How to build a sustainable enterprise-wide strategy
Do you know which people risks provide the greatest threat to your business and how to mitigate them?
We continue to move from one crisis to another with organisations reacting to unfolding events. The cost-of-living crisis is dominating the political agenda. It has rapidly become a pressing problem for employers, one that presents a whole new set of people risks to organisations still grappling with the impact of COVID-19.
Organisations must learn the lessons of the pandemic, strengthen risk management foundations by being more deliberate, comprehensive and innovative in anticipating emerging and longstanding risks.
Critical to this is building on the trust established between risk and human resource functions so they work together to protect employees and mitigate people risks linked to health and safety, ESG and the future of work.
The five pillars of people risk that are having the greatest impact on businesses across the globe.
Five blind spots. Risks that have a low priority despite posing a significant threat:
Accelerated digitisation is pushing digital risks, including cybersecurity and data privacy ahead of all risks. More than nine out of ten cybersecurity issues can be traced to human error.
The way sensitive employee data is used in benefit plans continues to be an area of data exposure as more people join new companies as part of “the great resignation”. At the same time, the accelerated pace of digital transformation is changing the relationship between people and machines. Automation and AI advances are anticipated to require half the workforce to reskill by 2025 and 75m jobs to be lost.
The war for talent, especially digital skills, means organisations across different industries are competing for the same high performers. Consequently, 43% of employers say their employee value proposition now needs improving.
There is an urgent need to recruit the new skills required to drive transformation, as well as retain and motivate existing talent. The changing nature of work, from the rise of hybrid working to globalisation, is now the fourth-biggest people risk overall.
Environmental and social risks now make up a fifth of the top ten people risks but are perceived to matter more to employees than the c-suite.
Organisations are feeling pressure from customers, investors, employees and regulators to ensure profit does not come at the expense of society or the planet. Employees also want to work for socially responsible employers with good ESG credentials. However, only 3 in 4 organisations agree that they have enough budget to manage environmental and social risks today.
Explore key risks identified by HR and risk managers by geography and industry
What are the key risks and priorities for HR and risk professionals in 2022? HR and risk managers are aligned on some of the top risks while ranking them differently.
Explore five people risks, how to mitigate them, and the differences across geographies and industries
Possibility begins with people
Every day we see that the health and resilience of your people drives the health and resilience of your business. The pandemic and other recent events have shown how risks are interlinked, with people at the center.
People risk is what connects the worlds of Risk and HR together.
About the report
| 2,594 | 1,314 | 1,280 |
| Global organisations | HR respondents | Risk respondents |
- Partner, Digital, Strategy & Markets Leader, UK, Mercer Marsh Benefits
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