On 29 September we hosted multinational employers, brokers, consultants, our local insurance partners and health tech specialists at our 2022 Innovation Event at The Argonaut Hotel in San Francisco.

Given how much the world has changed since our ‘future of work’ innovation event in London in November 2019, the theme this year was, as with the MAXIS Global Forum,  Reshaping the future. The event saw the MAXIS team host a series of panel discussions and presentations from innovative start-ups and encourage attendees to get involved in interactive roundtable sessions. Here’s what happened on a thought-provoking and inspiring day.

Defining innovation

We talk a lot about innovation, but what does it really mean? Terry Luciani (MetLife’s VP, Innovation) shared his innovation philosophy and the importance of building a business that is fit for the future. Both he and Flore Serre (Head of Employee Benefits Proposition & Services, AXA) discussed some of the innovative and forward-looking projects our shareholders are involved in.

Solving problems for the future of work

The world of work has changed significantly and people expect flexibility, including being able to earn a living outside of a traditional, full time, nine-to-five manner. As employers increasingly need to attract the best non-traditional workers, and these workers need insurance protection, coming up with innovative solutions for the future of work is critical.

Our attendees split into teams to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing employers and pitched their ideas to the room, these included an app for digital nomads and a gamification programme where employees earn credits for their healthy behaviours. Helga Viegas, Director of Digital & Innovation, MAXIS GBN, also demonstrated the prototype of a product MAXIS has been developing allowing employers to offer benefits to non-traditional workers (gig workers, contractors, freelancers etc).

Exploring the possibilities of health tech

Not surprisingly, healthcare technology was a much talked about subject on the day. The pandemic made everyone think more about healthcare provision and employers are exploring new ways to keep their people happy, healthy and productive.

As well as hearing from our wellness technology marketplace partners, Further, HUMANOO and SimpleTherapy , we also welcomed Family First, Grail and Peppy who shared their solutions for employers.    

Family First provides personalised solutions to solve the caregiving challenges employees face at home, so they can focus on work.

GRAIL is a healthcare company whose mission is to detect cancer early. GRAIL is focused on saving lives and improving health by pioneering new technologies such as next-generation DNA sequencing, population-scale clinical studies, and state-of-the-art computer and data science.

Peppy is the world's leading supplier of menopause support and Europe's leader in gender specific healthcare.

Exploring the future of EB

The last two years provided a stark reminder that nobody can be absolutely sure what the future holds but we ended the day with roundtable discussions, sharing our thoughts on the biggest opportunities for the employee benefits industry and looking at some of the trends that are reshaping the future.

Whatever the future holds, we think it is safe to say that employers will be relying on their employee benefits programmes to help them win the war for talent and continue to keep their people healthy and productive.  

It was inspiring to spend the day with such an engaged group of EB experts. And if we have anything to do with it, we’ll be doing it again very soon.