Workforce health is the bedrock of global supply chains. Here's how to protect it

Global supply chains were built for cost, speed and scale, but not for resilience when health systems are under strain. That imbalance is becoming increasingly visible with every new crisis. Repeated shocks, from pandemics to extreme weather and increasing regional conflicts, have revealed the fragility of global supply networks. Social protection and health access have scaled far more slowly, leaving workforce health a risk hiding in plain sight.

In a recent session at the Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, leaders described “deep health protection gaps” across global supply chains. According to the WHO, an estimated 4.6 billion people lack access to essential health services, and 2.1 billion experience financial hardship when seeking care.

Meanwhile, employers are also feeling the pain from rising health costs. In the upcoming People Risk research from Marsh, increased health and benefit costs rank as the top people risk, with labour shortages close behind. Thirty per cent of employers say they are seeing an increase in the frequency of employee absences due to sickness and disability claims, while 31% are concerned that healthcare costs are eroding employees’ long-term financial security.

Once risks extend beyond direct employment into the supply chains and communities that support them, workers’ health becomes “everyone’s problem but no one’s responsibility”. In practice, this limits preparedness and drives spending only after disruption, compounding health costs, labour constraints and prolonged recovery. These costs are borne not only by businesses, but by workers, their communities and local economies.

Workforce health is emerging as a material constraint on productivity, labour supply and cost stability. The foundation of economic strength and continuity is at risk. As labour shortages persist and health-related costs rise, organizations and economies continue to absorb volatility that could be better anticipated and managed. Addressing these risks requires coordinated action. Governments, employers and insurers all shape the systems that determine how workers can access care and weather disruption. Increasingly, leaders are investing in local health systems, workforce protections and financing mechanisms to strengthen resilience across entire supply chains.

Climate volatility only magnifies these underlying vulnerabilities. The ILO estimates that nearly 70% of the global workforce is likely to be directly impacted by climate-related hazards. Yet less than 6% of global adaptation finance has gone to health-related initiatives. The systems intended to buffer workers against shocks remain underfunded relative to the scale of the risk.

Climate not only damages physical assets; it degrades labour capacity. Extreme heat threatens safe working conditions. Flooding disrupts commuting and access to care. Disease outbreaks increase absenteeism. As Amy Barnes, Head of Climate & Sustainability Strategy at Marsh Risk, has noted, “Less than half of weather-related losses worldwide are insured. This gap isn’t just a statistic; it’s a risk to communities and economies that we must urgently address.”

These shocks do not stop at factory gates. When workers cannot access care or lose income, household financial stability deteriorates. Local clinics become overstretched. Community-level productivity weakens. The foundations that support production erode, extending the impact beyond individual firms to the broader local economy.

The business case for investing in the health of direct employees is well established. But as labour extends beyond the payroll, visibility into worker health is reduced.

Global supply chains rely heavily on contractors, informal workers and suppliers who often operate in geographies with limited access to healthcare and minimal social protection. Despite its central role in social stability, workforce health remains difficult to address systematically.

Leaders describe this as an “orphaned” issue. Procurement may monitor compliance, HR may focus on direct employees, sustainability teams may track emissions. But no single function owns systemic workforce health risk. As Atle Høie, General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union, put it: “Health and safety should not be a desk exercise in the executive bureau.” The gap between executive visibility and local exposure remains wide.

Antonia Wanner, Chief Sustainability Officer at Nestlé, observed at Davos that “this is something we need to work on”. Health fragility in one geography can compound workforce strain in another as its consequences consolidate on balance sheets. Waiting until financial signals deteriorate is often too late.

Recent Forum research, Workforce Health Across the Value Chain, outlines how workforce health can be treated as part of the infrastructure underpinning local economies and global production systems. If health systems and community capacity determine how quickly operations recover from shock, they function as operating infrastructure.

This reframing moves the issue beyond philanthropy or compliance. Companies are examining how to strengthen underlying health markets and community capacity in production hubs. Underinvestment creates hidden risks, while coordinated investment can shorten downtime and stabilize output.

Leaders at Davos emphasized how health resilience is being treated as an investible asset. Value is already being realized as local clinics, early-warning systems, accessible diagnostics and income protection mechanisms are implemented.

Innovative financing mechanisms bridge the gap between awareness and execution. Parametric insurance can provide rapid liquidity following climate events. Employer-led partnerships can strengthen local primary care and early-warning systems. Pooled procurement and subscription-based care models can expand access in regions where public systems are overstretched.

Ultimately, investment benefits from alignment across employers, insurers and local health systems around shared exposure. Workforce health risk spans labour markets, financial protection and care delivery; without coordination, commitments remain fragmented and markets under-resourced.

The argument for investing in workforce health is not new. What has changed is the convergence of pressures and thus the alignment of stakeholders.

Health and benefit costs are rising and rank at the top of corporate people-risk concerns. Labour shortages are a growing constraint. Climate volatility increases the frequency and severity of shocks. Together, they reduce the margin for absorbing disruption.

Because workforce health risk is shared across value chains, isolated corporate action has been scattered. Industry-wide coordination and alignment across employers, insurers and health systems is now creating opportunities for coverage through financing mechanisms that sponsor new health ecosystems.

The choice facing leaders is not whether to invest in workforce health, but whether to continue financing it inefficiently: through absenteeism, productivity loss, delays in care, human suffering and prolonged recovery after shocks. Will costs continue to be absorbed reactively, or will coordinated investment recognize workforce health as the infrastructure it already is?