HEALTH & WELL-BEING

Reframing employee health: Moving beyond burnout to holistic health | McKinsey Health Institute (2023) | Burnout isn’t the opposite of health—it signals flawed work design. McKinsey’s global survey of 30,000 employees across 30 countries redefines employee well-being across four dimensions: physical, mental, social, and spiritual. The research reveals how demands (e.g. toxic behaviours, job insecurity) and enablers (e.g. meaning, adaptability) operate independently—and why addressing both is key to redesigning work for sustained health, performance, and retention.

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👀 DID YOU SEE?

✨ OVERVIEW

The McKinsey Health Institute's survey of 30,000 employees across 30 countries, led by Jacqueline Brassey, Brad Herbig, Barbara Jeffery, and Drew Ungerman, introduces a revolutionary framework of employee health grounded in four dimensions: physical, mental, social, and spiritual functioning. Drawing on survey responses from 30,000 employees across 30 countries, the article challenges traditional approaches to employee well-being, showing that health and burnout are not opposite ends of a single spectrum but distinct, coexisting states.

Nearly 1 in 10 employees globally report being in good health while experiencing high burnout. The model also shows that health and burnout are shaped far more by job, team, and individual-level factors than by organisation-wide policies. Enablers such as meaning, belonging, and psychological safety contribute strongly to health outcomes—but fail to protect against burnout if workplace demands are excessive.

McKinsey offers a dual-path framework for leadership: Address both burnout and holistic health—not one at the expense of the other.

🧩 CONTEXT

The global prevalence of burnout remains significant—22% of employees report high burnout symptoms such as emotional exhaustion, mental distance, and cognitive impairment—only 58% report strong spiritual health. Vulnerability is higher among specific populations: young workers (18–24), non-managers, and employees in small organisations report lower holistic health and higher burnout.

Geographic contrasts are equally revealing: burnout affects 9% of employees in Cameroon and 10% in Indonesia but climbs to 59% in India and 46% in Saudi Arabia.

These findings highlight systemic imbalances not captured by conventional employee sentiment tools. Organisations must stop viewing burnout as a crisis to fix—and instead, treat it as a design failure to prevent. The path forward requires multi-level action across organisation, team, job, and individual domains.

🔍 WHY IT MATTERS

🔥 Why Burnout is a Business Risk

↳ Burnout affects 1 in 5 employees globally—Across 30 countries, 22% of employees experience high burnout symptoms. In some countries, this figure rises to nearly 60%.
↳ Workplace demands explain 87% of burnout—Toxic behaviours, role ambiguity, and job insecurity are the dominant drivers of burnout symptoms across contexts.
↳ Meaning alone doesn’t prevent burnout—Employees may find their work meaningful yet still experience burnout if exposed to toxic environments or unmanageable demands.

🌱 Why Holistic Health is a Strategic Lever

↳ 94% of holistic health is driven by enablers—Elements such as psychological safety, belonging, adaptability, and meaning shape employee health more than external factors.
↳ Health enables performance, innovation, and retention—Employees with strong holistic health exhibit better work-life balance, stronger job performance, greater intent to stay, and more innovation.
↳ Health can be measured and improved—McKinsey’s model predicts 49% of the variance in employee holistic health, outperforming traditional engagement models.

These dual findings underscore that redesigning work for well-being isn’t just compassionate—it’s commercially essential.

💡 KEY INSIGHTS

These five insights reshape how we understand what drives—not just protects—employee health and performance.

↳ Health and burnout are not opposites—They can coexist. 9% of employees globally are “stretching”: reporting strong holistic health while experiencing high burnout symptoms.
↳ Toxicity overrides purpose—Employees exposed to toxic behaviours report 62% higher burnout—even when they perceive their work as meaningful.
↳ Adaptability and self-efficacy are top enablers—These traits are the strongest predictors of holistic health; notably, they are trainable.
↳ Preferred work setting matters— Employees working in their preferred location (e.g. hybrid, remote, on-site) report higher holistic health, lower burnout, and more substantial innovation.
↳ Teams and jobs shape most health outcomes—Only 12% of health variation stems from the organisational level. For burnout, 94% of variation is explained by team and job factors.

🚀 ACTIONS FOR LEADERS

🌍 Organisational
↳ Make holistic health a business priority—Embed health outcomes into ESG, performance KPIs, and board-level reporting. McKinsey estimates £370 billion in annual productivity gains in the UK alone if well-being is integrated into work design.

🤝 Team
↳ Equip managers to foster psychological safety—Middle managers influence the day-to-day experience. Train them to recognise toxic dynamics, give consistent feedback, and build cultures of trust.

🧩 Job
↳ Redesign work for clarity and sustainability—Reduce ambiguity, balance workloads, and give employees autonomy. Prioritise realistic expectations over constant reactivity.

🧠 Individual
↳ Build adaptability and self-efficacy—These traits can be strengthened through capability building, coaching, and experiential learning. They empower employees to maintain functioning in changing environments.

🔁 Culture
↳ Move beyond perks to systemic enablers—Perks like meditation apps may support individuals—but they cannot solve structural strain. Focus instead on designing for meaning, belonging, fairness, and purpose at scale.

🔗 CONCLUSION

This study marks a turning point: burnout and health are not two ends of one spectrum—they are separate dimensions requiring targeted, systemic interventions. Engagement scores and mental health days aren’t enough if the work structure remains unchanged.

McKinsey’s dual-path model equips leaders to go beyond surface fixes. Organisations can design jobs and teams that actively support resilience, energy, and growth by tackling demands and enablers.

In the context of ESG metrics, workforce expectations, and growing transparency, employee health must move from a reactive benefit to a proactive, strategic priority.

Failing to act is not just a missed opportunity—it’s a reputational and performance risk.

Now is the time to lead with health—by design, not default.

🎯 KEY TAKEAWAY

PAY EQUITY & TRANSPARENCY

The Complicated Effects of Pay Transparency | Harvard Business Review (2023) | Pay transparency promises fairness—but it doesn’t come without a cost. As legal mandates expand and digital platforms increase salary visibility, organisations are rethinking how they communicate and structure compensation. New research reveals that transparency reduces inequality—but it can also flatten pay, diminish bargaining power, and drive top performers away. This article explores why transparency is a powerful lever—and why leaders must manage it carefully to avoid unintended consequences.

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✨ OVERVIEW

Drawing on multiple peer-reviewed studies, Tomasz Obloj and Todd Zenger examine how pay transparency affects employee behaviour, organisational performance, and compensation design. As laws evolve and platforms like Glassdoor and Levels.fyi gain popularity, organisations are increasingly exposed to a new era of salary visibility.

Their findings reveal that transparency meaningfully improves pay equity, especially for underrepresented groups, but it also brings complexity. Transparency reshapes not only compensation structures but also motivation, trust, and turnover. When perceived as fair, it reduces negotiation gaps and builds trust, yet it may demotivate employees who feel undervalued or expose inconsistencies.

The authors argue that transparency is not inherently good or bad. Its effects depend on what it reveals and how healthy organisations are prepared to respond. Employee reactions are highly contextual: discovering one is underpaid may lead to disengagement, while discovering fair or above-market pay may stabilise or enhance performance.

🧩 CONTEXT

Momentum for pay transparency is gaining speed globally. From mandated salary bands in job postings (e.g. New York City, 2022) to employee-driven databases and public sector disclosures, the landscape is shifting from pay secrecy to pay visibility.

This transition disrupts traditional compensation strategies. Many employers are flattening pay structures to reduce tension and avoid constant renegotiation. At the same time, employees are becoming more informed and sensitive to perceived inequities. Transparency shapes how individuals assess fairness, compare themselves to peers, and decide whether to stay or leave.

Without the right performance frameworks and communication strategies, transparency can backfire—undermining engagement, trust, and retention.

🔍 WHY IT MATTERS

↳ Pay equity improves—but overall wages decline—Transparency leads employers to reduce discrepancies, limit negotiation and compress wages. This results in lower average salaries and decreased pay flexibility.

↳ Transparency reduces bias but limits bargaining—While employees gain access to salary information, employers gain credibility in declining individual negotiations. The power dynamic shifts, often limiting upward mobility and discretionary pay.

↳ Fairness boosts trust—but exposure can hurt motivation—When transparency confirms fairness, trust improves. But if it reveals unjustified gaps, it may trigger disappointment, resentment, or disengagement—especially among those who feel undervalued.

↳ High performers may leave—Flattened pay structures make it harder to reward excellence. Top talent, feeling unrewarded, may leave for organisations that maintain meaningful performance-based differentiation.

↳ Employees prioritise what is rewarded—Transparency draws attention to measurable outcomes. This can lead employees to focus on visible individual metrics at the expense of collaboration, creativity, or long-term value creation.

💡 KEY INSIGHTS

↳ Transparency increases equity but compresses pay—Organisations respond to exposure by reducing salary variability, leading to lower average wages even as fairness improves.

↳ Performance-pay links weaken—To maintain perceived fairness, companies often limit pay dispersion—diminishing the connection between effort, excellence, and reward.

↳ Reactions to transparency vary by pay position—Employees who discover they are underpaid often reduce effort. Those who are fairly paid stabilise. Those who are overpaid tend to increase effort—perhaps to justify their position and avoid scrutiny.

↳ Top performers are most likely to exit—When their contribution is not matched by compensation, high performers are more likely to leave for firms that offer performance-based differentiation.

↳ Transparency can distort performance priorities—In professional sports, public salaries lead players to prioritise personal stats (e.g. goals) over team-oriented behaviours. The same pattern can emerge in knowledge work, where visibility shifts focus to individual outputs, not collective outcomes.

🚀 ACTIONS FOR LEADERS

↳ Audit compensation before disclosure—Ensure your pay practices are equitable and justifiable. Transparency should follow internal alignment—not precede it.

↳ Recognise visible and invisible contributions—Don’t reward only what is easy to measure. Build systems that value collaboration, innovation, and mentoring—critical to long-term performance but often less visible.

↳ Equip managers to lead clearly—Managers will be on the front lines of pay discussions. Train them to explain decisions, build trust, and handle difficult conversations confidently and empathetically.

↳ Retain performance-based incentives—Flattening pay to improve fairness can backfire if high performers are no longer motivated. Introduce other tools—bonuses, tiers, or recognition mechanisms to reward excellence.

↳ Use transparency to build culture, not just compliance—Make it part of a broader trust-building strategy. When transparency is aligned with purpose and values, it enhances credibility and commitment.

🔗 CONCLUSION

Pay transparency is not a passing trend but a default expectation. When carefully implemented, it corrects historical inequities, promotes trust, and aligns with the values of a fairer and more inclusive workplace. However, transparency alone is not a solution. It can undermine motivation and increase turnover without redesigning supporting systems—performance measurement, communication, and leadership capability.

Obloj and Zenger argue that the real question is whether transparency should be embraced and how to do it well. Success lies in intentional design, consistent messaging, and a culture recognising equity and performance.

🎯 KEY TAKEAWAY

WORKFORCE OF THE FUTURE

🌐The Future of Jobs Report 2025 | World Economic Forum (2025) | What happens when 1 in 5 jobs disappears? The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 delivers a data-rich roadmap for how global labour markets will shift by 2030. Drawing from the insights of over 1,000 employers representing 14 million workers across 55 economies, this landmark study maps the jobs and skills most at risk—and those set to thrive.

📊 DID YOU KNOW?

👀 DID YOU SEE?

The infographic below highlights the sheer volume of job churn expected by 2030: 170 million jobs created, 92 million displaced, and a net gain of 78 million. These figures are not hypothetical—they reflect real business expectations across the globe, emphasising how urgent and far-reaching the change will be.

✨ OVERVIEW

In The Future of Jobs Report 2025, Saadia Zahidi and colleagues at the World Economic Forum provide one of the most comprehensive forecasts on global labour shifts over the next five years. Built on responses from more than 1,000 employers, the report explores five macro trends shaping the world of work: technological change, green transition, geoeconomic fragmentation, demographic shifts, and economic uncertainty. Employers expect sweeping job reconfigurations and a transformation in the tasks, skills, and human-machine dynamics that define work. Among the most potent findings: 85% of organisations plan to upskill workers, 50% will redeploy them internally, but 11% of workers are expected to fall behind—placing their employability at risk.

🧩 CONTEXT

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the world of work has been reshaped by compounded disruptions: supply shocks, inflation, technological acceleration, and the climate emergency. By 2025, global unemployment stands at 4.9%—a three-decade low—but with persistent inequalities: women and youth in low-income economies remain disproportionately affected. At the same time, we are seeing dual demographic shifts: high-income countries face ageing workforces, while lower-income regions experience booming working-age populations. The jobs gap remains stark—402 million jobs still need to be created globally. And despite some stabilisation, 39% of skills will be obsolete within five years. This is the landscape against which businesses are asked to lead transformation.

🔍 WHY IT MATTERS

↳ One in five jobs will be affected by structural labour-market shifts—The report predicts that 170 million jobs will be created, but 92 million will disappear, amounting to a net growth of 78 million jobs by 2030.

↳ AI and digital access are opportunities and risks—AI and information processing will generate 11 million jobs and eliminate 9 million. In comparison, robotics will drive a net decline of 5 million jobs globally.

↳ Skills disruption is slowing but still high—Skills instability has declined from 44% in 2023 to 39% in 2025, yet this still means nearly 2 in 5 workers will need to retrain.

↳ Green jobs and climate action are now job creators—Sustainability roles such as Renewable Energy Engineers and Environmental Engineers rank among the top 15 fastest-growing jobs.

↳ Inclusion strategies are gaining momentum—Adoption of DEI programmes surged from 67% in 2023 to 83% in 2025. In North America, 96% of companies now have active DEI initiatives.

💡 KEY INSIGHTS

↳ Tech is the top force reshaping work—Digital access (60%), AI (86%), and robotics (58%) are the most cited drivers of business transformation across all sectors.

↳ The green transition reshapes jobs and skills—Climate mitigation is the #3 global macro trend, with nearly half of all employers (47%) expecting it to transform operations. Green skills demand exceeds supply, despite a 12% increase in green-skilled workers between 2022–2023.

↳ Human-centric skills are rising fast—Resilience, flexibility, curiosity, leadership, and lifelong learning are among the most in-demand soft skills—signalling a shift away from manual precision and endurance, which face a 24% decline in importance.

↳ Frontline and care roles will grow most in volume—Farmworkers (+35 million), Delivery Drivers, and Nursing Professionals top the list of absolute job growth, highlighting that not all opportunity lies in digital professions.

↳ Clerical roles will see the most significant decline—Jobs such as Data Entry Clerks, Bank Tellers, and Administrative Assistants are expected to be displaced en masse by automation and process digitisation.

🚀 ACTIONS FOR LEADERS

↳ Launch high-impact upskilling programmes—With 85% of employers planning to invest in reskilling, focus on in-demand areas: AI, cybersecurity, and tech literacy. Make training modular, targeted, and performance-linked.

↳ Build internal mobility pipelines—Facilitate transition from at-risk clerical roles into growing digital and sustainability roles. Already, 50% of employers aim to redeploy staff from declining to growing functions.

↳ Make inclusion a strategic priority—Tap into new talent pools by doubling down on DEI. With 47% of employers seeing this as a core talent strategy (up from 10% two years ago), DEI is no longer optional.

↳ Use well-being as a talent magnet—64% of employers cite health and well-being as a talent attraction strategy. Go beyond benefits: invest in culture, workload design, and psychological safety.

↳ Link wages to future readiness—52% of employers plan to allocate more revenue to wages by 2030. Use performance and skills-based pay to reward adaptability and resilience.

🔗 CONCLUSION

The Future of Jobs Report 2025 clarifies one thing: the next five years will redefine the very DNA of work. The report maps organisations' dual challenge—accelerated job churn and deepening skills mismatches—while outlining practical strategies to turn disruption into advantage. Yet the report is not just about managing loss but seizing opportunity. Employers who lean into inclusion, sustainability, and human-machine collaboration will not only lead the race for talent—they will shape the future of equitable, sustainable work. Leaders have a choice: respond passively to change or redesign their workforce strategy to thrive through it.

🎯 KEY TAKEAWAY

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