Gaby Triess - Wellbeing program manager Ex-Google

“Wellbeing is business-critical.”

Gaby Triess has an impressive resume, 4 years at Facebook, followed by a decade at Google where she led wellbeing initiatives for her colleagues in the UK and EMEA. Her passion for people and positive psychology drove her to become a wellbeing champion. She organised events, creative workshops, talks and training sessions, in essence, magical moments to delight people, help them detach and increase their sense of belonging. Later, she got the opportunity to join the global mental health team managing the employee assistance program and support Google’s staff during difficult times.

”A company with a diverse workforce needs a wide range of benefits and programs in place,” Gaby reminds us. Google offers great benefits and lets people pick and choose. They know best what works for them as each person’s needs and understanding of wellbeing are unique and fluid over time.

But programs can only be impactful if people are aware of them. For that reason, Gaby ran a course on wellbeing for new UK hires as part of their onboarding. This increased awareness of all perks and benefits but also inspired new joiners to be proactive and assertive about their own wellbeing. The session was so successful that long standing employees asked to attend as well, demonstrating the positive impact and appetite for these programs. 

She believes that there are different reasons for burnout. Some people are simply overworked. Others suffer because they are not using their strengths, doing work that is not aligned with their purpose and passion; or because they don’t feel psychologically safe on their team.

Gaby is a strong advocate for wellbeing initiatives focused on both prevention and intervention in the workplace. ”We’re seeing more and more studies demonstrating a great return on investment convincing even the biggest sceptics that wellbeing is not just a nice-to-have but business-critical,” she says, ”Employees are more loyal and productive if they are mentally, emotionally and physically in a good place.” She points out that in the Tech, mental health and wellbeing programs are part of the corporate culture and having a solid strategy in place makes companies a more attractive next employer, especially for a new generation of people that is more open about their mental health. 

Book recommendations :
Thrive by Arianna Huffington
The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel van der Kolk 

Gaby in the wellbeing garden in the Google office.