Willis Towers Watson has promoted Wendy Poirier to the role of global well-being leader.
With the consulting firm since 2005, Poirier’s previous roles include innovation leader, growth leader and region leader in health and benefits for Canada. She also spent 10 years as a managing principal at Towers Perrin before it became Willis Towers Watson. At the beginning of her career, she was the director of disability operations for Western Canada at Sun Life Financial.
“I’m very excited by taking on this role,” she says. “I feel this is what I’ve been working for since day one. I used to tell people, for decades, about wellness and well-being more holistically.”
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Globally, Willis Towers Watson is seeing well-being becoming a foundation for creating what plan sponsors want in terms of a more engaged and productive employee base, says Poirier, including an employee-centric view on supporting health from a physical, financial, emotional and social perspective.
“The way that employers are looking at well-being is a bit of a breakthrough,” she says. “They’re getting the picture that this is truly a way to connect with employees for what we call a sustainable human capital opportunity — sustainable business results, greater degree of work and career satisfaction, balance — there are so many things it comes together for.
“But for us, as a company, we’re working towards supporting our clients in all aspects of managing their human capital and risk, and I think well-being is a perfect example of how we can work towards both of those goals.”
Poirier will continue to be based in Calgary while supporting Willis Towers Watson’s global initiatives around well-being.
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