Jason Lauritsen sits down with Kate Bravery, Senior Partner and Global Leader of Talent Advisory at Mercer, to dig into the findings from Global Talent Trends report. Now in its 11th year, the study draws on more than 12,000 voices across 24 countries and 16 industries, capturing the perspectives of employee experience, leadership, AI adoption, and the growing pressure on organizations to deliver stronger performance in a workforce that is increasingly depleted and disengaged.
At the center of this episode is a hard truth: work is no longer working for a lot of people. Kate shares that only 44% of employees in this year’s study say they are thriving, the lowest level Mercer has seen in more than a decade. At the same time, executives are pushing for faster productivity gains, more aggressive transformation, and deeper AI integration. The tension between those two realities is where this conversation lives, and Kate helps us see it clearly.
Key highlights from the conversation include:
👉 Mercer’s latest data shows employee thriving has fallen to 44%, the lowest level they’ve seen in more than a decade.
👉 Employees are feeling the strain of pay pressure, slower career growth, and people systems that no longer match how fast work is changing.
👉 Kate explains the “proximity paradox,” where access to AI tools can actually raise anxiety when leaders aren’t helping people understand what changes.
👉 The gap between executive priorities and HR priorities is still there, with leaders pushing for AI-driven performance while HR is still trying to modernize the basics.
👉 Jason and Kate explore how AI could help HR move from slow, backward-looking processes to faster, more responsive support for employees and managers.
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Connect with Kate:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-bravery/
Global Talent Trends 2025 Report: https://www.mercer.com/insights/people-strategy/future-of-work/global-talent-trends/
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