift work and weekend work and it is important that employees feel they can harmonise their working and private lives."

Clive Memmott, chief executive of Business Link, said: "Businesses are increasingly realising the dangers of treating staff with a 'one-size fits all' strategy. When it comes to work-life balance everyone has different needs - for some it's child-care, while other may have hobbies or special needs which need to be taken into account. Employers with a flexible plan in place benefit from happier and more motivated staff."