June 26, 2024 – The McKinsey Health Institute (MHI) announced a formal collaboration with the World Economic Forum’s (the Forum) Healthy Workforces initiative. Together these leading global institutions commit to achieving healthier, happier workforces around the globe and improving the holistic health of employees, their families, and their communities.
The Forum’s Centre for Health and Healthcare launched the Healthy Workforces Initiative to empower organizations and communities to prioritize and support physical and mental health in the workplace, encouraging a more productive, resilient, and healthy global workforce. Physical and mental health are two important elements of MHI’s holistic approach to health, which accounts for mental, physical, social, and spiritual health. The Forum’s Healthy Workforce initiative is focused on improving workforce well-being through insight sharing, adoption, and implementation of evidence-based interventions.
MHI’s role in the initiative is to raise awareness and deepen collective understanding of the importance of healthy workforces and promote an evidence-based approach to helping more employees, their communities, and society to achieve optimal health. MHI research finds enormous potential health and economic impact of investing in employee health, a $3.7 to $11.7 trillion opportunity globally.
“With more than 60 percent of the working-age population around the world employed, employers have a significant role to play in preventing poor employee health and supporting employees to improve their health and well-being” said Barbara Jeffery, MHI’s Coleader of Healthy Workforces and partner at McKinsey & Company. “We are proud to collaborate with the Forum on its Healthy Workforces initiative to give employers the evidence, tools, and conviction they need to take action, so they can positively impact employees, their communities, and the economies in which they operate.”
“It is important to establish a better understanding of the importance and the business case for healthy workforces,” said Andy Moose, the Forum’s Head of Health and Wellness. “Eventually, this should be top of mind for every senior executive, board member, and investor. We were excited by MHI’s research and ambition and look forward to progressing together towards our joint goal of making a material difference to how employers view and invest in their workforces.”
MHI and the Forum launched its collaboration by co-hosting a high-level side-event during the 77th World Health Assembly, uniting leading thinkers, decision-makers, and stakeholders from diverse industries and regions with a shared mission to accelerate and enhance the holistic health and well-being of workforces. This meeting aimed to serve as a catalyst to forge collaborative pathways towards solutions that prioritize holistic health and well-being for the workforce, on an individual, employer, community, and national level. Participants agreed on the importance of multi-stakeholder collaborations and the dual benefits to both human health and businesses through increased investments in workforce well-being. The event inspired seeing the potential to advance collective action toward better health and well-being across workforces, communities, and societies.
“While our life expectancy is increasing, we need to focus on improving the quality of life in these years, said Jacqueline Brassey, MHI’s Coleader of Healthy Workforces and Director of Research Science. “That is why we are delighted to have this collaboration with the Forum that we now kicked-off with a valuable side-event during the World Health Assembly. When employee health is prioritized holistically, at all levels of an organization, this enables healthier employees, workforces, organizations, society. Everyone will benefit.”
Read more details about MHI’s work on Healthy Workforces here.