Media Center

The McKinsey Health Institute and the World Economic Forum team up to support healthier workforces worldwide

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.

McKinsey Health Institute Healthy Workforces Coleaders Barbara Jeffery and Jacqueline Brassey and World Economic Forum Head of Health and Wellness Andy Moose discuss how MHI and the Forum are collaborating to improving the holistic health of employees, their families, and their communities.

“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.

McKinsey Health Institute
The McKinsey Health Institute (MHI) is an enduring, non-profit-generating entity within the firm. MHI believes, over the next decade, humanity could add as much as 45 billion extra years of higher-quality life, which is roughly six years per person on average — and substantially more in some countries and populations. MHI’s mission is to catalyze the actions needed across continents, sectors, and communities to realize this possibility.
Learn more about MHI's approach
World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. It provides a global, impartial and not-for-profit platform for meaningful connection between stakeholders to establish trust, and build initiatives for cooperation and progress. The Forum’s commitment on facilitating progress on systemic challenges is taken forward through its 10 Centres, each applying the institution’s unique combination of impact methods to drive holistic efforts. The Centres build communities of purpose essential to addressing large-scale global challenges.

The World Economic Forum's Centre for Health and Healthcare is an impartial global platform helping to shape the future of health worldwide by creating space and providing tools for partnership. The Centre is dedicated to building robust, efficient, and fair healthcare systems. It connects communities, regions, and industries to create new synergies and elevate a ‘health first’ approach across sectors.

Connect with the McKinsey Health Institute

Contact UsSubscribe to MHI