CASABLANCA, Morocco, November 12, 2019, -/African Media Agency (AMA)/- Mercer, a global consulting leader in advancing health, wealth and career hosted a Leaders Dialogue at Four Seasons Hotel, Boulevard de la Corniche, Casablanca. Under the theme People First: Driving Growth in Emerging Megacities,Mercer shared the success formula for capitalizing on the growth trajectory of emerging megacities in Africa.
This dialogue brought together CEOs, HR leaders, policymakers and other key decision-makers. Some of the speakers who led discussions include Samira El Asmar, City Expansion Program Lead, International Region, Mercer; Amine Lazrak, Managing Director, Northern and Francophone Africa, Mercer; Mehdi Elyousfi, Managing Director, DIORH.
The key issues discussed during the dialogue were the gap between employers and employees’ perception of employment and the importance of meeting the needs of employees, alongside ways of empowering them to work while maintaining a fulfilling lifestyle.
Amine Lazrak said, “Large companies have a role to play in making cities more attractive by meeting the most pressing needs of employees.”
At the event, Mercer launched the People First Emerging Megacities report that examines the needs of workers in the world’s fastest-growing cities across four key factors – human, health, money and work. As highlighted in the report, 84 percent of workers in Casablanca say that having access to retirement savings plans or pension plans is important to them, with another 83 percent stating that they would like to seek their employer’s advice on planning for retirement.
Speaking about one of the key aim of the study, Samira El Asmar said, “The study was conducted in 2018, in 15 current and future megacities across 7 countries, with 7,200 workers and 577 employers. The research focuses on what really matters to people in the cities in which they live and work.”
The study also focuses on emerging cities and offers promising results and practical advice to ensure the future of employment in the cities of tomorrow. It specifically addresses how companies can efficiently tap into urban hotbeds of skills and knowledge, and adapt to a rapidly changing business world with fewer employees, a “tailor-made” workforce and new skill requirements.
Although the study’s 15 current and future megacities share some commonalities, some key differences were revealed. Based on performance against the aforementioned four pillars, the cities were grouped into ‘advanced’, ‘progressing’ or ‘approaching’ in terms of whether they meet worker’s expectations. Advanced cities score well in all four factors, with a small-to-medium gap between workers’ expectations and the city’s performance.
Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) on behalf of Mercer.
