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| | Brought to you by Alex Panas, global leader of industries, & Axel Karlsson, global leader of functional practices and growth platforms
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| | | | Making investments in employee health can be critical to boosting an organization’s productivity and success. McKinsey research shows that improving employee health and well-being could generate $3.7 trillion to $11.7 trillion in global economic value. As many workers continue to struggle with stress and burnout, it’s important for leaders to take a holistic view of employee health that encompasses physical, mental, social, and spiritual well-being. This week, we look at the current state of workforce health and how organizations can help employees thrive. | | | | | | | |
| | | Today’s workers need help to get healthier. Among 30,000 global employees surveyed by the McKinsey Health Institute (MHI), only 57 percent reported good holistic health, while another 20 percent reported burnout symptoms. With health outcomes varying across industries and demographics, McKinsey’s Barbara Jeffery, Brooke Weddle, Jacqueline Brassey, and Shail Thaker say leaders will need to tailor their efforts to address the health challenges among their people and the workplace factors that contribute to them. They identify six steps for organizations to get started. These include understanding employees’ baseline health status, piloting evidence-based interventions, and tracking three to five metrics to measure success. “Today, many organizations do not see or cannot measure the benefits of their current investments in employee health,” the authors say. “They also don’t allocate resources in the most effective way—often, the issue is not how much is being invested but the type of investment being made.” | | |
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| Since late 2023, demand has soared for weight loss drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and other brands, putting some companies and employees at odds over insurance coverage for these medications. Yet the popularity of these GLP-1 drugs could lead to broader and vital improvements in metabolic health, according to Senior Partners and MHI Global Leaders Drew Ungerman and Hemant Ahlawat and their coauthors. “The rise of GLP-1s is shifting the discussion of obesity from an intractable issue to a treatable medical condition—a change that is inspiring investment and innovation across industries, including healthcare, medtech, food, and retail,” they say. Rather than reacting to obesity with weight management drugs and medical treatments, the authors observe that society can pursue greater prevention efforts such as advancing scientific understanding of metabolic health and making healthy food more accessible. They estimate that such efforts could lead to an estimated annual GDP gain of $5.65 trillion in 2050. | | | Lead by enhancing employee health. | | | | | — Edited by Eric Quiñones, senior editor, New Jersey
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