Aon report singles out four key client trends

Aon has identified what it says are four big trends for its clients that will shape the next few years: trade, technology, weather and workforce. 

The four trends are listed in Aon’s 2024 Client Trends Report - Risk Capital and Human Capital Perspectives.  

Trade is central to how companies all do business. But Aon said that businesses face questions about the sustainability of globalisation, and whether a retreat to a regional strategy is needed when supply chain resilience and an increasingly fragmented geopolitical landscape are considered. 

Technology is accelerating at an unprecedented pace, with innovations such as generative AI pushing the boundaries of the digital world. The rapid pace of change raises a host of questions, including intellectual property as an asset class, addressing the impact to jobs and workforce requirements and how to harness new technologies to drive growth. 

Changing weather is forcing organisations to manage climate risk in an increasingly holistic way — from closing the protection gap and ensuring the health and safety of workers in the face of extreme weather, to understanding regulatory changes and leveraging emerging green technologies. 

And finally, as the workforce emerged from the pandemic employers began addressing wellbeing needs differently. In the coming years, according to Aon, attracting and retaining talent will require rethinking the entire employee experience — from motivating and sustaining teams to differentiating an organization from competitors and building a sustainable working life. 

“Seeing attracting and retaining talent rise to the number four global risk companies face was very telling in how thinking has evolved on traditional risk topics,” said Aon’s human capital chief executive Lambros Lambrou in the report. “We are actively addressing people risks with our clients — whether it’s using talent assessments to identify employee groups with elevated cyber risk, using captives to reduce pension and benefit-related exposures or deploying parametrics to create resilience bonds that protect employees from natural disasters.”  

To effectively address these challenges, organisations need new strategies for enterprise-wide risks. Aon said that it is helping clients make better decisions to protect and grow their business and navigate these four interconnected megatrends through its risk capital and human capital capabilities. 

“As a firm, we are delivering actionable analytic insight, globally integrated expertise and locally relevant solutions,” said Aon in the report. “In Risk Capital, these are helping clients rethink how to take a more holistic view of risk; and in Human Capital, they are supporting a more integrated approach to workforce strategies. 

“For example, we are bringing parametric and facultative solutions — traditionally the preserve of our re/insurer clients — to corporate clients, helping them to assess, analyse and mitigate the effects of extreme weather on their property portfolios.” 

Did you get value from this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.