Mercer PH puts spotlight on AI adoption of human resources

Mercer Philippines, a leading human resources consulting firm, recently held its annual HR conference on June 20, 2024, with the theme “Workforce 2.0: Unlocking human potential in a machine-augmented world.”

The full-day event brought together industry leaders and Mercer experts to provide insights on how organizations can foster sustainable talent practices, manage risks, and build human-centric work models amidst the most significant transformation in the world of work in decades.

According to Mercer’s Talent Trends report and People Risks report, several key challenges were highlighted:

1. Employees are still experiencing high levels of burnout, with 83% of Asia’s employees reporting burnout in the past year, and financial strain being the top reason. In the Philippines, mental health deterioration was ranked lower as a concern compared to the rest of Asia, signifying a potential blind spot.
2. Trust in employers has plummeted from 80% in 2022 to 65% in 2024, with broken promises, such as not delivering on promotions and career opportunities, as the main contributor.
3. Companies are finding it difficult to strike the right balance between adapting their human capital strategy and embracing technology. While 41% of executives in Asia believe the biggest productivity boost is by investing in AI, 86% believe that less than half of their workforce can adapt if their jobs are changed or eliminated by AI.

In an interview with Adrian Sibal, Consulting Leader at MercerMarsh Benefits Philippines, he said that the flagship event regularly hosted every June is a chance for the company show its expertise in the field and communicate to HR professionals what are the current best practices and trends emerging in the industry.

“Mercer Philippines is part of the bigger Marsh McLennan group of companies that’s really focused on talent, people, and risk strategies. In the Philippines, we are the premiere Asian consulting firm mainly talking about wealth, pension administration, pension funding insulation, health, salary structures, career progression – all to really help organizations take care of their employees.”

Sibal said that in terms of the maturity level in AI adoption, Philippine-based enterprise are still in their infancy stage, citing that when talking to their clients, businesses don’t understand the entirety of the risks in approaching this space.

“The lack of expertise and skills to be able to really advise these organizations to decide on this matter, there’s much work to be done on that front,” he continued.

“Since AI is practically a new or recent disruptive technology, we have to establish the safety and security of these platforms for us to be able to really say that this is a wise and safe investment, and we’re going to get value-for-investment in the long-term.”