Meet Bérengère Dumont, SVP People Operations at Reliance Health

We’ve got fantastic people at Reliance Health, and we wanted to amplify them. We created a new content series to do that. Welcome to Reliance Health Insider, our new content series to showcase the people, teams and functions within Reliance Health.

Say hello to Bérengère Dumont, our Senior Vice President, People Operations at Reliance Health. Bérengère, or B, as we call her, has quite the experience, having spent over two decades working in Human Resources Management & Talent Acquisition. She has worked in top professional services firms such as PwC, The Boston Consulting Group and Booz Allen Hamilton. 

You can say Bérengère has mastered the art of Human Resources and is very passionate about creating an environment where top performers thrive. She recently joined Reliance Health to oversee our markets’ people and operations functions.

We chatted with Bérengère about her team’s function within the Reliance Health ecosystem, how we hire and the thinking that guides how leaders lead at Reliance Health. 

Let’s get into it:

Q: Thank you for joining us today, Bérengère. Can you tell us a bit about yourself? 

Thank you for having me. I’m Bérengère, I’m originally from Belgium but currently based in Dubai. I have a background in political sciences, law and international law and started my career working for the World Economic Forum, focusing on the Davos Summit and other regional summits. 

I kind of fell into the HR world through talent acquisition, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I’ve worked in global and regional roles across various geographies, including Europe, Africa and Asia, and I got into the digital tech world almost three years ago.

I’m married and a mum to a19-year-old son.

Q: You’ve had quite an exciting career journey from International Affairs to People Operations. What did you aspire to be as a child?

I wanted to be a lawyer, a vet, a diplomat and even a journalist but ended up in none of those fields, interestingly.

Q: Why did you join Reliance Health?

The connection with Reliance Health was immediate because I’m passionate about healthcare. That’s what I’ve been doing for over three years now and feel very connected to the importance of healthcare in emerging markets. I’m at a stage of my life where I want to have that impact. I want to make a difference and see how people’s lives can be affected. So, I strongly believe in the mission.

Another side to it is the type of people I’ve met in the leadership team at Reliance Health. How vibrant and inspiring they were, and the feeling that they had a strong vision with the capacity to go places and make things happen.

Q: You’re currently the Senior Vice President, People Operations. What would you say you love the most about your role? 

What I love about my role is seeing the impact on people, their career growth, their trajectory, the opportunities they get and how they explore new fields and challenge themselves to see where they can go. And this isn’t limited to within the organisation. When you support people, you help them grow, and they can use the organisation as a springboard to go on and do incredible things in other environments. This is always great to see.

Q: What are your main goals in your role?

My vision for People Ops is really to build a world-class function and to make Reliance a unique place for people to thrive. For high performers to find their home but also find a caring, nurturing and stimulating environment. It’s very important.

I’d also like to use some of the best practices standards and import them to emerging markets where some of those practices might be less usual, like the option to work remotely. Areas where clearly Reliance Health is leading the pack as well as the transparency around salary bandings and career growth.

Q: How does the People Operations team impact the company?

The team impacts Reliance Health at all levels. When it comes to hiring, it’s about hiring the right people and giving them the right experience throughout that process. Then we impact Rhomans during onboarding, induction and from there their entire career journey at Reliance. 

People Operations also drives impact with the type of initiatives we put in place for career development and growth. We help get the right people in and work to retain them, so they want to stay and help us build the company.  We also want to create a happy, driven and stimulating environment.

Q: What’s most important to the team when hiring at Reliance Health?

I think it’s about attitude. You want people who are curious, who are willing to learn, who are willing to embrace change. So, they must be very agile because we are in a very fast-paced, hypergrowth environment, and it doesn’t suit everybody. It’s not a question of age, it’s not a question of experience. It’s really a question of attitude and personality.

Q: What makes this a great place to work for people who fit the Reliance Health category?

People these days put more emphasis on the organisation’s mission because they want the impact, and that’s something we are offering. Many people working with us strongly believe in the mission. That’s one thing. The other piece is that we have a very open environment, which gives people a chance to shape and impact the organisation as we listen to feedback.

We offer a very caring, trusting, diverse and forward-looking environment, and I think this is something that we should be very proud of. 

Q: For people who want to understand the leadership style, can you tell us how leadership at Reliance Health lead?

We strongly believe in leading by example. You learn from the people above you, below you and by your side. We are putting various initiatives together to look at different training and coachingprogrammes so we can really help people in their managerial journey. It’s not one-size-fits-all, it’s many different styles of leadership, but fundamentally they must fit within our culture of high performers, of this open mindset of thriving and being able to self-motivate. It’s very important in our environment.

Q: What would you say to someone considering joining Reliance Health?

I would say be curious, be positive, embrace who you are, but also be mindful that, as I said, it needs to be the right thing for you. So, you need to be very flexible, very adaptable and willing to change, to reinvent yourself and to grab the opportunities. So, it’s really those attributes that I think you need to have and then go for it because we are not looking at the perfect match with the job description. As I said, we’re looking for an attitude, for someone who will be able to grow, grow within Reliance and help Reliance grow. It’s a two-way street

Interested in joining the league of unique humans at Reliance Health? Check out our open roles here

In our next edition of Reliance Health insider, we speak with someone who has held multiple positions at Reliance Health and learn about her journey so far. Stay tuned!