October 27, 2022

The Global Institute held the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Regional Summit on September 13, 2022. Participants engaged in a number of discussions on topics including mental health, flexible benefits, cost management, global leave and chronic condition management. From these discussions, five key themes emerged, all supporting the concept that a company can boost its long-term business performance by investing in its employees — from creating a culture of holistic well-being acceptance to increasing flexibility to aligning the company’s purpose and values with its benefits strategy.

1| Managers Are the Front Line of Defense: How They Play a Unique and Critical Role in Supporting Employees’ Needs

Managers directly contribute to company culture and their employees’ mental health and should be focused on cultivating a safe and productive work environment. The great re-evaluation and silent resignation saw an increased number of employees leaving their jobs as a result of factors such as feeling a lack of purpose in their work and unhealthy work environments stemming from misaligned work cultures and poor management. Encouraging managers through training to create a space that is conducive for employee growth by rewarding risk taking and giving employees the opportunity to “fail forward” is one way of creating a safe working environment.

2| The Importance of a Governance Approach

A unified governance approach is essential to implementing a global consistency strategy. Global Institute members discussed the importance of establishing a global governance strategy in a top-down approach. Companies with an established governance approach are able to use it to enable efficiency in their benefit design processes, expose gaps and unite regions and countries that may have disparate approaches.

2022 EMEA Regional Summit Recap: Executive Summary

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