The Importance of Resource Management: Achieving Employee ‘Work-Life Balance’

1st September 2025

Modern working conditions have contributed to the burnout crisis in today’s workforce. While more flexibility has been offered with work-from-home and flexi-hours policies post-pandemic, this has led to a harmful always-on culture. When you combine this with increasing reports that workers across different sectors are experiencing high demands, unrealistic expectations, job security fears and feelings of isolation, it paints a worrying picture of burnout and its impact on a sustainable balance between home and work life for many.

In a survey of 35 countries, work-life balance was the most important factor for 83% of employees in their current or future jobs, slightly outranking pay for the first time. 56% also said they would trust their employers if they offered personalised work benefits and flexibility, while 37% agreed that they wouldn’t mind earning less if their workplace allowed for a more fulfilling social life.¹

However, due to natural fluctuations in resource capacity between individuals, ‘work-life balance’ can be a reductionist term. Achieving a good balance for employees should go beyond this, focusing on life’s meaning and promoting healthy wellbeing in the workplace.

The effects of poor work-life balance

Increased work-life conflict is often linked to poor physical and mental health of individuals.² With 67% of UK workers saying that a healthy work-life balance is one of the most protective factors in alleviating stress and preventing burnout, it seems this can have a significant impact.³

Physical effects of a poor work-life balance can include unexplained fatigue, exhaustion, difficulty relaxing or switching off from work, disruptions to personal relationships, muscle pain and changes in appetite. Meanwhile, it can lead to several mental health issues, including burnout and overwhelm, anxiety and low self-confidence.

A study revealed the extent of the issue in UK workplaces, with 60% of employees saying they work longer hours than they want, 24% admitting that they find it difficult to relax in their own time because they’re thinking about work, and 26% saying their job affects their personal commitments.³

It also appears that a poor work-life balance affects the younger generation the most, with only 33% of 18–24-year-olds surveyed agreeing that they could switch off from work when they needed to, compared with 46% of those aged over 55.⁴

The prevalence of these issues can have several negative consequences for businesses, from low productivity to poor workplace engagement rates and a downturn in employee retention.

The role of resource management

Resource management in the workplace covers all processes related to planning, allocating and controlling a business’s resources, including workload allocation, time off and realistic expectations for deadlines. Monitoring resource within a business is a common practice, but it can also play an important role in achieving a balanced workplace culture.

Mismanagement of team resource, whether that’s an unbalanced workload between employees or unrealistic deadline expectations, can be detrimental to a healthy work-life balance. Ultimately, this can lead to overwhelm, burnout and resentment toward colleagues or management.

By taking a proactive, fair and collaborative approach to resource management, morale and loyalty can be improved, alongside businesses benefiting from better performance and productivity.

Steps leaders can take to improve employee wellbeing

Employee wellbeing is often tied to working conditions, which is why business leaders need to consider the best interests of employees when it comes to resource management. Leaders can implement the following to help improve work-life balance through resource management:

Build strategies to assess and rebalance workloads: Better resource planning can help avoid heavy workloads and overloaded priorities, giving employees time to take breaks and give tasks the required attention without feeling pressure.
Encourage open communication and regular check-ins: Employees should feel adequately supported by managers and business leaders. Scheduling regular 1:1s, sending company-wide reminders of wellbeing support available and ensuring managers have plenty of time to help employees dealing with work-life balance issues can have a significant impact.
Promote flexible schedules and mental health days: Wherever possible, businesses should offer flexibility options and encourage taking mental health days. Encouraging employees to look after their mental wellbeing, take time away from work for personal commitments and spend time with family can significantly reduce burnout and overwhelm.
Encourage leadership to model healthy boundaries: A balanced workplace culture often starts with how leadership behaves, which is why it’s important for leaders to model healthy workplace boundaries. Taking leave throughout the year, not communicating outside of working hours and enjoying lunch away from the workplace can all encourage other employees to value their work-life balance.

The power of encouraging a culture of balance

Establishing a balanced workplace culture is largely reliant on the continued behaviour of business leaders. By discouraging overworking and ‘grind culture’, and instead highlighting the value of a good work-life balance using the steps above, leaders can support a culture where employees can thrive.

Resource management is an important step in this, but it should also come from modelled behaviour and positive changes to workplace policies. Business leaders can also feed this to management by offering training and education on soft skills and people management to help support this type of culture.

Download your free guide to solve employee burnout

Do you want to better support employees struggling with burnout and overwhelm? With these issues being prevalent in UK workplaces and heavily linked to a poor work-life balance, we’ve created a resource to help businesses take proactive steps to turn this around.

Our guide is here to help businesses evaluate burnout and overwhelm among employees and understand the causes of employee burnout, including resource management. With these insights into employee wellbeing, leaders can use our planning template to implement effective actions and track progress towards a balanced workplace.

Improved employee work-life balance can be achieved with proactive support from business leaders and a better understanding of the issues being faced across UK workplaces.

Sources

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Simple breathing exercises can have an immediate impact on alleviating workplace stress.

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