Bertrand Stern-Gillet of Health Assured On How the World’s Best Leaders Build Burnout-Free Workplace Cultures
An Interview With Chad Silverstein
Build a sense of purpose. We don’t want people to feel that they are just a cog in the corporate machine — that they truly do matter. We recognise our people and want them to feel truly appreciated for the work they do, and that they do have a sense of purpose instead of just logging in each day, doing their day of work and then going home feeling unnoticed. Wellbeing Wednesdays, company shoutouts, initiatives and the treat trolley are all small ways that we can ensure our team feel they have a sense of purpose, and this recognition prevents people from feeling purposeless.
In today’s high-pressure business landscape, burnout has become an epidemic affecting both employees and leaders. The question is — how can companies create workplace cultures that prioritize well-being without compromising performance? To dive into this important topic, we are interviewing Betrand Stern-Gillet.
Bertrand is a board director and the CEO of HA Wisdom Wellbeing, a leading global provider of mental health and wellbeing services. HA Wisdom Wellbeing is part of the Peninsula Group, a global provider of workplace services.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
After studying economics at university, I went to law school and started working in criminal defense. A friend I’d made at law school came to the Peninsula Group and recommended employment work as it still followed the law pathway but was a different industry, it was a really exciting opportunity. It was a very junior role and a 3-month fixed term contract covering for someone else, but something really excited me about the opportunity and the organization, and it turned out to be the best decision I’ve ever made. Working for our Group has taken me all over the world, working with a variety of different services, and I’ve now been at HA Wisdom Wellbeing for over 3 years.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Success is incredibly subjective, but I’ve always enjoyed pushing myself and saying yes to every opportunity. In 2017, I was given a chance to get involved with Mergers and Acquisitions with no experience, but I jumped into it and thought “what could possibly go wrong?”. I went in with lots of energy and took in as much information as I could.
Leading people can be challenging, and I know when I first started leading teams, I thought I had to do everything myself and take on everybody’s work. Then I had a sort of lightbulb moment and realized if I focus on finding brilliant people, far brighter and more able than I will ever be, who do their specialism really well, everything else will pretty much take care of itself.
Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Can you share a pivotal moment in your career when you realized the importance of creating a burnout-free workplace culture? How did it influence your approach to leadership?
I think Covid was a huge moment for me, as it was for all of us. I quickly realized that colleagues who were working remotely were struggling more with burnout than those in the office. We decided to lead a phased return to the office, which resulted in less burnout overall. In terms of leadership, it was important for me to understand that decisions may not be popular, but are for the betterment of the organisation + and reducing burnout overall for colleagues.
What are some of the most common causes of burnout in today’s workplaces, and what signs should leaders look out for in their teams?
Burnout can be caused by many factors, but excessive workload, lack of autonomy over work, unrealistic deadlines and poor work life balance are often the top causes for burnout. Signs that your people are beginning to get burnt out could be a noted lack of enthusiasm for work, more absences, decreased productivity and a difficulty to concentrate.
Everyone is different so it’s important to be regularly checking in with your team and asking how they’re feeling. You may notice someone may have become a little quieter or more easily distracted, but this may not mean they are burnt out — it could be that something outside of work is going on so it’s important to sit down and have regular 1–2–1s.
How do you personally balance the need to drive results with the need to ensure employee well-being?
Of course, we all want to achieve results, but this cannot come at the expense of employee wellbeing. We prioritise open communication with our colleagues and want them to know that they can come to us and talk about any concerns they have regarding their own wellbeing. Every Wednesday is Wellbeing Wednesday, where employees have a chance to speak with a therapist about any personal or workplace issues they are having. At Health Assured, we want to implement as many initiatives as possible to support our employees; this, in turn, will result in better results as our people are happy, looked after, rewarded and motivated.
What role does communication play in creating a burnout-free workplace, and how can leaders foster open dialogue about mental health and work-life balance?
Open communication in the workplace is essential for fostering a nurturing environment where employees are able to communicate when they’re feeling burnt out or overwhelmed. Employees can often feel ashamed, embarrassed or reluctant to speak up about burnout and mental health in fear it could impact their progression, but it should be entirely the opposite. Being able to discuss this openly means that measures can be put in place to help manage workload and prevent burnout from occurring. When employees feel supported, listened to and valued in the workplace, statistics show they perform better and stay with the company longer.
As a leader, it’s important to lead by example; this includes openly discussing our own experiences with mental health. Policies and training are key to fostering open dialogue, and these should be incorporated throughout employees’ time at the company. Having supportive policies such as flexible working hours and providing training around mental health awareness can really help staff feel that they are in a safe and welcoming environment for conversations around that won’t result in repercussions. It’s also important to acknowledge that employees need to be encouraged to take their breaks, use their annual leave and take care of themselves out of the office — they cannot perform at their best in work if they’re not doing well out of work.
What is your take on traditional corporate norms, like long working hours and “always-on” availability? Are these practices outdated, or do they still have a place in certain industries?
Everybody is different so what may work for some may not work for others, and every industry varies so it can be difficult to say whether long working hours is a no go or whether it is acceptable in some instances. What I will say is that, for some individuals and organisations, an “always on” culture can do more harm than good in the long run. Having to be available at all times can lead to employees feeling burnt out, less productive and have negative impacts on employee well-being. There are roles that require people to be available often, but it’s important to have some degree of flexibility and managed carefully to avoid excessive workload and unrealistic demands.
Ok, let’s dig into actionable strategies. Based on your experience and research, can you share “5 Ways to Build a Burnout-Free Workplace Culture”? If you can, please include examples or stories for each.
1. Transparency and honesty
During Covid, I wanted to make sure colleagues knew exactly what was going on because trying to second guess what is going on from a work perspective is going to cause people to feel anxious and uneasy. We made sure we told our people what was going on every single step of the way, gave them a detailed road map of how the reintroduction into office-based work will look and made sure to have an open-door policy so colleagues could ask as many questions as they wanted and they got clear, concise answers.
2. Coaching colleagues on how to reprioritise/shift focus/achieve balance
We go above and beyond to ensure our team are not working out of hours, have the ability to speak up if something isn’t working and know that their voice matters. I’ve coached many team members to shift their focus and achieve balance between work and home, because everyone needs to wind down and be able to leave work at work. This allows colleagues to do their best work and not become burnt out , whilst also to recharge when the day is over.
3. Encourage delegation and collaboration
During my time in a lead Mergers and Acquisitions role, I was hungry to learn but was wary of taking too much control away from my team. It can be easy to want to control every process as a lead, but this can actually be a hinderance to any team. By allowing mine room to breathe and do the jobs they were hired to do, I was able to focus on doing my role well whilst gaining my team’s trust and support in the process.
4. Building an environment where people feel safe to express themselves
It can be common for people to feel suffocated at work when they have situations going on that they don’t feel able to speak up about. It’s so important that colleagues feel they can safely express and speak up without worrying about repercussions. Feeling stifled is often a reason why people feel burnt out, because they feel stuck in a situation with no way out. Creating an open and safe environment allows people to say how they feel and take a load off, making a happier, calmer workforce.
5. Build a sense of purpose
We don’t want people to feel that they are just a cog in the corporate machine — that they truly do matter. We recognise our people and want them to feel truly appreciated for the work they do, and that they do have a sense of purpose instead of just logging in each day, doing their day of work and then going home feeling unnoticed. Wellbeing Wednesdays, company shoutouts, initiatives and the treat trolley are all small ways that we can ensure our team feel they have a sense of purpose, and this recognition prevents people from feeling purposeless.
What do you say to skeptics who believe that creating a burnout-free culture may come at the cost of productivity or profits?
Many leaders worry that developing a culture that is burnout-free will result in lower productivity or profits, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. High performance is achieved by balance, not burnout, and there is a lot of data to support this. Research from Deloitte found that poor mental health and burnout cost UK employers an estimated £51 billion each year, and these costs are associated with burnout, presenteeism and the impact that relatives’ mental health has on employee’s productivity.
Burnout really doesn’t benefit anyone long term, and, if your employees are exhausted and struggling with their mental health, productivity will begin to fall, and burnout will cause organisations to struggle.
Can you share a real-world example of a team or organization where prioritizing employee well-being led to unexpected or exceptional results?
We host a range of wellbeing initiatives and have seen a huge increase in employee satisfaction with our own people. The treat trolley, weekly massages, wellbeing Wednesday and offering Bupa are all strategies we have put in place to offer our colleagues extra support or a pick me up if they need it, and our staff perform better for it. During Covid, staff were burnt out and missing an office environment, and when we decided to bring colleagues back into the office, we knew we had to implement strategies to prevent burn out from happening again. We now work on 5 days in the office schedule and make sure our people know they arenot expected to work after work, and to go home and recharge. Their time is their time to enjoy and wind down and not think about work.
How can leaders in high-pressure industries (like tech, finance, or healthcare) realistically apply these principles without falling behind on deadlines or performance goals?
I think it’s really important for leaders to have realistic expectations. It’s understandable that high pressure industries also have high expectations and targets, but these also need to be achievable. Workloads need to be reasonable and attainable to ensure that employees have a clear understanding of what is expected of them. It’s also important that leaders are making sure that their people are able to have a good work life balance. Every industry will work in a different way, but people need to be able to switch off and recharge. Being able to do this will ensure that people are still able to meet deadlines and goals without burning out and starting to fall behind.
What trends or innovations are you seeing in workplace well-being and culture that excite you the most?
AI in starting to become more and more popular in the counselling sphere. It’s an interesting concept and I can see why it’s increasing in popularity as it is convenient, accessible and provides a solution to people who may not be able to financially justify paying for counselling privately. I think it’s an interesting challenge because, on the one hand, it can provide on-demand solutions for those who need it, but it does also need to be closely regulated. Counsellors have going through extensive training and have undergone years of training, in person sessions and research to achieve the qualifications they need to allow them to be counsellors, so giving AI free reign to advise from a psychological perspective with no one overseeing the advice it gives out is a worrying prospect.
In your opinion, how does a burnout-free culture impact a company’s long-term success, its relationships with employees, and even its customers?
In the long term, a burnout free culture ensures that people want to come to work and they’re not dreading coming into the office every day. People will feel more motivated to reach their performance goals and will feel appreciated at work because they won’t feel like they are being pushed to their limits. As a leader, it’s important to me that my colleagues know that I do care about their performance, but I also care about their wellbeing and how they are, and this is why we put so much into creating a burn out free culture and environment at Health Assured. My office door is always open, and I am available for people to come and talk if they are feeling overwhelmed, and I think it is incredibly important that other organisations have a similar attitude — for the wellbeing of their staff.
Our customers get the best service, because our people are looked after and so they can perform at their best every day. They know that when they have an issue, they are in capable hands and we have resources available, such as Mental Health First Aiders, a therapist who comes in each Wednesday for private sessions, an open line of communication with their manager and access to the Bupa EAP where they are able to seek out mental health support outside the workplace.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement to help more companies embrace burnout-free workplace cultures, what would it be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 😊
I think it would be to implement benefits that are focused on mental wellness. Many companies offer benefits that are advantageous, but not always focusing on the mental wellness of employees. Implement benefits that target on increasing the mental wellness of staff such as having trained mental health first aiders, provide resources for employees to speak to professionals and foster an open culture within your workplace that allows people to open up about their own mental health struggles without repercussions. Mental health is a huge factor in our society and providing as many resources as possible in the workplace leads to a workforce that are less likely to burnout.
How can our readers further follow you online?
I’m on LinkedIn often, my name on there is also Bertrand Stern-Gillet.
This was great. Thank you so much for the time you spent sharing with us.
About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein is a seasoned entrepreneur and Thought Leader with over 25 years of business experience. He has founded, operated, and exited multiple companies and now builds into a handful of high impact CEOs. Chad has launched multiple online communities, including a recent leadership development platform, and also serves as a strategic advisor for Authority Magazine’s thought-leader incubator program.
To learn more and connect with Chad visit: chadsilverstein.io
Bertrand Stern-Gillet of Health Assured On How the World’s Best Leaders Build Burnout-Free… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.