Foreword Workforce resilience is no longer just an HR priority — it’s a business imperative.
Organisations across MENA are navigating significant change. Workforce expectations are evolving. Competition for talent remains intense. Technology and AI are reshaping skills requirements. And businesses continue to operate against a backdrop of economic, geopolitical and organisational uncertainty. In this environment, the resilience of an organisation is increasingly connected to the resilience of its workforce. The ability of people to adapt and continue to perform through change is ultimately connected to the organisation’s ability to do the same. Wellbeing remains critical, but workforce resilience matters even more. It determines whether an organisation has the people, skills, leadership, financial security and organisational capability required to adapt and perform through change. To explore these concerns, Lockton surveyed 140 HR and business leaders across MENA, examining how organisations are approaching workforce wellbeing, benefits, talent, people risk and preparedness. The findings show considerable progress but also reveal important gaps:
Priority and investment do not always translate into clear, measurable outcomes.
Preparedness does not replace genuine resilience.
. Benefits investment does not always translate into measurable workforce value.
The capabilities of today’s workforce may not fully meet organisations’ future needs.
Together, these gaps point to a common challenge: organisations are investing in their workforces, but many still need to translate that investment into measurable workforce and business outcomes. Closing those gaps requires a more connected approach to workforce strategy, bringing together People, Financial and Organisational resilience and recognising that workforce challenges rarely exist in isolation. This playbook explores what MENA employers told us, what those findings could mean for organisations across the region and the practical actions leaders can take to strengthen workforce resilience.
Executive Summary
Building a More Resilient Workforce
The research points to considerable progress across MENA but also reveals gaps between organisational ambition and the ability to translate it into sustainable workforce and business outcomes. Those gaps matter because workforce performance and organisational resilience are increasingly connected.
From wellbeing priority to measurable impact
Wellbeing is a high or critical priority for 87% of respondents, yet only 39% are very confident in their ability to measure its impact. While organisations can track indicators such as engagement and participation, demonstrating the longer-term value of wellbeing investment remains more challenging.
From disruption preparedness to organisational resilience
While 86% of respondents say their organisations are at least somewhat prepared to maintain workforce performance through significant disruption or change, only 39% describe their organisation as very prepared. These findings highlight an opportunity for organisations to strengthen their preparedness through practical measures such as business continuity planning, succession planning and clearer leadership responsibilities.
From benefits provision to workforce value
Organisations are actively managing and communicating about their benefits: 82% regularly review their offering and 87% say they keep employees appropriately informed, while 71% see their benefits programme as a differentiator in attracting the best talent. This reflects the increasingly strategic role of benefits and wellbeing investment as organisations look to strengthen their employee proposition and compete for talent.
From today’s workforce to tomorrow’s capability
Losing key talent and skillsets remains a significant concern. It ranks among the top three workforce challenges for 66% of respondents, with AI and digital skills, competition for talent and succession also ranking highly. These challenges are interconnected rather than standalone. Changing skills requirements, competition for talent and succession pressures can compound the impact of losing critical people and capabilities.
Taken together, the findings conclude that workforce resilience cannot be built through a single programme, benefit or function. Resilience requires a connected approach across People, Financial and Organisational resilience. The opportunity is to connect workforce investment more clearly to the performance, capabilities and risks that matter to the wider organisation.
Three Pathways. One Connected Conversation.
PEOPLE
Can our people remain healthy, engaged, capable and adaptable?
FINANCIAL
Do our workforce and benefits strategies provide the security and value needed to support resilience?
ORGANISATIONAL
Can the organisation anticipate, respond to and recover from disruption while maintaining workforce performance?
About the Research
Lockton’s Workforce Resilience Research captures the views of 140 HR and business leaders across MENA, exploring workforce challenges and future readiness, preparedness for disruption, employee wellbeing, benefits strategy, leadership and people risk. Percentages throughout this report are based on valid responses to each question and rounded to the nearest whole number. Where connections or interpretations are drawn between findings, these represent Lockton’s analysis of the research. CHAPTER 1 From Wellbeing Priority to Measurable Impact Wellbeing has earned its place on the agenda. The challenge now is turning commitment into measurable impact. THE FINDING
87% say wellbeing is a high or critical priority
80% believe wellbeing has a significant or moderate impact on business performance
Yet only 39% are very confident in their ability to measure its impact
WHAT IT TELLS US
Organisations increasingly recognise the business case for workforce wellbeing. They understand its importance and are investing in it. The challenge now is understanding what that investment is achieving. Measurement does not need to mean proving a direct financial return from every initiative. Instead, organisations can connect wellbeing investment to the workforce outcomes it is intended to influence — whether engagement, employee experience, absence, retention or utilisation of support. This is where the connection between wellbeing and workforce resilience becomes important. If organisations believe wellbeing supports business performance, being able to understand its impact helps move the conversation from wellbeing activity to workforce outcomes. Engagement is part of that challenge.
Budget constraints are the most commonly cited barrier to achieving effective wellbeing outcomes, while low employee engagement is another significant barrier. One respondent described the bigger challenge not as providing wellbeing tools but rather getting employees to use them. The person noted employee utilisation below 20% despite access to coaching, therapy and a wellbeing platform. Provision alone does not necessarily translate into awareness or engagement. Ongoing education and reminders can help employees understand the support available to them, while visible involvement from senior leaders and internal wellbeing champions can help build awareness and encourage participation. The survey also includes examples of organisations looking beyond traditional benefits towards community, fitness, connection, recognition and healthier lifestyles.
THE RESILIENCE GAP
The wellbeing challenge may no longer be whether to invest but how to turn investment into meaningful employee and organisational outcomes.
WHAT TO CONSIDER Define the outcome
Be clear about what wellbeing investment is intended to influence before deciding what to introduce.
Understand employee experience
Look beyond provision to understand awareness, access, utilisation and relevance.
Turn leadership support into accountability
Make wellbeing part of how leaders think about culture, workload, management and the wider employee experience. Visible leadership involvement and a committed senior champion can help drive engagement and maintain momentum. Connect that accountability to the workforce outcomes the organisation is trying to achieve.
CHAPTER 2 From Disruption Preparedness to Organisational Resilience
Being able to respond to disruption is not the same as being resilient.
THE FINDING
86% describe their organisation as at least somewhat prepared to maintain workforce performance through significant disruption or change
In this context, workforce performance means the ability of people to continue delivering critical roles, services and business priorities through periods of change or disruption.
86% agree their organisation understands workforce-related risks and manages them appropriately
However, only 39% describe their organisation as very prepared
WHAT IT TELLS US
Many organisations appear to have the foundations in place. However, preparedness and organisational resilience are not the same thing. Resilience is about whether an organisation can anticipate, respond to, adapt to and recover from disruption while continuing to support its people and maintain performance. Disruption can be sudden — geopolitical events, cyber incidents, health emergencies or operational crises. Or, it can build gradually, creating a ‘creeping crisis’ through pressures such as talent shortages, organisational change, skills gaps or the loss of critical people.
COVID-19 demonstrated how disruption can also evolve over time. What begins as an immediate crisis can create longer-term workforce pressures, requiring organisations to continually adapt rather than simply respond and recover. In either case, workforce vulnerabilities can quickly become business vulnerabilities. A critical employee without a successor, a team without the skills to adopt new technology or stretched leadership capacity during significant change can affect operations, customers, financial performance and strategy. This is why workforce risk needs to be considered in the context of what the organisation is trying to achieve. Understanding the workforce risks that could disrupt critical business objectives helps organisations prioritise where resilience matters most. That is why workforce resilience cannot sit with HR alone. It requires leadership across the C-suite, with people, risk and business priorities considered together rather than in isolation.
FROM PREPAREDNESS TO RESILIENCE
The shift is from asking whether the organisation has a plan to asking whether its people and systems can continue to perform when the plan is tested.
WHAT TO CONSIDER Identify critical workforce dependencies
Understand the people, roles, skills and locations essential to maintaining performance and which business objectives depend on them.
Connect people risk to business risk
Bring workforce considerations into enterprise risk, business continuity and strategic planning.
Test before disruption happens
Regularly test plans using different scenarios and formats to expose gaps and vulnerabilities before they are needed. Exercises also give teams the opportunity to rehearse roles and responsibilities, strengthen coordination and understand how HR, Risk, Finance, Communications and leadership would respond together.
CHAPTER 3
From Benefits Provision to Workforce Value
Organisations have been actively managing their benefits. Now they are working to ensure they create value.
THE FINDING
82% regularly review their benefits programme
87% say employees are appropriately informed and kept updated
71% agree their benefits programme helps differentiate their organisation in attracting the best talent
The opportunity is to build on this strong foundation.
With loss of key talent and skills emerging as the leading workforce challenge, benefits can play an even more strategic role in the overall employee value proposition. Benefits alone cannot solve attraction or retention challenges. But the findings raise a more strategic question: What is the organisation trying to achieve through its benefits investment? The benefits conversation often starts with provision — what is offered, how it compares with the market and what it costs. Workforce resilience requires organisations to go further: understanding whether benefits reflect workforce needs, are easy to access and are genuinely valued and used. The qualitative responses reinforce that workforce needs and priorities vary. Respondents highlighted a range of areas they see as important, from healthcare and mental health support to flexibility, financial wellbeing and retirement provision. Some also described adapting benefits to reflect local talent needs. Cost remains important, but it is only one dimension of value.
THE RESILIENCE GAP
A strong benefits programme is not just well designed and communicated. It also connects organisational priorities with what employees genuinely need, use and value.
WHAT TO CONSIDER Start with the workforce outcome
Define whether investment is intended to support attraction, retention, wellbeing, financial security or another priority.
Understand value and utilisation
Look beyond communication to whether employees access, use and value what is available.
Connect design, funding and sustainability
Consider employee value and organisational cost together rather than treating them as competing objectives.
CHAPTER 4
From Today’s Workforce to Tomorrow’s Capability
The workforce risks organisations are most concerned about are increasingly about the future.
THE FINDING
The five leading workforce challenges identified by respondents are:
Loss of key talent and skillsets
Failure to evolve skills in line with digitisation and AI
Increased competition for high-calibre talent
Lack of adequate succession planning
Shortage of specialised and niche skills
Losing key talent and skillsets ranks among the top three workplace concerns for 66% of respondents. These risks should not be viewed in isolation. Changing skills requirements, competition for talent, succession gaps and shortages in specialist capabilities can reinforce one another, increasing the impact when critical people or skills are lost. AI and digitisation are a good example of how these pressures can connect. As technology changes the skills organisations need, it can increase demand for new capabilities, intensify competition for talent and create greater risk where succession or critical skills pipelines are not in place. The result is a set of connected workforce risks that can compound one another and ultimately affect the organisation’s ability to deliver its strategy.
WHAT IT TELLS US
These are not simply recruitment issues. They raise a bigger question: whether organisations will have the capability, capacity and critical knowledge needed to deliver their future strategy. Technology and AI are changing skills requirements. Specialist expertise can be difficult to replace. The departure of a critical individual can expose previously hidden gaps in knowledge, leadership and succession. Respondents point to leadership development, succession planning, AI and digital skills, workforce planning and upskilling as important priorities for future readiness.
This also makes retention a resilience issue. When critical knowledge or capability is concentrated in a small number of people, talent loss becomes an organisational dependency rather than simply a HR metric.
THE RESILIENCE GAP
The resilient organisation is not the one that can predict every skill it will need. It is the one that can continually build, access and adapt capability as business needs change.
WHAT TO CONSIDER
Identify future critical capabilities
Start with the organisation’s future strategy and objectives, then identify the people, skills and capabilities needed to deliver them — and the workforce risks that could stand in the way.
Understand talent dependencies
Know which skills, roles and relationships would be hardest to replace and where succession is weak.
Build capability before it becomes urgent
Connect reskilling, development, succession and AI readiness to workforce planning.
The Lockton Workforce Resilience Framework
Three Pathways. One Connected Conversation.
Workforce resilience isn't created through any one programme, benefit or function.
It is shaped by the interaction between an organisation’s people, their financial security and the organisation's wider ability to prepare for and respond to change.
PEOPLE
Can our people remain healthy, engaged, capable and adaptable?
Wellbeing | Talent | Skills | Engagement | Culture | Leadership
FINANCIAL
Do our workforce and benefits strategies provide the security and value needed to support resilience?
Benefits | Financial wellbeing | Reward | Funding | Protection
ORGANISATIONAL
Can the organisation anticipate, respond to and recover from disruption while maintaining workforce performance?
Preparedness | People risk | Leadership | Governance | Business continuity | Workforce planning
Resilience comes from connecting the conversation.
Strength in one pathway cannot always compensate for weakness in another. The important concern is where these pathways connect and where issues are still being addressed in isolation.
The Workforce Resilience Playbook
1) Measure what matters
Move from activity to outcomes.
Define what the organisation is trying to improve, protect or change, then identify the measures that will show whether progress is being made. Connect those measures back to the workforce and business outcomes the investment intended to support.
Ask: What would tell us that our workforce strategy is actually working?
2) Design around people, not programmes
Move from provision to experience.
Understand what different employee populations need, use and value and where barriers prevent engagement.
Ask: Are we designing around assumptions or the real experience of our people?
3) Prepare before disruption happens
Move from response to readiness.
Identify critical people, skills and dependencies and connect them to wider risk, continuity and scenario planning. Test those scenarios in practice to understand how workforce vulnerabilities could affect business objectives and how different functions would respond together.
Ask: Where would our workforce be most vulnerable if something changed tomorrow?
4) Build tomorrow’s capability today
Move from filling roles to building capability.
Connect future business needs with workforce planning, succession, reskilling, development and AI readiness. Consider how talent, skills and succession risks interact rather than managing each independently.
Ask: Are we building the workforce our future strategy requires?
5) Make resilience a shared leadership responsibility
Move from HR ownership to organisational ownership.
Connect People, Risk, Finance, Operations, Communications and executive leadership around shared workforce risks and outcomes. Create clarity around who owns those risks, where accountability sits and how they connect to wider organisational priorities.
Ask: Who owns workforce resilience in our organisation and who should?
Workforce Resilience Checklist
How resilient is your workforce?
Score each statement from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree).
PEOPLE
1. We can demonstrate the impact of our wellbeing strategy.
2. Employees understand and actively engage with the support available to them.
3. We understand the skills and capabilities our organisation will need in the future.
4. We have credible succession plans for critical roles.
FINANCIAL
5. Our benefits strategy is connected to clear workforce outcomes.
6. We understand whether employees access, use and value the benefits we provide.
7. Our approach balances employee value with sustainable organisational cost.
8. Financial security and protection are considered as part of our wider workforce strategy.
ORGANISATIONAL
9. Workforce risk is integrated into wider organisational risk and business planning.
10. We understand our critical people, skills and workforce dependencies.
11. We have tested our ability to maintain workforce performance through significant disruption.
12. Responsibility for workforce resilience is shared across relevant functions and executive leadership.
From assessment to action Use the assessment to identify:
Where are our biggest gaps?
Which pathway requires the greatest attention?
Where are issues still being addressed in isolation?
Who needs to be involved?
What is one action we will take in the next 90 days?
Resilience is Built Before It Is Needed
The research suggests organisations across MENA have made meaningful progress. Wellbeing is firmly on the agenda. Benefits are being actively managed. Leaders recognise the importance of supporting their people. And many organisations feel equipped to respond to change. But the next stage of workforce resilience is not simply about doing more. It is about making stronger connections. Between investment and outcomes. Between benefits and workforce needs. Between today’s people strategy and tomorrow’s capabilities. And between workforce risk and wider business risk. It is also about recognising how those issues connect to workforce performance and ultimately to an organisation’s ability to deliver its objectives through change.
Crucially, these conversations cannot sit with HR alone.
Workforce resilience is not simply about how people respond when disruption happens. It is about creating the conditions that allow people and the organisations they support to adapt, perform and thrive through change.
The Resilient Workforce
Protecting people. Strengthening organisational performance.
Three Pathways. One Connected Conversation.
Disclaimer:
This publication is provided for general information only and does not constitute professional advice or a recommendation concerning any insurance product or service. Survey results reflect the views of participating respondents and may not be representative of all organisations across MENA. Readers should obtain advice appropriate to their circumstances before acting on the information provided.
All content contained in this publication, including the Workforce Resilience Framework and related materials, is owned by Lockton. All rights reserved.