As employers strive to build competitive and scalable workplaces globally, investing in their people and surrounding communities can drive impact both inside and outside their organizations. By proactively addressing emerging and escalating risks, employers can strengthen resilience and boost performance for individuals, their business, and the communities they serve. Their unique role and reach as trusted entities enable them to mitigate risk, build resilience, and advance health priorities—both internally, through policies, programs, and organizational culture, and externally, through business or community investments and raising industry or sector standards. 

As part of its ongoing work, the Employer Action Exchange (EAE) conducted a landscape analysis that included a literature review of more than 230 academic, industry, and news sources from 2010 to 2025 to assess past, current, and future risks employers may face. This brief highlights eight intersecting emerging and escalating risks for employers to consider. The last section of the brief provides links to related EAE-led publications containing insights from executives across sectors and tangible actions that leaders can take to advance health priorities and performance regardless of the size of their organizations.