Turning today’s workforce challenges into tomorrow’s strength

“The current state of employee experience across industries is at a turning point,” Grant says. “Roughly 25% of people in the region across all industries are either looking for new opportunities or planning to. Lower population growth, an aging population, demand for new capabilities – all of these forces mean that organisations must double down on capability building and support individuals to continually augment their skills and support client growth.”

“Agencies must also respond to generational shifts. Gen Z will have around 17 jobs spanning five careers in their lifetime. As such, they are looking for radical flexibility, lifelong learning and a personalised career path. Gone are the days where organisations can offer a one-size-fits-all approach.”

Grant’s words reflect the sentiment of a rapidly evolving industry and workforce. The industry has for some time now been challenged by limited talent pools and cost pressures. Agencies now find themselves navigating both increased employee expectations and accelerated technological advancement. In this climate, Grant believes the relationship between people and organisations needs to evolve.

“There’s a real shift in what people are expecting from their employers,” she says. “They want to work for companies that care about them, that invest in them. That’s especially important now as AI starts to reshape everything.”

Nurturing people in the age of AI

Rather than framing AI as a threat, Grant sees it as a catalyst for reinvention, in regards to roles, capabilities, and the employee experience itself. But she’s also aware of the anxiety that comes with change.

“There is fear around AI,” she acknowledges. “People don’t want to be replaced by it, but they do want to understand how to work with it. They want to be upskilled so that they're not left behind.”

Publicis has responded by doubling down on internal education and hands-on experimentation, giving employees the tools to engage with AI rather than resist it. One such program is PL.AI, a personalised learning course that allows talent to choose their own AI upskilling path based on their role, AI utilisation level, and ambitions. At the heart of it all is Marcel, Publicis’ AI-powered employee experience platform and its growth engine.

“Marcel has become the hub for what we offer our people,” Grant explains. “It’s how they access PL.AI, how they discover opportunities, and how we connect our people across markets. It makes learning visible and accessible.”

This hands-on approach has helped simplify AI for employees, allowing them to participate in the change rather than fear it. But beyond capability building, Grant is more concerned with what she calls “career confidence”.

“People want to feel like they have a future,” she says. “And part of our job is to show them what that future can look like, and how they can be part of shaping it.”

The Groupe’s approach to AI is underpinned by ‘Viva la Difference’, a philosophy which means everyone at Publicis, regardless of difference, is valued and has a sense of belonging.

“It's crucial that we help everyone at Publicis to understand the ethical significance of using AI and the potential risks involved. This ensures we remain accountable to our clients. As AI usage becomes more widespread, our people must be critical thinkers who use AI ethically to reduce bias in data and outputs, promoting inclusion, not mere implementors. Our Viva La Difference spirit is even more important in the age of AI,” says Grant.

The future of LX

For Publicis, the evolution of talent strategy has gone beyond traditional upskilling. Grant refers to it as a move towards LX – short for life experience.

“In most organisations, the employee experience has historically been the focus – improving life at work for employees,” she says. “At Publicis, we have a view that life experience matters just as much. We are interested in improving how work fits into your overall life, how we support people through different life stages, how we give them access to growth and how we help them explore many careers across Publicis. All of that is part of the value exchange.”

To promote a culture where individuals are encouraged to bring their whole selves to the workplace, Publicis offers a number of DEI initiatives across APAC, from Menopause Leave in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong to fertility leave and flexible public holidays in various markets – initiatives that epitomise the Viva la Difference spirit.

In March 2024, Publicis ANZ launched its first-ever Disability Access and Inclusion Plan, in partnership with the Australian Disability Network. India has adopted an initiative called Boss Lady, a six-month intensive programme with the women of the company around leadership. Across the region, women also make up 75% of Publicis APAC’s executive leadership team, which is significantly higher than the APAC average for female CEOs.

Another area of life experience that Publicis is addressing is giving people access to global opportunities while helping them connect to family and friends. Take Work Your World, a program launched in 2021 that allows any Publicis employee to work from any office around the world for up to six weeks a year.

As a result of these programs, which support people’s life experiences in big and small ways, employee turnover has significantly decreased ahead industry benchmarks across APAC.

Supporting growth & connection

Publicis Moves, a new APAC-wide initiative, launched in July 2025, is helping employees explore new roles across markets, disciplines, and agencies within the business. In Australia, 11% of new roles are now filled internally; the goal is to help people grow their careers while retaining them within the Groupe.

“Since launching Publicis Moves, we have already seen several stories of success, with people moving from China to Singapore, local moves from talent acquisition to production, or from agency data to PMX – and the list goes on. We are uniquely positioned in our industry to offer diverse careers due to our culture of collaboration and connection across agencies and capabilities,” says Grant.

“There’s this outdated idea that when you join an agency, you stay in one career lane. But careers aren’t linear anymore. We want to make it easy for people to have multiple careers within Publicis. With Generation Z now making up close to 30% of our workforce across APAC, Publicis Moves and our connected structure enables them to explore different careers.”

Another program that leverages the Groupe’s connected platform to support career growth is Next Generation Board, which brings together a group of emerging leaders from different agencies and capabilities in each local market to tackle real business problems with fresh thinking. What started in ANZ has now expanded across SEA, India, China and Japan, depicting a clear signal that the Groupe is preparing for what’s next, not just reacting to what’s now.

In India, for example, Next Generation Board created an innovation hub, and devised a strategy for engaging clients in more innovative solutions, addressing real-world business challenges as one connected team.

Caring for people

Perhaps one of the most moving initiatives at Publicis Groupe is Working with Cancer, launched after Publicis Groupe Chairman and CEO Arthur Sadoun publicly shared his own diagnosis with all 100,000 employees in 2022. “He didn’t hide it, instead he put out a video saying ‘don’t worry, I’m back,’” Grant recalls. “That vulnerability sparked a global movement.”

Around the world, Publicis has put its might and scale behind a movement to erase the stigma of working with cancer. It partners with leading cancer institutes, and to date, 3,000 companies employing 30 million people have signed the WWC pledge, promising to create a more recovery-forward culture at work.

Across Publicis APAC, the program has offered extended paid leave for people undergoing treatment and increased flexibility when caring for loved ones. This year, the initiative expanded to include Screening Time Off, encouraging preventive health checks through company-wide participation in screening services, and free skin checks available at offices in various markets.

Grant says the response to Working With Cancer has been overwhelmingly positive.

“We’ve looked really hard into acknowledging the evolving needs of our people as an organisation. And as a result, we’ve achieved higher engagement and improved retention in relation to our overall industy. I’ve always been a big believer in creating a positive work environment for people that enables them to deliver their best work. In turn, this has contributed to the ongoing success of Publicis Groupe, as evidenced by our first-half results.

“We are not a company that waits for the industry to shift and then catches up. We always have one eye on the future, and one on the here and now. As a result, we have a very clear view on where we’re going and the next steps in our evolution.”