Improving workplace wellbeing and preventing burnout
Improving workplace wellbeing isn’t just an “HR initiative” – it’s a performance strategy.
In our latest One Stop event, Athlete, Performance Coach and Workplace Psychologist Jay Barrett provided a deep dive into the mechanics of burnout, drawing from both academic literature and clinical practice.
Here are our favourite takeaways:
🔗 The Profitability Pivot: Why Wellbeing is a Financial Metric
Jay began by highlighting convincing empirical research from a 2024 study at Oxford University, showing a clear link between a company’s profitability and employee wellbeing. Unsurprisingly, happier employees correlate strongly with company profits.
This trend (identified using publicly available data) is seen playing out across the wider market when measuring investment returns of a group of the top-scoring 100 companies in staff wellbeing vs the wider stock indices.
🧑💻 Mental Distress / Burnout – what does it look like?
To help illustrate some of the symptoms of mental distress or burnout, an indicative continuum is a helpful guide to start to see when someone is showing signs of slipping into the “risk” space or “distress” area. It is important to note, if someone does slip into this space, we want to make sure we get them support from a trained professional so they can move back into thriving!
It is also instructive to consider this along with World Health Organisation’s (WHO) definition of burnout:
“Burnout is a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterised by three dimensions: Exhaustion, Disengagement and Ineffectiveness.”
➤ Exhaustion – mental / physical exhaustion, waking up as tired as before going to sleep, going on for a number of months.
➤ Disengagement – can appear as cynicism as well in someone who is not normally cynical.
➤ Ineffectiveness – when performance starts to suffer.
⚠️ A rapidly growing challenge
Perhaps one of the most alarming facts Jay shared was data from Dr Jarrod Haar’s Wellbeing@Work survey at AUT / Massey University, showing a rapidly increasing rate of perceived burnout over the last few years.
In 2020, 1 in 9 people surveyed reported experiencing self-perceived workplace burnout. By 2024, that number had risen to 50% (1 in 2).
In his 2021 study, he also uncovered risk multipliers:
➤Bureaucracy: Burnout over 400% more likely in highly bureaucratic environments.
➤ Overwork: Working 55 hours or more per week increases the risk of burnout by up to four times.
📈 Addressing the “Mismatches”
To fix burnout, you must identify where the employee and the organisation are misaligned. Whilst each organisation and situation is different, Jay highlights that the key is to start a conversation around “Mismatches”.
➤ Work overload – May look like working hours of over 55+ hours a week
➤ Lack of control – Lack of decision making, choice or autonomy
➤ Insufficient rewards – Could be social or physical rewards
➤ Community – Social connection is important for our brain
➤ Absence of fairness – It can create a sense of “cynicism”—one of the three core pillars of burnout
➤ Value conflicts – Could be due to the job or organisation
🚶 The “brain hack” for the busy professional
Jay ended his session with a last piece of research from Microsoft’s Human Factors Lab showing the importance of breaks on the functioning of the brain:
➤The 10-Minute Reset: EEG monitoring shows that a mere 10 – minute break between 30 minute meetings allows the brain to reset stress levels.
➤ The Third Space: What psychologists call “The Third Space” is the transition between “work” and “home” – use this time to consciously decompress and reset. This “warm down” is essential for a sustained cycle of recovery.
We can protect our wellbeing and our performance; it’s about finding and using the right strategies for the person, group and environment they work in. Because of this complexity of factors, getting the right support is something he always encourage!
Continue the conversation
We’ve abbreviated the above snippets from his talk, but the conversation is by no means over – reach out to Jay at Jay@glia.co.nz for further info.
Hear more about wellbeing and other interesting topics for Finance at our next One Stop conference happening in May 2026, or check out our other Finance & Accounting February events:
📌 IFRS Masterclass
📌 Sustainability and Climate Reporting
📌 Management Accounting Conference
