July Edition: Cost of Living Rankings, Better Benefits, Investments Foresight, and more

Mercer News & Notes returns to bring you more insights, research, and bold ideas for July. 

Cost of Living Rankings

Feeling the cost of living increase? It’s not just you. Around the world, aggressive monetary policies, sluggish economic growth, and rising unemployment have conspired to stretch buyers purchasing power, but residents in some cities are feeling the pinch more than others.

In Mercer’s annual global Cost of Living rankings, we rated over 225 global cities for international employees, spanning from Toronto to Tashkent. While the top spot remains unchanged from our 2022 study, major shakeups up and down the list demonstrate how volatile cost of living has been around the world. By measuring the comparative cost of more than 200 items in each location, including housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment, the study offers all the key information employers need to design efficient and transparent compensation packages for international assignees.                                                            

Without further ado, the most expensive and most affordable places to relocate #talent are: 

Delivering benefits that truly benefit

The need for #benefits technology in the workplace is intensifying - and that’s no surprise. Investment in #technology allows employers to better plan for the long-term, respond to challenges and streamline their processes.

Supporting employees quickly, and with intention, is imperative for business resilience. Employees with access to benefits technology are 31 percentage points more likely to say that their benefits meet their needs, 26 percentage points more likely to say their employer cares about their health and wellbeing and to report that they are thriving.

So how can employers build a benefits program that more effectively and efficiently supports their people? We see three key themes that should be at the heart of a future-looking digital benefits delivery strategy:

• Technology for Impactful Personalization: Offering a technology-enabled range of benefits that genuinely meet people’s evolving needs has powerful advantages for employers and employees.
• Technology for Meaningful Connections: The importance of effective benefit communication, content and delivery continue to grow as employers seek to maximize returns from their health and benefits programs
• Technology for Effective Transformation: Will benefits administration ever move from transactional to transformational? The new benefits landscape demands a long-term strategic approach to benefits that focuses on the employee experience and administrative simplicity.

Fat tails resonate with our “Deja New” concept: Combining hindsight and foresight to understand the future of investments

What’s old is new, and as investors look to navigate a global financial landscape clouded by high interest rates, the risks of stubborn inflation and geopolitical tension, many are looking to the past as they make allocation decisions for the future.

As Rich Nuzum, Executive Director, Investments and Global Chief Investment Strategist at Mercer, told delegates at our latest #MercerGIF, extraordinary market events, while unusual, will regularly occur – providing opportunities for investors who have planned for crises. By improving governance and preparedness, and understanding how to manage a crisis, investors can be equipped for the unexpected.

Discover what actions we believe investors can take now to help future-proof their financial strategy.

Meaningful rewards aren’t one size fits all, and a constantly evolving talent marketplace requires employers to constantly reassess how they’re attracting and retaining critical skills. That’s why we invite you to join us in Lisbon October 5-6 for our European Rewards Conference, where we’ll explore how organizations can take their employee experience to the next level with total rewards.

From fair pay and talent attraction and retention to emerging skills and the impact of generative AI, join industry subject matter experts who will equip you with the knowledge and tools to stay competitive in a fast-changing workplace environment.

This month we’re thrilled to introduce Slagin Parakatil , a global mobility expert at Mercer with over 22 years of experience developing products that help organizations move talent around the world.

Based in Geneva, Slagin is a leading voice on talent with a specialized focus on identifying where and how talent and organizations can thrive. He is the driving force behind Mercer’s City Attractiveness and Quality of Living research, wherein Mercer offers authoritative rankings of hundreds of cities around the world based on the quality and costs of living for international talent. He also works and provides recommendations to cities/municipalities around living standards and attractiveness to mobile talent. 

Slagin is of Indian origin, and he was born and raised in Switzerland. Slagin is passionate about learning and embracing new cultures, and when away from work, he enjoys travelling and exploring new horizons with his wife and three children. He also enjoys cooking new dishes from different parts of the world where he has travelled, and most recently has been mastering homemade kimchi, marinated bulgogi and various other dishes from South Korea that he can share with his family and close friends back home.

Are you already connected with Slagin? If not, check out his profile, follow and connect with him to keep up with all of Slagin’s latest work and thought leadership.

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And that’s all we have for this edition of Mercer News & Notes newsletter! We hope you’ll join us again next month as we continue to bring the latest insights directly to you, and please share any thoughts or recommendations on topics you’d like to see in our next issue in the comments below. 👇

Don’t forget to follow Mercer on LinkedIn for the latest insights and points of views on all things future of work, and feel free to reach out if you’d like to hear more about any of the topics discussed today!