80% of Gen Z and millennial workers report being stressed out—and three-quarters of them are looking to their employers for help

A company can’t exist without talent. So, prioritizing employee health and well-being is not only the right thing to do, it’s a business imperative.

“The stressors on employees are at an all-time high,” said Stephan Scholl, CEO of Alight, a provider of benefits administration and cloud-based HR and financial solutions. At a roundtable discussion, sponsored by Alight, during the Fortune CEO Initiative event on Tuesday, Scholl along with Tom McInerney, CEO of Genworth Financial, and Jami McKeon, chair of the global law firm Morgan Lewis, gave some insight on what’s on the minds of chief executives when it comes to employee engagement.

Scholl shared some statistics from Alight’s new research that should signal an alarm. Three-quarters of U.S. employees report they are experiencing moderate to high stress levels, and that rises to 80% among Gen Z and millennial workers, Scholl explained.

The research also found just half (51%) of the workforce reported positive feelings across their mental, physical and financial well-being in 2023, compared to 53% of employees in 2022. In fact, personal finances (56%), job challenges (52%) and physical health (32%) rank as the top three sources of stress.
“Seventy-five percent of them are looking to their employer to actually give them more support in these moments that matter around health-related dynamics,” Scholl said.

“How willing are you as a CEO to break down some of those barriers?” Scholl asked the attendees. “It takes willingness from the top to undo 40 years of how things have been done.” And a big part of that is having useful data, he said. However, often companies have siloed systems when it comes to HR, employee benefits and engagement, Scholl explained. “It’s huge buckets of data that sit across business units that no CHRO knows the entirety of,” he said.

“As I became more senior in the organization, and started managing people, I really had an epiphany that it’s all about relationships,” McKeon said. When she became chair of the firm almost 10 years ago, that became a prioritized focus, she said. “We created the position of chief engagement officer,” McKeon said. “And we hired a director with a master’s degree in applied positive psychology to be our first well-being director. I really feel that carried us through COVID. We have very low attrition.” However, she said the firm still has challenges that all companies face. “Not everybody’s dancing a jig every day,” she quipped. But the efforts in engagement have “made a material difference,” she said. 

“If I stratify the workers that we all have—between baby boomers, nearing the end of their careers and then Gen Z, millennials, and all the others—I do think the mission statement and the purpose is incredibly important today,” McInerney said. “Our thousands of employees really care about that mission statement.” However, “if you can’t engage your employees, you can’t have them embrace the mission and the purpose,” he said. “We look at our employees at each stage of their life with a holistic approach, and Alight has brought technology platforms to make it easier.”

Scholl said there’s often a disconnect in employer perception of what employees are thinking. “You meet with CEOs, and you sit down and say, ‘Do you think you’re doing right by your employees in moments that matter?” Scholl said. “The first answer is, ‘Of course we are.’” But it’s important to really get to the heart of what employees are experiencing because during times of need, they’re increasingly going to their employers for help, he said.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

Leaderboard

Charles E. Zebula was promoted to EVP and CFO at American Electric Power (Nasdaq: AEP), effective immediately. Zebula previously served as AEP's executive vice president of portfolio optimization. He succeeds Ann P. Kelly, who is departing the company. Zebula has had a 25-year career at AEP. Previously, Zebula served as executive vice president of energy supply, senior vice president of investor relations and treasurer, and numerous other positions at AEP and its subsidiaries. Before joining AEP in 1998, Zebula was a senior associate for Putman, Hayes & Bartlett. 

Wayde McMillan has stepped down from his role as EVP, CFO and treasurer at Insulet Corporation (Nasdaq: PODD) an insulin pump technology company, effective Oct. 20. McMillan will join 3M as CFO of its health care business, which 3M has announced it plans to spin off into an independent company. Lauren Budden, group VP and chief accounting officer and controller, will become interim CFO and treasurer until a permanent successor is appointed.

Big deal

The 2023 U.S. Bank CFO Insights Report finds for U.S. corporate finance leaders the top two priorities are cost controls within the finance function—up from the eighth highest priority in 2021—and cost controls across the entire business, a shift from 2022. Finance leaders ranked talent shortage (43%), pace of technology change (40%), and high inflation (38%) as the top risks facing their businesses. 

When asked how they expect to deliver cost savings, finance leaders most commonly reply that they will invest in technology. In particular, data analytics, AI, and cloud computing are investment priorities. Fifty-four percent say AI could completely redefine how the finance function operates, according to the report. 

The findings are based on a survey of more than 1,400 senior finance professionals nationwide. 

Courtesy of U.S. Bank

Going deeper

In Wharton's latest Ripple Effect podcast episode "Is the Real Estate Market Going To Crash?" Wharton real estate professor Benjamin Keys evaluates the U.S. housing market, which he says is in a deep freeze right now.

Overheard

“Short-term inflation is coming down in the context of an extremely strong labor market, which people would normally call a soft landing.”

—U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said of the U.S. economy during the Fortune CEO Initiative conference on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.