Beyond Burnout – Rethinking Resilience and Balance

Insights From Stella Gavinho, Group Head of Wellbeing at Entain Group; Jake Sanders, Global Head of Wellbeing at Diageo; and Steve Cottle, Global Partnerships Director at Lyra Health.

Wellbeing Is a Shared Responsibility

One of the biggest changes in workplace wellbeing is the growing recognition that responsibility cannot sit with the individual alone.

Jake described a model of shared accountability involving three connected groups:

• Employees, who need to look after themselves and recognise when they need support.
• Colleagues and leaders, who shape how people are treated at work.
• Organisations, which must provide the systems, safety, tools, and culture that enable people to stay well.

Focusing on only one of these areas creates gaps. Asking employees to build resilience without addressing workload, management behaviours, or workplace design places too much responsibility on the individual.

Sustainable wellbeing comes from balancing all three.

Employee Expectations Have Changed

Employees’ expectations of their employers have shifted significantly in recent years. Mental health, physical health, financial wellbeing, neurodiversity, and life circumstances are increasingly viewed as part of the overall employee experience.

Steve noted that younger generations entering the workforce are often more open about mental health and expect employers to play an active role in supporting their wellbeing.

This does not mean organisations are expected to solve every personal challenge. It does mean employees want to know that support is available, accessible, and relevant when they need it.

Stella reflected on how much the workplace wellbeing landscape has changed. When she began working in the field, dedicated wellbeing teams were uncommon. Today, most organisations offer some form of wellbeing support and increasingly see it as a lever for productivity, retention, inclusion, and performance.

The next challenge is making that support genuinely effective rather than simply available.

Managers Are the Critical Link

The panel repeatedly returned to one factor that has an outsized influence on employee wellbeing: the relationship between managers and their teams.

At Entain, a global wellbeing survey found a clear relationship between the quality of conversations employees had with their managers and their levels of burnout. More constructive conversations were linked to lower burnout, while limited communication was associated with greater stress.

In response, the organisation launched a three-year programme to help managers have better wellbeing conversations and use wellbeing as a lever for performance.

Around 90% of managers—approximately 3,000 people—completed the programme, and 90% reported a positive outcome in their pre- and post-assessments. The organisation also recorded a 20% increase in the number of employees agreeing that their manager cared about their wellbeing.

The conversations did not need to be complicated. They involved regular, human questions such as:

• How are you feeling about your workload?
• How is your capacity at the moment?
• Is anything feeling unmanageable?
• Do you have the flexibility and autonomy you need?
• What support would help you do your job well?

These conversations help managers identify when someone is thriving, struggling, or beginning to feel overwhelmed.

Managers Need Permission and Support

It is not enough to tell managers to look after their teams. They also need the skills, confidence, and organisational permission to do so.

Jake shared an example from his previous work at Philip Morris, where employees who viewed their manager as a strong wellbeing role model reported higher engagement and personal performance.

Being a good role model was not about delivering a perfect wellbeing message. It involved simple, observable behaviours:

• Not sending emails at all hours.
• Respecting holidays and personal time.
• Taking time to check in with colleagues.
• Demonstrating healthy boundaries.
• Being open about how they manage pressure.

Managers may be given autonomy, but without training and clear expectations, they can feel uncertain about how to use it. Properly sponsored training can reassure managers that they are allowed to be flexible, supportive, and human.

At the same time, managers themselves can be under intense pressure. Steve highlighted that managers are increasingly caught between the expectations of senior leadership and the needs of their teams.

Supporting managers is therefore not just a wellbeing intervention for employees. It is a wellbeing intervention for managers too.

Leadership Sets the Tone

Leaders play a crucial role in making conversations about mental health feel safe and legitimate.

When senior leaders talk openly about their own experiences, they can help reduce stigma and show employees that asking for support is acceptable. This does not require leaders to share everything about their personal lives. It does require them to model the behaviours they want to see.

That might include discussing:

• How they manage a demanding workload.
• When they recognise they need a break.
• What boundaries help them perform well.
• How they protect time with family.
• What support they use when things become difficult.

Jake suggested that leaders who are uncomfortable discussing mental health directly can begin by sharing practical examples of how they maintain their own wellbeing.

This can feel more natural while still setting a clear cultural expectation: wellbeing is part of how work is done.

Psychological Safety Comes First

Good wellbeing conversations depend on psychological safety.

Stella emphasised that managers do not need to solve every problem. Their role is to create enough space for people to talk honestly about what they are experiencing, ask questions, and request support.

That requires managers to:

• Listen without distraction.
• Avoid immediately trying to fix the issue.
• Ask open and thoughtful questions.
• Take concerns seriously.
• Follow up after the conversation.
• Know when to signpost someone to specialist support.

A manager does not need to be a therapist or counsellor. They do need to be present, attentive, and prepared to act appropriately.

The most damaging response is to ask employees how they are doing and then ignore what they say. As Stella put it, if an organisation is going to ask for feedback, it must be prepared to do something with it.

Avoid Performative Wellbeing

Wellbeing initiatives lose credibility when employees see no meaningful action behind them.

Jake described inaction as one of the biggest risks. If employees feel that a wellbeing conversation, campaign, or survey is merely performative, trust can disappear quickly.

This is particularly important when organisations ask employees to share sensitive information. They need to understand:

• Why the information is being requested.
• How it will be used.
• What action may follow.
• When they can expect an update.
• What the organisation can and cannot change.

Not every concern can be resolved immediately. But organisations should be honest about priorities, constraints, and timescales.

A transparent explanation is more credible than a promise that cannot be kept.

Wellbeing Must Be Designed Into Work

The panel argued that wellbeing should be treated as a core business transformation programme—not as an additional initiative operating on the side.

That means ensuring wellbeing has:

• Senior leadership sponsorship.
• Dedicated budget.
• Appropriate resources.
• Clear objectives.
• Meaningful measures.
• Cross-functional ownership.

Jake highlighted the importance of connecting wellbeing teams with functions such as people, health and safety, occupational health, sustainability, and benefits.

When these areas work separately, employees can experience a fragmented support journey. When they work together, organisations can create a more coherent approach to individual wellbeing, workplace culture, and work design.

The organisation’s role is not to dictate what wellbeing looks like for every employee. It is to provide the tools, time, flexibility, and space that allow people to make healthy choices.

Measure More Than Engagement

To secure investment and improve outcomes, wellbeing leaders need to measure more than participation.

Logins, attendance, and programme utilisation can show whether an initiative is being accessed, but they do not necessarily demonstrate whether it is improving people’s lives or business performance.

The panel encouraged organisations to look at broader outcomes, such as:

• Changes in mental health indicators.
• Improvements in employee experience.
• Manager confidence and capability.
• Absence and retention trends.
• Productivity and performance measures.
• Employee access to appropriate support.
• Clinical outcomes where relevant.
• The cost and effectiveness of existing benefits.

Stella argued that wellbeing professionals need to become increasingly confident in measuring value. To gain the attention of senior leaders and finance teams, they must show how wellbeing investment benefits both employees and the organisation.

This is particularly relevant as organisations face rising health insurance costs and increasing pressure on budgets.

Use AI Carefully

Artificial intelligence could help organisations improve access to wellbeing support, but the panel urged caution.

AI may be useful for practical signposting, such as helping employees find information about available benefits, checking how many sessions they have remaining, or directing them towards support for a family member.

However, the panel strongly warned against using unvalidated AI tools for clinical or mental health guidance.

Steve’s advice was clear: if a mental health application or AI service is not medically and clinically validated, organisations should not use it for anything that could influence a person’s care or safety.

The convenience of a chatbot should never take priority over professional, evidence-based support.

Make the Employee Journey Frictionless

Support is only useful if employees can access it easily.

Jake described the importance of creating a seamless journey—from someone simply wanting to understand their benefits to someone experiencing a serious mental health challenge.

When people are already under pressure, a complicated process can become an additional barrier. Employees may be asked to navigate multiple providers, websites, phone numbers, eligibility rules, and referral processes before reaching the right support.

Organisations and providers need to work together to reduce this friction.

The goal should be a connected experience where employees can find the right help quickly, regardless of whether they first approach health insurance, occupational health, an employee assistance programme, or another support service.

Practical Takeaways

The panel’s discussion offers several practical actions for organisations:

• Treat wellbeing as a shared responsibility between employees, managers, leaders, and the organisation.
• Train managers to recognise signs of stress and have supportive conversations.
• Give managers permission to use flexibility and good judgement.
• Encourage leaders to model healthy behaviours and boundaries.
• Build psychological safety through attentive, non-judgemental listening.
• Avoid asking for feedback unless the organisation is ready to respond.
• Connect wellbeing activity to clear business and employee outcomes.
• Bring people, health, benefits, occupational health, and other relevant teams together.
• Measure impact beyond participation and platform usage.
• Use AI only for appropriate, low-risk support unless it has been clinically validated.
• Remove unnecessary friction from the employee support journey.
• Design wellbeing into the way work operates every day.

From Resilience to Sustainable Wellbeing

The conversation about workplace wellbeing is moving beyond individual resilience.

Resilience matters, but it cannot compensate indefinitely for excessive workload, unclear expectations, poor management, limited autonomy, or a culture where people feel unable to speak openly.

Sustainable wellbeing comes from creating the conditions in which people can do their work without sacrificing their health. It is reflected in the quality of everyday conversations, the behaviours leaders model, the flexibility managers are trusted to use, and the ease with which employees can access support.

As the panel made clear, wellbeing is not an optional extra. It is part of how organisations perform, retain talent, build trust, and create workplaces where people can do their best work.

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