How to Manage Employee Work-Life Balance and Time Management

Work-life balance and time management are two sides of the same coin. Without effective time management, you cannot achieve a proper work-life balance, and without a healthy work-life balance, effective time management becomes an impossibility.

Employers – while dedicated to their business – need to understand that employees may have different views when it comes to work. Some may wish to progress in the company and make it their livelihood, while others simply view their job as just that – a job. There is no right or wrong way to view work. Instead, employers must meet their staff with where they’re at to manage their own expectations.

This guide will explore what work-life balance and time management is, work life balance tips for managers, as well as how to promote the two within your organisation for peak performance and success.

What is work-life balance?

Work-life balance is the separation between a person’s personal and professional life and evenly balancing both in the name of personal fulfilment and wellbeing. Managing one aspect effectively will provide more time to manage the other and work to improve different aspects of each. 

 Some people will prioritise their personal lives, seeing their work as a means of allowing them to make the most of their personal time. Others are driven by their work. It is their passion, and what inspires them to get up in the morning. The balance can also be weighted for certain demographics, a prime example being parents with newborn children, who will want to spend as much time as possible with their children but understand they need to work to support them.

In the UK, 31% of employees feel they don't have a good work-life balance. This is unsurprising, given the UK has some of the longest working hours in Europe. For employers, you can observe:

• Poor work-life balance (which leads to negative outcomes like burnout)

• Decreased productivity at work

Recent studies have calculated that the UK only scores 34 out of 100 for employee work-life balance satisfaction. This is due to several factors, including lowered maternity/paternity pay, leave offerings, average annual leave offerings and a cost-of-living crisis.

This dissatisfaction can have a huge impact on workplace engagement as employees can be distracted by external factors, which then impacts their professional performance, creating a cycle of trying to regain a positive work-life balance. It is imperative to workplace and even organisational performance to achieve a satisfactory work-life balance. When a person’s life becomes dominated by professional concerns, it can begin to impact their personal life, leading to increased levels of stress which can spiral into a decline in mental wellbeing and suffering with burnout, anxiety and even depression. 

How to help employees achieve work-life balance

Achieving a work-life balance is dependent on not just the individual, but also the organisation. Both must recognise the value in creating the separation between the two. There are ways to achieve this which have covered in our previous blog ‘The Importance of Work-Life Balance’ which detail some of the key techniques people can use to find a healthy balance.

One key thing to keep in mind when striving to achieve a healthy work-life balance is timing. Identifying clear times for both working and personal pursuits can help an individual manage their time and energy in and out of work. Understanding the time constraints placed on you during these periods allows for a greater focus on different tasks, understanding what requires focus in that moment and what can be rescheduled to ensure your professional and personal focuses do not clash. When it comes down to it, time is the cornerstone of a work-life balance. There is only so much of it in a week, and it needs to be effectively utilised to achieve personal growth and fulfilment. 

What is time management?

Effective and proper time management cannot be underestimated as it can make or break multiple aspects of a person’s life. Utilising the time available efficiently in either a personal or professional sense is central to health and wellbeing. It is approximated that the average working week is 38.93 hours long. This equals around 24% of a person’s week. We then spend on average 56 hours asleep which equals around a third of a person’s week which leaves us with 72 hours personal time. With the least amount of time spent in work, we need to ensure we are efficient with our time in working hours to ensure we are not bringing work home. This is where effective time management comes into play. 

Time management is the practice of planning your tasks and activities, prioritising, planning, setting goals and making sure each is given the appropriate amount of time to be completed to a high standard. If this planning process is managed appropriately, then an individual should be able to get through their assigned tasks and responsibilities in a timely and efficient manner. Providing yourself this breathing space will reduce stress and prevent burnout, meaning you are able to maintain your mental wellbeing, and then begin effectively planning your personal time to do what you enjoy and focus on personal growth. 

How to improve time management?

Whether you’re an employee, manager or business owner, the value of strong time management becomes immediately noticeable when you begin to action the tasks in the appropriate time allotted for each. Distractions begin to fade away, you can maintain your focus and productivity and engagement are significantly increased. However, time management is a skill, and one that needs to be developed and worked upon. There are certain steps that can be taken to improve time management skills and become more efficient. 

1. Establish goals

Setting goals isn’t always a straightforward process. Some goals might be viewed in the macro as overarching goals whilst others may be micro and feed into the grander task. However, establishing these goals makes tasks feel more tangible and achievable. Using things such as SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based) goals, carrying out tasks then becomes a far clearer and structured process. 

2. Track time and progress

It may seem redundant to track time and progress when referring to time management, but by doing this, you are able to better understand how your staff members like to work, how they perform with different tasks and work with their strengths rather than against them. This also you to see where breaks may be needed, how energy levels correspond to different types of tasks throughout the day, as well as what motivates staff to pick their energy back up.

3. Find a process

There are multiple methods to effectively plan and manage time. These might include processes such as the Eisenhower Matrix which helps you identify which tasks take priority through importance and urgency. It could be finding the correct software to help track tasks and progress to visualise what individuals are working towards. Once this has been identified and becomes clearer, the process of time management becomes more tangible.

4. Set limits

Good leadership stems from trusting your staff to do the right thing. However, it’s worth knowing what the limits are in each individual, so you can find ways to motivate them, or reframe tasks slightly so they are comprehended in a way that is beneficial for everyone. Although the aim of time management is to alleviate stress and aid productivity, assigning certain staff members too much to do in too little time will either result in a lower quality performance or increased stress, pressure and guilt from not achieving the goal you have set. It is best to understand how long a task will task will take, understanding priority and effectively working towards that in a comfortable and efficient manner.

5. Explore flexible working

Flexible working has numerous benefits, particularly for employees who may have disabilities and need additional time and/or accommodations to complete tasks. Whether it’s working from home, hybrid working or flexible start and finish times, see how this can help individuals (or your company as a whole) on a trial basis, to see how productivity shifts.

6. Provide mental health assistance

Mental health first aid (MHFA) training is becoming more common, with over 1 million people trained in England by MHFA England and 196,000 delegates trained by St John Ambulance in 2024 alone. They can act as a first line of defence against poor mental health, by:

• Giving appointed individuals confidence to support colleagues with mental health issues

• Helping stop someone’s mental health from worsening

• Breaking the stigma of mental health issues

• Guiding someone towards helpful, potentially lifesaving, professional help

• Helping someone from self-harming or hurting others

Employee Assistance Programme

Effectively managing time and helping staff find the right balance between work and your personal life is a process, one that comes with its own stresses and concerns. When an external factor impacts an employee’s plans, work-life balance can be disrupted, and this can negatively affect their wellbeing as well as the business’s output. When you are caught in this cycle, you may need guidance to get back on track, and you especially need contingencies to ensure staff can work through their issues effectively.

With our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), our expert counsellors can supply the necessary support and aid with wellbeing and mental health concerns. Whether it is discussing issues in the workplace and how it is impacting their personal life or how an external factor in your personal life is negatively impacting your workplace performance, our accredited counsellors are available on a 24/7 helpline, 365-days a year.

Conclusion

Time-management feeds directly into a healthy work-life balance. You cannot have one without the other. Effectively managing time in a working environment helps drive success and growth. But this forward planning and management also ensures you have the time to focus on your business goals too. There will always be external factors that may disrupt this planning, but having the processes in place will assist you in effectively overcoming them.