As extreme weather events grow more frequent and severe, the line between public health and business strategy is blurring. Our partner, Health Action Alliance (HAA), has spent years helping employers see workforce health not as a compliance checkbox but as a core driver of resilience and performance. We sat down with Director of Extreme Weather + Work, David Leathers, to discuss what distinguishes companies that lead on employee well-being, why climate risk is now a human resources issue and how HAA is building the playbook for a new era of employer responsibility.
Dee Worley: Health Action Alliance (HAA) has carved out a unique role at the intersection of business and public health. How do you describe your mission to employers who are just discovering HAA, and what do you most want them to understand about your approach?
David Leathers: What employers understand around our work is that the most important assets are the people. People show up to work, they are productive at work and they enjoy work when they are healthy and resilient.
We think about the fact that there are about 160 million people employed in the U.S. at any given time. Employers have an increasing role in understanding the risks those workers face and in helping them build a work environment that is helpful to them as individuals and to the company itself.
But to link it back to your question, humans will always be central to work. We need to make sure that those humans are healthy and resilient and that their employers understand and are acting on the responsibilities they have to keep those people safe and healthy and financially well.
Dee Worley: You work with thousands of organization leaders who are navigating everything from public health crises to social and economic disruption. What patterns do you see, and what distinguishes employers that truly lead employee health and resilience from those who do not see that level of advancement?
David Leathers: The ones that stand out are employers who treat workforce health and resilience as the core element of business continuity and long-term success. It goes back to what we were saying before: humans are the most important part of every business; that is why any business exists.
Across our work on extreme weather, HIV, women’s health and mental health, we see a few distinguishing approaches. First is cross-functional ownership. I know E4E Relief thinks a lot about the critical relationship between HR and corporate social responsibility or community impact teams. We see that as well, and it often extends to occupational health, operations and enterprise risk. The organizations that lead say, “There is a risk we’re facing or something we’re underestimating,” and then activate the right people to ask: How is it hitting our costs? How is it hitting productivity? How is it affecting employee wellness? Each of those dimensions is usually owned by different leaders, so bringing them together is key.
Second, leading companies start by understanding the specific vulnerabilities and risks they face. In our extreme weather work, data from our partner, Mercer, shows that only about 4% of employers have ever mapped climate-related risks where their people live and work. That is a huge opportunity to improve. For example, you may have many workers in a neighborhood with high wildfire and smoke risk, or even evacuation risk. Do those folks have asthma? Do they have children who are particularly susceptible? Do they know about these risks? Connecting the dots between what is happening in the world and where your people actually live and work is a small step that many employers still have not taken.
Last but not least, it comes down to ROI and the money. There is a morality play, and many people in companies genuinely want to use their resources for good. But in uncertain times, it will always come back to ROI; someone will ask what a given effort is delivering in terms of decreased costs, increased revenue, better retention or whatever pillars matter most to that company. What is special to me about what we do at Health Action Alliance is that our work has an ultimate aim of keeping people and communities healthy, while also keeping businesses healthy. If you can tell that story in the right way, it becomes a powerful case for action.
Dee Worley: HAA emphasizes practical tools, storytelling and peer learning over abstract guidance. Can you share an example of how that philosophy has changed the way company leaders showed up for their people during a challenging moment?
David Leathers: One of our flagship coalitions is the U.S. Business Action to End HIV. It focuses on helping companies understand what they can do internally with their own workforce and externally through their products, services and platforms.
In that program, we developed a template—a checklist—to help companies build an HIV policy that supports employees through testing and navigating the process. Using that template, C-suite leaders became engaged and said, “I did not even know this was something we could and should do.” We used one of these organizations as a live case study in a members’ session: we brought the template and senior executives in the room actually created a policy for their organization on the spot, which then inspired others in the cohort to think about what they could do.
We recognize that when you are dealing with what can feel like niche or esoteric health issues, it is extremely helpful to understand what peers are doing.
Another example comes from our Learning Labs, which we use across programs. My colleague Sarah, who leads much of our work around mental health and women’s health, has been working with AARP and companies on menopause strategies. In one lab series, many companies said the word “policy” itself could scare people and turn them away. So they reframed the work from a menopause “policy” to a menopause “strategy.” That sounds simple, but it unlocked a lot of interest and impact from the cohort of companies we work alongside.
HAA is very good at taking something that seems niche, showing why it is not niche at all—menopause, of course, affects more than half the population—and then providing a clear playbook that is both a framework and a customizable tool. We know there is an overwhelming amount of information out there. Our job is to make it simple and actionable so people can integrate it into their day-to-day jobs. A little bit of focused effort can make a big difference in their workplace.
Dee Worley: You recently launched Extreme Weather + Work, the first initiative built specifically to help employers address workforce risks from extreme heat, disasters and climate disruption. What gap did you see in the marketplace that convinced you this was the right next move? And how do you hope it will change employer behavior over the next couple of years?
David Leathers: What convinced us this was a challenge that needed solving: the impacts of extreme heat, air quality, extreme weather and more have always been there, but they are getting worse in most places in the U.S., and they are getting worse faster than most company leaders have recognized or built strategies to address.
We also saw that we are not starting from scratch. There are decades, if not centuries, of occupational health practices and research on how to protect people from specific hazards like extreme heat. On the other side, there is a growing field focused on climate and disruption risks (insurers, for example, are very interested in this space). But those two worlds—workforce health and safety and climate risk and resilience—have been siloed. That disconnect created a big gap for organizations.
As a result, many organizations have been reacting to disasters rather than preparing for them strategically, the same way they would prepare for other forces like market pressure or broader business continuity risks. This collection of risks is getting worse. Our goal over the next couple of years is to make meaningful progress in helping every company have a plan to protect their workers before, during and after disasters. It is a lofty goal but, as I said, we are not starting from zero. Most employers already have pieces of the puzzle in place. We are building the playbook for a comprehensive approach and strategy to respond to these risks as they intensify.
This work touches physical health at job sites, preventing heat stroke or air quality related illness when people work outdoors. There is also a mental health component, especially for younger workers, many of whom report stress and mental health challenges related to the state of the world, including eco-anxiety. That is only going to increase with Gen Z and Gen Alpha entering and moving through the workforce.
Finally, there is financial health, which is where your work comes in so powerfully. The inability to pay for something or absorb a sudden financial shock has direct impacts on physical health, mental health and the ability to return to work. That trifecta—physical, mental and financial health—is getting more strained because of extreme weather. We believe employers have a specific role to play in understanding, managing and mitigating these risks for their workforce.
Dee Worley: Many leaders still treat workforce health, climate risk and business performance as separate conversations. When you talk with executives, what helps them connect those dots and see worker health and safety as a core business strategy rather than a luxury?
David Leathers: It comes down to the money. No matter what function you sit in, the common language in most organizations is dollars and cents. So, we link all the risks we talk about back to the metrics leaders already own.
For HR teams, that might be healthcare utilization and cost per employee, which is especially salient for self-insured companies. For occupational health and safety teams, it is incidents at work, lost days of productivity from injuries and workers’ compensation claims. Enterprise risk teams care about longer term exposures: for example, if people in your city or state are struggling to purchase home insurance because premiums are skyrocketing, that becomes a long-term talent risk. An enterprise risk leader needs to have that conversation with HR.
Ultimately, we are always looking at what affects the bottom line, short-term and long-term. The tension between short-term and long-term thinking is a consistent challenge, especially when we are telling a long-term financial risk story to leaders facing short-term pressures.
The companies in our Extreme Weather + Work program include senior leaders from organizations like Google, Disney, Bristol Myers Squibb, and CVS Health. It is presented by Mercer with support from The Hartford. Each of these companies approach this from different angles. What they share is an understanding that when you have the right data and the right narrative, there is a compelling case to proactively understand, manage and mitigate these risks.
In practice, that might be something as straightforward as updating a heat policy because it is getting hotter and more employees are working outdoors. Or it might mean adding a new benefit, like a financial support program, because employees are being hit more frequently by disasters. Those actions can seem unrelated—heat stress at the job and a financial benefit for disasters—but they are very connected. They are all about enabling people to show up to work healthy and safe day in and day out, whether that is tomorrow or six months from now. That is what the executives who are doing this best understand and act on.
There is also a broader truth here. Our work exists because people should care about other people, and because money is money and we operate in for profit environments. Those two realities can feel tense, but when you tell the story well, you can show that this is in the interest of the business and in the interest of the people who face these risks. Many of our programs are funded not just by philanthropy but by companies—insurers, solution providers and employers—who recognize that raising awareness and taking action on these issues is addressing a real business problem.
That is validating, because it means we are not just making a moral argument; we are making a business case backed by real impacts on wellness, risk and performance.
Dee Worley: Both HAA and E4E Relief focus on helping employers support workers before, during and after disruptive events, whether through better planning, communications or tangible support. From your perspective, where do our business models most naturally align, and how does that alignment show up in value for employees?
David Leathers: From the perspective of Extreme Weather + Work, most organizations recognize that extreme weather risk to their workforce exists, but the response often stops at awareness. The problem is underestimated, and it is also changing year to year. Last year there were 23-billion-dollar weather disasters in the U.S., and this year there could be fewer, or there could be more; we simply do not know. The point is that these events are inherently unpredictable, even as the overall trend intensifies: we’re facing about seven times as many large disasters per year now than we were in the 80s, for instance.
Our job is to educate people and raise awareness about extreme weather as a workforce risk for leaders who do not typically see it as part of their role. When people hear “climate,” “health” or “extreme weather,” they might think of sustainability teams or ESG functions. Those are important, but a major part of our program is bringing other functions into this conversation, engaging with HR and total rewards leaders about heat waves and hurricanes, for example.
We want to show people who do not currently see this as part of their job that it actually is, and that it can be integrated into what they already do. If you care about healthcare spend, employee retention and wellness, extreme weather is affecting all of those things. We provide tools, strategies, processes and data so they can act.
That is where E4E Relief comes in. When companies recognize they face specific, recurring challenges—say, operating in a hurricane prone region or seeing repeated disaster-driven financial shocks among employees—E4E Relief is one of the leading solution providers. You offer turnkey solutions to help employers support their employees in times of need, whether from disasters or other hardship crises.
We show up where businesses already convene and explain why there is an increasing risk to employee wellness, from physical and mental health to financial stability. Then we point to partners like E4E Relief who are delivering proven, scalable responses including cash grants and compliant, global programs.
Awareness of the problem is not enough. Awareness plus action is the goal. We move organizations toward action by giving them practical tools, but companies ultimately need solutions that work for their context. That is where we see huge alignment with E4E Relief: we help make the case and frame the risk; you help employers operationalize the response in a way that delivers real value for employees when it matters most.
And importantly, having a solution in place before something happens—with the ability to handle an influx of applications and disburse cash quickly—is critical. That is how this alignment shows up in real value for employees on the ground.
Dee Worley: Moving forward, what emerging issues do you think will define the next chapter of employer responsibility for health and well-being? And how is HAA positioning itself to help companies stay ahead of that curve?
David Leathers: From the Extreme Weather + Work side, we think a lot about core issues like disasters, extreme heat and air quality; things we are already experiencing day-to-day. But there are many more emerging risks that our members are starting to notice.
One is vector borne disease; risks transmitted by ticks or mosquitoes, such as Lyme disease or Zika. These are spreading into new places and seasons. It is not top of mind for most companies today, but it may well be in the future. I ask myself: What will a business in 2030 or 2050 be doing to protect workers from these risks and how can we understand that now?
There are also broader health trends. There is an active conversation right now around metabolic health, nutrition, food environments and chronic disease risk across the political spectrum. We are thinking about what role employers can play in providing science backed information on what keeps people healthy and how to reduce disease, because that is something everyone wants.
Another emerging area is digital health and our relationship with technology. Even before the current wave of AI tools, we have been talking about phone addiction and social media’s impact, especially on younger generations. In the workplace, many of us are on devices 8–12 hours a day. That affects posture, eyesight, breathing, mobility and of course mental health and overall well-being.
So, my call to action for your audience, especially around Extreme Weather + Work, is that leading companies are choosing to get ahead of these issues now. We are building a community of employers who care about their people, but even more specifically, who care about understanding, managing and mitigating the risks their people face from extreme weather.
Ultimately, it all comes back to worker and employee wellness. We want to engage with company leaders who understand that and want to collaborate with peers and take action on these issues. It’s important to show them, not just that they should care, but how they can care in concrete, impactful ways.
.svg){kind=icon}
