Mercer's Martine Ferland: Tackle these blind spots for healthier, more resilient teams

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Martine Ferland, Mercer: We know that when your employees feel, cared for, secure, safe, they'll thrive. And when they thrive, the clients will be well served.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader: Welcome to Meet The Leader, a podcast where top leaders share how they are tackling the world's toughest challenges. Today's leader, Martine Ferland. She's the CEO of Mercer, one of the world's largest human resource consultancies. And she'll reveal the blind spots companies can tackle for healthier and more resilient teams and workplaces.

Subscribe to Meet the Leader on Apple, Spotify and wherever you get your favourite podcasts. And please take a moment to rate and review us. I'm Linda Lacina from the World Economic Forum and this is Meet The Leader.

Martine Ferland, Mercer: We see health as tri-dimensional, in a way. It's your physical health, which is everybody's go-to when you talk about health. But it's also your well-being and your mental health. And your financial health. There's huge connection between feeling secure and not stressed out and performance this work. And ultimately your health.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader: Blind spots. Great leaders know they're a risk in any climate, but their impact can be especially great at a time like our own, where leaders are navigating a host of challenges from rapid technological advancement to a potential economic slowdown.

At January's Annual Meeting, I talked to Martine Ferland, the CEO of Mercer about workplace blind spots -- and what leaders can do.

For instance, we all know how key workplace health benefits are to keeping individual teams resilient, but also for tackling big picture issues like chronic diseases and mental health. But Martine shared some insights from Mercer data showing programs are still struggling for uptake, in part thanks to long-held stigmas and even lack of awareness. She shared how data can help companies target their efforts to scale wellness for their teams and society as a whole.

We also talked about big systemic shifts impacting workplaces, including the labour shortage and how it's made it all the more important for workplaces to recruit and hire at the pace of change. It's also made it critical for leaders to rethink how they're reskilling their teams, making sure they're not overlooking certain profiles or certain backgrounds.

She talked about all this, including a book she recommends that can give any leader inspiration during challenging times.

But first she'll get us started with the link between the company's wellness benefits and stronger, healthier societies.

Martine Ferland, Mercer: We've seen with the pandemic for sure that health is critical to good work in a way. And therefore, looking at the linkage between providing safe environments and secure environment employees to work in, can really help employee concentrate on the work that they have to do. And therefore, providing good benefits are very much table stakes for employers today.

What we've seen employers do in the recent years to address the isolation, mental health issues, loneliness -- to an extent some people have been traumatised by the lack of control that has happened through pandemics and people have lost loved ones as well through it. And therefore, there's more and more access to the type of benefits that are geared towards that.

The problem that we're seeing these days though, that very many employers would make those types of benefits available. But the take up rate may not be where employers would have expected them to be. So, it's a question of continuous engagement, making it available, accessible, easy-to-consume soundbites. And we're seeing that when employees do take advantage of types of programs, it really helps.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader: Was there anything that surprised you about the research that you guys had done? Is there any kind of point that really stuck with you like, gosh, you know, that's really that's really compelling.

Martine Ferland, Mercer: The one thing that's surprising is on one hand, employers have tons of data. They have claims data. It can be anonymized, but they can see if a location has particular hypertension issues or whatever. And they can also look at I was talking about the usage, the take up rate of certain types of benefits. They can actually dig into the data and look at where the root cause is, what type of population is not accessing as much as they would expect that they should having access to all this data. What's surprising is they don't use it.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader: And what's needed for change? A to get to have better take up rates, but B, to get employers better maximise this data that they have at their fingertips.

Martine Ferland, Mercer: Yeah, I think it's true. Good insight and modelling and utilising AI and really combining this data into consumable analytics. So making it easier, translating this data and this is something that we help do at Mercer in terms of bar charts pie charts, making it easy to grasp trends and tendencies and root causes so that you can then act more precisely, more in a more targeted fashion. So I think it's to translate this data. The data exist, but how do you transform it from being just points of data into really informative.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader: If, if workplaces aren't able to do this, like, let's say the worst-case scenario, nothing moves forward. What happens? What's the risk of that? What happens to workplaces, to workers, if they aren't able to better optimise, to make sure that everyone is are happy, healthy, well, all that.

Martine Ferland, Mercer: If we don't work on engagement and take up rate and well... first of all, of course it's offering the benefits but then the next, the next level, then employers get to drop these programs if they don't see the return on them. I think it's important to work on the adoption rate so that the programs can really deliver the benefit that it were intending to build to deliver.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader: Are there other particular benefits that maybe employers aren't offering typically, beyond the basics, that would be really important?

Martine Ferland, Mercer: Two things that we see emerging is from the big old employee assistance programs that have been existing for years and years that have take up rate of about 5 to 10%. And it's not that we expect 100%. Not everybody needs that kind of service, but that is being transformed into much more with technology. Technology enables such a better customisation and personalise experience for each and every colleague in in the workplace that you can really utilise data once again to probe people. Say, "oh, this, this X, Y, z we notice has been high. Have you seen your doctor lately?" Or being pulled in like for I think in terms of COVID, some of these systems or programs were really designed to help you assess your condition and whether you needed to go to hospital or not. And we know that during COVID, one of the problems was overflow at the hospital level. If you could avoid going there for the right reason within the right context and get some digital nurse supporting you, helping you, easier access, no wait time, etc.,

We're seeing those programs evolving very much and it's quite hand in hand with what we've seen. Again, the pandemic has been extraordinary in terms of evolving the landscape here. But digital, digital access to medical practitioners, whether it's nurses, doctors. Again, that's another one where the adoption rate were really low before pandemic.

Long-term habits are difficult to break. People didn't necessarily trust the system during the pandemic. They had no choice. And now that the habit has formed and people have been satisfied with the experience, they're happy to go back. We have surveys that show that employees -- north of 50% of people are saying "I'd rather continue to use a digital health service" at least as a first port of call, and in particular in remote locations where people have too long drive to waste a day of work, these type of things.

So convenient to be able to just have a little corner in the workplace, 15 minutes, be able to talk to the problem, the issue that you're encountering, and we see it as well as the adoption rate in mental health treatment, for example, is really high because it enables, again, easier access. And that's important for nudging people to seek help. If it's easier, if it's less traumatising, you don't, you know, in small you can see in remote locations, small towns where, oh, I've seen your car parked -- There's still a bit of trauma associated with talking about mental health issues, etc. in some in some parts. And therefore, digital access enables all of that.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader: There are likely to be some shifts in the economy in the upcoming year.

Martine Ferland, Mercer: Although it's interesting. I'm keen to you live and learn it and with the tight labour market that we have, there's still a gap in the US for example, in terms of jobs available and people available to fill them. It's all it's not always the talent, it's also the skill set. But anyway, yes, you're right, there will likely be some movement and shift.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader: How will that impact access to benefits, some of these things that we're talking about and also that connection to health and wellness, right?

Martine Ferland, Mercer: It's how employer care and how they proceed and go about these things that make a big difference. I will remember forever early in the pandemic, the hotel industry, for example, was very impacted, the same as the airlines and all the hospitality, restaurants. And there was in particular one hotel chain where they had to furlough the majority of their employees. But the way they did that with care, with providing them with a basic benefit for at least a few months to see them through so that they could turn around and find different solutions and the way that they approached that really made a difference for people. And of course, when the economy and when your fortune turns around, knowing that your employer cared for you, even though they were hit with very difficult circumstances, I think it makes a big difference in your capacity to hire, to retain, to engage so that these things matter.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader: It might make you sort of a little bit better, better poised to succeed regardless of where you end up.

Martine Ferland, Mercer: No, exactly. And there's different ways to do this. There are different ways to provide that kind of access or at least lending place in a very decent and in a decent way for people.

Human-centric leadership. We often will talk about empathy in economics. Of course, we run businesses, we have shareholders and we have stakeholders, and we need to provide good careers on the long run. And therefore, you need to manage on the on the everyday to get there all the time.

So it's always the arts and science of short term / long term, but the empathy is to really understand that you working with people and people that have their own ambition, their own purpose, their own drive and needs and problems and issues, and if you can help them along the way, we see health as tri-dimensional. It's your physical health, which is everyone's go-to when you talk about health, but it's also your wellbeing and your mental health and your financial health. There's a huge connection between being at least secure and not stressed out in performance at work and ultimately your health.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader: What workplace trends are catching your attention for the year ahead?

Martine Ferland, Mercer: I think that is quite a conundrum. We've seen it over the last almost 12 months by now, where you have employers who need to shift the skills and sometimes they do it by upskilling, reskilling. It's possible, depending on the type of skills you need in the future.

But sometimes you also need to just shift to your base. And therefore, it was this conundrum of hiring at the same time as you were letting go of some people.

It's very confusing for people in the organisation to see this happening at the same time, but it's just this big shift towards a different skill set as we automate, as technology comes in the day-to -day, as we operate in a more digital way, as engineers become ubiquitous in most companies. And therefore, it's interesting to see that dynamic. At the same time as you have the demographic dynamic, tighter labour markets, not only skills shortage, it's also talent shortage.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader: Are there any blind spots that employers have when it comes to hiring in general?

Martine Ferland, Mercer: Well, that's an excellent question because there definitely some and also as the digital world is coming to the workplace, As rapid information as the tons of data points have come into the workplace, the employers have not all adapted as quickly as would be good for them and for their employee base. And I would say the blindspot we've seen a few, many months now of higher attrition. Some have called it the great resignation, the great reset, whatever you call it. We've seen elevated rate of people moving, changing jobs, and employers need to adapt to rapid recruiting, rapid onboarding.

And if you keep to traditional ways of sourcing your talent, onboarding your talent, you'll be totally overwhelmed. I think there's a blindspot there.

Yes, maybe the economic slowdown might help on the attrition side a little bit, but I'm hoping that through the elevated attrition that we have seen over the last many months, that we've learned that it can be done differently as well. We can be a little bit more on-demand in our sourcing, in our own onboarding, utilising some digital means to teach you. And we can use video, we can use all kinds of new means. Technology gives us so much possibilities just to accelerate.

Because the flip side of this high attrition are the people who stayed with you. They were overwhelmed in onboarding all these newcomers and being the one who knew how the place works. And they had to do their job and train newbies at the same time constantly in a much more rapid pace. And that means lost revenue for employers as well, loss of expertise and therefore a slower process, etc. I think that if we can have learned and accelerate that way of working, that's already a good thing.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader: Is there a mindset shift that's needed when it comes to identifying who is a candidate for upskilling?

Martine Ferland, Mercer: I think that's also the shift that we're seeing from jobs to skill. It's a little bit of a long list, I would say, but there's definitely a shift to that in recognising your entire population.

One other blind spot or an area that we need to raise awareness and talk about is also longer living and keeping people in their older part of your population trained and upskilled. You were asking, is there is there a part of the population that's missed, basically? And we see that people who are over 45 (and that's young in my book), but over 45 are much less access to upskilling, retraining. They're not thought of as people that need that kind of training. It's more the newcomer, the more the younger generation.

But if you think about keeping people longer in employment, they have experience. You're struggling to find the talent pool. They very often are in the culture of the company. So making sure that you give them the tools and you access them as well and give them the possibility to change and continue to grow and upskill their capabilities and give them different experiences. So that's one angle.

The other angle is this shift of job to skills to think about, okay, what, "What are the competencies that I have, what are my ambitions? What do I enjoy doing? Where do I see myself as an individual?"

You know, we talk a lot about the purpose of the firm, and yes, it's important to know where we're going collectively. At the same time is where is the intersection of that broad purpose to your own, your individual purpose? Where is this intersection and how can we partner up together as a parent and employee? And I think this contract is shifting and you're looking at, well, I have a competency, on a scale of 10, I might be six on the scale of 10. And I really would like to develop in that way. What are the projects, what are the tasks or the things that I could do here that would get me on a seven on a scale, seven or eight? So matching people's ambition and skill set and aspiration to the job at hand rather than having people in fixed job forever.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader: I wanted to ask a little bit about your background. You have a bachelor's in actuarial science. How has that background served you even today?

Martine Ferland, Mercer: I think the rigour that comes with these studies of economics, financial is just the base. So as a business leader you have to kind of understand numbers in a way that's part of the job, you know, the economics of empathy and economics.

The second aspect that actuary science would give you, I think is an inquisitive mind, because why I was attracted to it is I was strong in mathematics. I have a logical mind, but also a creative mind. And you have to kind of make sense of the future because that's what an actuary does, is makes assumption scenario plans for the future and gives you a range of possibilities.

And that has come so handy during the multiple crises that we've been going through because as a leader you also need to look at a few scenarios and know which lever to pull depending on what pans out. We've been talking for at least a year. Will there be a recessionl, will there not be a recession? What do you do? When do you do it? I think the actual training is also very good at assessing a realm of possibilities and navigating in the uncertain, uncertain, uncertain world.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader: Is there a question that you ask yourself or habit you couldn't work without that helps you sort of make sense of the future?

Martine Ferland, Mercer: Well, the connection, I think, in this very complex world where everything's changing all the time, it's impossible to want for one person to have all the answers. I mean, it's just that's not how it works.

So for me, it's having connections like meeting you today and being here at Davos, or I make a point every week of connecting with teams, local leaders, people at all different levels in the organisation, clients, and always be listening and hearing and trying to make sense of the patterns that you're hearing about to craft the right strategy so that you organise yourself to offer the right opportunities and programs and to your employees as well as to your clients and putting all of those together all the time. The mind is always moving, always listening, always connecting the dots.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader: Is there a book you recommend?

Martine Ferland, Mercer: I read all the time, and there's many, many books in my shelf that I'd love to recommend. When there's a new team forming, I love The Advantage, which is a book from [Patrick] Lencioni. I don't know if you've read it about how to create functioning high performing teams because again, set about the one person, It's about multiple talents, diverse talent coming together and creating solutions that one person or people like minded would never have come up with. Differentiating yourself by this creativity and this intersection of differences. This book is really good about functioning teams.

During the pandemic, I really enjoyed reading -- it was not a leadership book really, but it's called The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson, and it's the first year in office of Winston Churchill. And first of all, I was thinking, "Oh, okay, it's much less worse. This will be we're going to be fine." But just the lessons in leadership in that book was it was really inspiring.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader: What kind of lessons?

Martine Ferland, Mercer: Resilience, grit, faith, bounded optimism in terms of saying, "We'll get out of this, we'll get somewhere. We have faith. We have what it takes to get through this. We'll do it together." We don't know if it's tomorrow or the day after tomorrow or in six months, but the bounded optimism that we will prevail, I think, was the key lesson.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader: What does resilient leadership mean to you?

Martine Ferland, Mercer: What it means to be agile, to be able to adapt as you go. It's you have a strong purpose. You know, what you're trying to achieve, what you're trying to bring to the world and give a pathway to to go there. We call it at Mercer building blocks. You know, the world doesn't turn on itself every year. The strategies, the trends, they shift just enough to be able to adapt yourself and pivot and build on one strong foundation. And that's resilience, is being able to take the hard hits and having the bounded optimism that, okay, if not this way, then maybe that way. And to bring people along with you as you do.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader: How can leaders prioritise in the in the coming year? What would you recommend?

Martine Ferland, Mercer: People. I think if you look at the balance sheet of companies from today to 50 years ago, it's completely shifted to intangible from tangible. There was inventory on the shelves or plants and the likes or what they were mining from the soil. Up to 85%. I think of intangible and balance sheet today is related to what people bring to the organisation. It's a fact it's, it's how companies are driven today. What differentiates them is very much about the talent, how they onboard them, continue to skill them, give them opportunities to learn and grow in impact.

And therefore I think if you look at those priorities is how do you nurture the best talent, the most high-performing teams, the diversity and the value that this bring to an organisation?

We know that when your employees feel cared for, secure, safe, they'll thrive, and when they thrive, the clients will be well-served and the business will go well. The shareholders will get what they invested for.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader: That was my Martine Ferland. Thanks to Martine. And thanks so much to you for listening. A transcript of this episode and my colleagues’ episodes, Radio Davos and the Book Club podcast is available wef.ch/podcasts.

This episode of Meet The Leader was presented and produced by me with Juan Toran as the studio engineer, Taz Kelleher as editor, and Gareth Nolan driving studio production.

That's it for now. I'm Linda Lacina with the World Economic Forum. Have a great day.