The first scientifically validated diagnostic tool that measures whether your work environment actually enables people to work effectively and sustainably.
97% of CEOs say their wellbeing programmes improve productivity. Yet burnout has reached a seven-year high. The reason: organisations measure how people feel, not the conditions that produce those outcomes.
Always-on expectations and unsustainable work volumes that no mindfulness programme can fix.
Managers who don't facilitate the use of flexibility policies, creating a gap between what exists and what people can actually use.
Policies exist, but using them is perceived as a career risk. Culture undermines what policies enable.
An anthropological, holistic model deployed across 23 countries, evaluating three critical dimensions of the work environment.
Do real flexibility instruments exist? We assess whether work-life policies are accessible and usable for all groups.
Does leadership promote or block policy use? We measure whether managers actively enable work-life integration.
Does culture legitimise work-life balance without penalising careers? We identify if using policies carries a perceived cultural cost.
Systematically enables work-family-life integration.
Supports work-life balance in most situations.
Occasionally hinders work-life balance.
Consistently obstructs work-life integration.
A structured process of diagnosis, analysis, and action.
Define groups (country, site, area) and deploy the standardised IFREI questionnaire. Anonymous and confidential.
Levels are calculated by dimension and benchmarked against the international reference base by country, sector, gender, and hierarchy.
Executive report with recommendations prioritised by dimension. Delivery session and co-design of a plan with quick wins and structural changes.
Complete wellworking environment diagnosis with levels by dimension.
Comparison with references by country, sector, age, gender, and hierarchy.
Analysis by site, area, or group to identify internal gaps.
Direct connection between environment levels and motivation, health, satisfaction, and turnover intention.
Recommendations with quick wins and structural changes by policy, leadership, and culture.
Presentation and co-design of the action plan with the leadership team.
IFREI is the research programme of the International Centre for Work and Family at IESE Business School, led by Prof. Mireia Las Heras. Published in top-tier scientific journals and deployed across 23+ countries.
Used by leading institutions
It is the real capacity to "work well" in an environment that enables the integration of work, family, and personal life in a sustainable way. It is not just about how someone feels, but about what conditions (policies, leadership, and culture) enable or block that integration.
A climate survey typically captures general perceptions. IFREI focuses on the well-working environment and its levers: supportive policies, enabling leadership, and legitimising culture. This allows moving from "opinions" to root causes and concrete actions.
It measures well-working as an environment: objective and lived conditions that facilitate or hinder work-family-life integration. It also reveals internal dispersion (different realities within the same company) and where the gaps are concentrated.
Policies, Leadership, and Culture. IFREI assesses whether real flexibility instruments exist, whether leadership promotes or blocks their use, and whether culture legitimises work-life balance without penalising careers.
It depends on scope (one country vs multi-country, sample size, and segmentations). The process includes defining groups, deploying the questionnaire, calculating levels and benchmarking, plus the report and executive session.
Yes. Data is treated in aggregate. Individual results are not published and anonymous participation is protected to ensure honest responses.
It is a standardised questionnaire designed to capture what enables or blocks work-family-life integration (policies, culture, and leadership) without relying on standalone perception questions.
Yes. You can define a global or unit-level deployment (country, site, area, group). This allows comparisons between units and visibility of where gaps exist.
Your results are compared with an international reference base and equivalent groups (e.g., country, sector, age, gender, and hierarchy) to understand the distance to high levels and prioritise improvement levers.
They classify the well-working environment. A high level systematically enables work-life balance; a very low level consistently hinders it. This moves the conversation from "perception" to "objective level to improve".
Yes. The international base allows contrasting results by gender and age (plus country, sector, and hierarchy), identifying gaps and groups with different needs.
A global organisational report and, depending on scope, reports by site/area/role. These include benchmarking comparisons and dimension-by-dimension readings to identify what is holding back well-working.
Yes. The goal is to prioritise gradual, systematic changes by dimension (policies, leadership, culture), with an action plan combining quick wins and structural improvements.
Yes. IFREI allows you to establish a baseline and repeat the measurement to see whether policies become accessible and usable, and whether leadership and culture shift to sustain use without cultural cost.
Yes. It evaluates time and space policies (remote/hybrid, schedules, etc.), and crucially, how they are managed through leadership and culture to avoid inequities or penalties.
The diagnosis is still valuable: it shows the real environment and which dimension is limiting well-working. This helps define priorities: creating basic instruments, adjusting leadership practices, or shifting cultural norms.
Results identify leadership gaps that block work-life balance. This enables workshops, coaching, and concrete actions to align behaviours with policies and culture.
It translates environment levels into impacts on work experience, motivation/commitment, health and quality of life, work-life satisfaction, and turnover intention.
Yes. Annual or semi-annual follow-up is recommended to show continuous improvement, consolidate culture, and demonstrate ROI of initiatives.
IFREI complements other measurements (climate, engagement, productivity tools) by providing a standard for diagnosing root causes of well-working and guiding actions by lever.
A clear report is delivered along with an executive session. Then, depending on the package, an action plan is co-designed with possible follow-up on indicators.
It is not mandatory. IFREI prioritises gradual changes with recommendations. If desired, optional add-ons are available (leader training, policy redesign, cultural programmes, ongoing support).
IFREI is applied across multiple sectors and cultural contexts. International comparability allows interpreting results with references by country and sector.
It depends on the objective and the ability to segment results in aggregate. Sample size and groups are defined with your team to ensure useful and confidential readings.
Prioritise by dimension and group: identify what is blocking (policies, leadership, or culture) and build a gradual plan with quick wins and structural changes to move levels towards "high".
Based on levels by area/team and the dimension that most hinders well-working. The roadmap combines rapid-impact initiatives with sustainable changes in policies, leadership, and culture.
The findings allow clear communication about what is happening (without exposing individual results) and guide messaging towards legitimate policy use and leadership's role in enabling work-life balance.
The model is globally comparable and can be applied in different cultural contexts. Country/site-level scope allows considering local realities when interpreting gaps and prioritising actions.
Yes. IFREI calculates levels per person and aggregates results by team, area, and organisation, allowing comparisons between units and visibility of where gaps and opportunities are concentrated.
Structural problems require structural diagnosis. Find out if your organisation is measuring working conditions, or just asking people how they feel.