Report: 25 People Risks Across Five Main Pillars | MercerMarsh Benefits

HR Effectiveness

Many HR leaders continue to help build their organizations’ capability in detecting and acting on workforce-related risks. As pointed out in the new article Elevating the Focus on Human Risk—which is part of the 2023 Deloitte Human Capital Report—workforce risk refers to the potential risks that human workers pose to the business, such as the financial and operational impacts caused by worker turnover, difficulty acquiring and retaining talent, and compliance with regulations.

As leaders expand their view of workforce risks beyond these areas, this 85-page MercerMarsh Benefits report provides ideas. While I shared a previous version of this report, this new version dives deeper into 25 people-related risks that are organized into five main pillars.

  1. Health and Safety (e.g., workforce exhaustion)
  2.  Governance and financial (e.g., pension financial exposure)
  3. Accelerated digitization (e.g., cybersecurity and data privacy, HR tech obsolescence)
  4.  Talent practices (e.g., succession and key person risk)
  5.  Environmental and social (e.g., DEI, social unrest)

Page 7 shows the framework for the five pillars and 25 people-risks. Each section provides a set of actions organizations can take to manage risks most relevant to their business.

To supplement this report, you can check out:

  • MercerMarsh’s 1-hour webcast, where they discuss aspects of the report.
  • The Conference Board’s reportTelling the Human Capital Management Story. This report includes ideas on how organizations can communicate aspects of their talent narrative (including actions they are taking to identify and manage workforce risks) to seven stakeholder groups.