MELVILLE, N.Y. - Employees are looking for a lot more than a paycheck to keep them happy in today’s competitive work environment.

In fact, striking a balance between work and family life is one of their top priorities, according to a recent survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management in Alexandria, Va. The survey found that more than half of respondents cited flexibility to balance life and work issues as very important to their overall job satisfaction.

So if you’re looking to keep some of your most valuable players, it may be time to consider instituting family-friendly workplace policies such as flex time and telecommuting, say human resource experts. In the long run, it could mean the difference between losing and retaining some of your top talent.

“A lot of employees want and appreciate more flexibility,” says Fred Foulkes, professor of organizational behavior and director of the Human Resources Policy Institute at the Boston University School of Management.

That’s why more and more employers are starting to offer flexible work schedules to help employees achieve a better work/life balance, he notes.

Some options include job sharing, in which two workers split the hours and responsibilities of one full-time job; flex time, with an employee choosing hours outside of a traditional workday (such as 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. or 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.); and telecommuting, in which an employee works either fully or partially from home.

Finding the options that best suit your workplace must be assessed on a case-by-case basis, experts say.

Some positions just don’t lend themselves to an alternate work schedule, explains David Javitch, president of Javitch Associates, an organizational consulting company in Newton, Mass. For instance, it would be very hard for a worker on a production line in a factory to work from home.

Also, some employees don’t do well without typical managerial constraints, he notes.

“Some people just can’t deal with the free time,” Javitch says. “Treat everyone as an individual. What might work for one person may not work for another.”

But if you think your employee can handle a flexible work schedule, the next step is to establish clear written guidelines of what is required of the position and of that person, says Jim Sowers, a principal at human resources consulting company Buck Consultants in Houston.

“As long as they understand what they are meant to accomplish and what they get for it, the rest falls into place,” he says.