Chris Bruce, managing director of Thomsons Online Benefits, discusses its latest Global Employee Benefits Watch, revealing the industry’s challenges and why technology is central to global benefits success.

Two critical issues faced by most multinational employers are (1) containing escalating healthcarecosts globally, and (2) building a healthy, committed, and engaged workforce. To help address these issues more effectively, multinational employers should place a higher emphasis on structured analytics when designing and implementing their health and wellness strategy, or prioritizing wellness programs.

The sad truth is that sleep deprivation is an issue too often ignored, even when it is frequently the root cause of decreased productivity, accidents, and mistakes, costing companies billions of dollars each year. Several studies have confirmed that fatigue and/or lack of sleep can produce impairment similar to that from alcohol.

Global HR executives face a distinct set of challenges every year. Our rapidly, constantly changing world is growing more sophisticated, expanding its labor pool and pressing employers, at every turn, to find new and efficient ways to add value to their organizations. Multinational companies must compete as employers of choice to meet their financial and overall organizational goals in 2016 and beyond.

Even the insurance sector, once widely associated with stability, is seeing the impact of disruptive forces and shifting landscapes, from technology to demographic trends and of course economic volatility. The new strategic plan announced by Generali Employee Benefits is all the more interesting as it sees a company that is an integral part of the history of employee benefits getting ready to shape determinedly its future.

Richard Polak richard_polak@ajg.com Arthur J. Gallagher Executive Vice President of the Multinational Benefits & Human Resources Consulting Practice Mr. Richard Polak is Executive Vice President of the Multinational Benefits & Human Resources Consulting Practice within the Benefits and Human Resources Consulting division of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. As practice leader, Richard provides advice to multinational organizations in the areas of international HR as well as compensation and benefits, and

Chris Bruce Twitter: @cdabruce Thomsons Online Benefits Managing Director and Co-Founder Chris Bruce is the managing director and co-founder of Thomsons Online Benefits with Michael Whitfield. Chris led the development of Thomsons benefits administration technology platform, Darwin, as well as core intellectual property such as Intelligent Reward, a unique benefits strategy development methodology. His role spans every aspect of the business, from engaging with clients to software development. This means he is

Eric A. Butler butler@geb.com GEB Director of Global Health and Wellness Eric Butler is GEB’s Director of Global Health and Wellness with a remit to enhance the company’s significant leading position in this area worldwide, building upon ever more insightful global medical reporting capabilities and helping multinational companies explore initiatives to mitigate medical trends and cost drivers. Eric has an undergraduate degree in International Relations from the University of

Ludovic Bayard bayard@geb.com Generali Employee Benefits General Manager Ludovic Bayard is the General Manager of Generali Employee Benefits Network (GEB), headquartered in Brussels. He joined the Generali Group in 1998 as Account Manager in the International  Life  Corporate  business  at  Generali  France.  He  then moved to London at the Generali UK branch where he launched and oversaw the first GEB regional office in London for the International Corporate EB lines.