After sounding the opening bell for the New York Stock Exchange on April 7th, Joan Woodward, president of the Travelers Institute and executive vice president of public policy for Travelers, joined several Travelers executives and other experts to explore the relationship between mental and physical health, and discuss the impact of technology and talent on today's labor force.
The role of mental health at work
Jerome Adams, M.D., a former U.S. Surgeon General, opened the program with a look at the state of
Adams said that mental health issues result in $200 billion in lost earnings annually and that it was incumbent upon employers to support their employees by promoting the importance of a work-life balance, as well as reasonable workloads, and providing employee assistant programs that focus on mental health training and handling stress. "
In a discussion on how to create a mental health action plan for organizations, Rich Ives, senior vice president, Business Insurance Claim for Travelers, said it was vital for companies to focus on caring for the whole person, "Mental wellbeing is just as important as physical wellbeing," he shared.
He also cited the impact that comorbidities (more than one physical condition) can have on healthcare costs. "In the case of one comorbidity, the cost of a workplace claim doubles. Two or more can increase costs five-fold."
Technology's impact on work
A second panel examined the intersection between technology and talent, and how that is affecting today's workforce. Mojgan Lefebvre, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Travelers, stressed the importance of focusing on employee experience and aligning the learning provided with the skills their teams need. She said they took a proactive engineering mindset and focused on building the team and talent pipeline they needed, concentrating on the top 100 computer science schools in the country. "The interplay between technology and talent is at the core of what we do," she said.
Lefebvre said Travelers and other carriers are definitely competing against other technology-focused companies like Amazon and Google for talent, but that the company is positioning itself as a technology company that makes significant investments in that area. "We are a data company at the core and are making decisions around risk," she explained.
The company opened a technology hub in Atlanta near Georgia Tech so they would have access to the school's talent pool and work aggressively to recruit students for the company. She emphasized the importance of "positioning yourself the right way and being where the talent is and giving people the tools they need" as key factors in finding and retaining talent to meet today's workforce challenges.
Dan Helfrich, principal and former chair and chief executive officer of Deloitte Consulting LLP, emphasized the importance of reskilling and upskilling employees, and involving people on projects that are interesting and important. "We have a macro responsibility as a country and leading employers within the country to invest in the education and job skilling system to evolve people's skills."
Helfrich identified multiple factors that are impacting the labor market including lower birth rates, workers choosing to get married and have children later in their careers and an estimated 10,000 baby boomers retiring daily. He remarked that there are not enough children being born to replace the number of professionals who are leaving the industry, which is another reason why reskilling is so critical.
Woodward asked Lefebvre how technology has changed her career and how she keeps up with advances like artificial intelligence. Lefebvre explained that "the best technologists are the ones who understand the business problem they are solving. Once you understand that you can leverage the best technology to solve that problem." With the advancements in technology, even non-technology focused individuals are becoming technologists.
She also explained how Travelers is using and testing artificial intelligence through its TravAI program, which exists behind the company's firewall and allows approximately 15,000 users a month to test it and see how it can be incorporated into different job functions. "Not just technologists are using it, but many of our other employees as well," she shared.
Retaining talent and staying future focused
When it comes to retaining existing talent, Lefebvre said she considers this a long-term strategy, and stressed the importance of investing in talent at all levels and providing young employees with the opportunity to see what an accessible career progression looks like for them. "If they want to leave and you have to convince them to stay, then you've done something wrong," she added. "Make them feel like they are learning and growing at all times."
Helfrich takes a slightly different approach by celebrating when people leave Deloitte. He told a story about two of his mentees who wanted to leave the company to do something entrepreneurial. His response was to celebrate their leaving and hope that they would be wildly successful. Ten years later, they were on stage at a Deloitte event recounting how they had started one of the fastest growing and most innovative healthcare companies. Helfrich said, "We've seeded the world with great leaders who will do awesome things – just hopefully not as a competitor."
As the adoption of AI continues across various industries, there is a concern that it will impact the human workforce. Lefebvre explained that AI can help enhance human capabilities. "We have the best executive assistant we could ever hope for," she continued as she encouraged the audience to give time. "Done the right way – keeping the human in the loop as you build technology, it can be leveraged the right way…You have to leverage technology to do things we never imagined."
