MetLife CEO's Letter to Employees About the Future of Work
Dear colleagues,
Today marks an exciting milestone as we launch our Future Work model in the United States following successful launches in other markets around the world. I’m incredibly grateful to the teams that dedicated so much time and effort to make today a reality, and I’m convinced that our model is the right one for MetLife.
The past two years tested us in unimaginable ways, yet you continued throughout to deliver for our customers, our communities, our shareholders, and each other. Thanks to your unwavering care, resilience, and sense of purpose throughout this pandemic, we are a stronger performing company—across all measures—than ever before. I couldn’t be more thankful to each and every one of you, and I couldn’t be prouder of the tremendous progress we’ve made together.
For the past 154 years, this is what has defined our story: being there for people when they’ve needed us the most, helping them build a more confident future. Looking ahead to our next chapter, we will uphold this commitment to those we serve—and that includes all of you. We strive to create an inclusive, highly collaborative work culture where our people are empowered to grow and thrive. And we firmly believe our Future Work model will help us continue to do that.
To build Future Work, we carefully considered the latest research, talent trends, market conditions, and competitor practices to determine how we could best live our purpose going forward. The fit-for-purpose model we created classifies every role as Office, Hybrid, or Virtual based on the nature of the work and ensures everyone has more flexibility than they did pre-pandemic. By integrating the best practices and lessons we’ve learned from working remotely with valued elements of in-person collaboration, we’ve fashioned a new way of working that will encourage meaningful connections across departments, offices, and markets. At the same time, it will give us opportunities to re-embrace a deeply human practice we believe remains unmatched: working together, in person, toward common goals.
Undoubtedly, the coming days and weeks will bring new learnings as we set, or reset, new routines in our daily lives and solidify new standards for how we engage and collaborate with one another. Just as it took time to adjust to working virtually two years ago, our Future Work approach will require similar patience. So, I encourage you to be kind and gracious to yourself, and empathetic and respectful toward others, as we all navigate this new era together.
We look forward to fully implementing our new model across the global company soon and are certain we will succeed in this Future Work endeavor. By working together, we will be an even better, more-connected organization. We will continue to shine and make MetLife a source of pride for all of us. We will win the future.
Michel Khalaf
President & CEO