Clear boundaries, delay-send tools, and flexible Fridays help Hyundai's employees stay engaged, says HR leader
Creating better work-life balance could be as simple as scheduling out-of-hours work emails to send during the workday, says Kirk Merrett, Director of Human Resources and Administration at Hyundai Canada.
Rather than firing off messages late at night and inadvertently pressuring team members to respond outside working hours, Merrett recommends using the delay send function—a simple email setting that lets employees write and schedule emails to be delivered at a later time, typically the next morning.
“Yeah, I want to get it off my plate,” he says. “So, I'm going to key it in now, but I'm going to set it up to deliver at 8:30 tomorrow morning.”
This small but strategic shift keeps communication flowing without contributing to the “infinite workday” that now stretches from pre-dawn inbox checks to post-dinner meetings.
According to Microsoft’s Work Trends report, 40% of employees are already reviewing their email for the day's priorities as early as 6am. This workday stretches into the evening, as meetings after 8pm have also gone up 16% year-over-year.
The “infinite workday” even bleeds into weekends, with nearly 20% of employees checking their email before noon on Saturday and Sunday, as well as over five percent back in email on Sunday evenings.
Rather than enforcing strict 9-to-5 availability, Hyundai Canada emphasizes setting clear expectations. Merrett notes that strong managers are intentional in how they communicate urgency—or lack thereof.
“Unless I tell you I needed an answer tonight, then this can wait till morning,” he explains. “That's what the best managers do. They set that expectation up front.”
This “infinite workday” is driven by technology, culture and management, but in many cases, Merrett says it’s employees themselves who are installing work email and communication tools on personal devices.
“They want to stay connected. So it is, in some respects, up to the culture of the organization and the direct managers to set reasonable boundaries,” he says.
The risk of not doing so is real. While some employees are happy to blur the lines between work and home on their own terms, the “always on” culture becomes damaging when it’s rooted in pressure and unspoken expectations.
“A lot of it comes down to expectation versus what the person wants to do,” says Merrett. “Work-life balance—I think it's been gone for a while. And I think it's about work-life integration these days.”
That shift toward integration doesn’t work without reciprocity. Employers must be willing to offer something back, and flexibility is Hyundai’s strategy of choice.
“Our managers are very flexible, so team members can meet their family commitments for kids or elderly parents, whether that's working from home when kids are sick, getting them to a doctor's appointment or attending a kindergarten graduation in the middle of the day,” he explains.
But this isn’t about sacrificing productivity. In fact, Merrett argues, engaged employees often take initiative without being asked. Still, he’s quick to push back on the idea that working long hours is a badge of honor.
“They may get on a roll and work late on their own initiative or log in at night after dinner to complete a report or presentation,” he says. “Frankly, sometimes it should be a little embarrassing that you weren't efficient enough to get most of your job done during work hours; that’s different from 20, 30, 40 years ago, where you were recognized for all of the extra hours. That’s not the case anymore.”
Hyundai has taken concrete steps to address these challenges by introducing “flexible Fridays.” That kind of flexibility reinforces trust and motivation.
“Most Fridays, most people are signing off early and starting their weekends early,” Merrett says. “That’s based on the fact that we know they’ve put in extra hours earlier in the week.”
Leadership’s role in modeling these behaviors is critical.
“Even if we have to work longer hours, we shouldn't broadcast it to our teams,” Merrett says. “We don't want them to think we expect it of them.”
