Mercer CEO Martine Ferland joins Yahoo Finance’s On The Move panel to discuss how companies around the world are faring and what benefits employers are trying to give employees during the pandemic.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: But now I want to talk more about this employment issue from the perspective of someone who is dealing with many of these companies. That's Martine Ferland. She is CEO of Mercer, one of the-- one of the globe's biggest workforce and human resources companies.

Martine, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate your time. So what are you hearing from your clients and constituents right now in terms of what they're trying to do? There has been some reporting that some companies, for example, are cutting salaries, rather than laying people off, as a way to conserve cash. Is that something you're seeing among your clients?

MARTINE FERLAND: Yes, definitely. It's-- I mean, as-- as terrible as all of this is, we can see that the clients or the organizations in the industries that are not affected as directly as maybe the smaller employers or the travel industry, they-- they have-- they're doing their best to try to protect employees and also help them through, you know, increasing the coverage for health or not counting down sick days if you're ill and have to take some time off.

And what's really amazing is-- is how these organizations today are able-- have been able to quickly turn to technology to keep their part of the economy going, which helps us all in the-- in the grand scheme of things.

ADAM SHAPIRO: When companies do make these kinds of moves to preserve capital and just get through a crisis, do they push out, though, some of the hardship? Because it's not only salaries being cut, but suspension of matching of a 401(k), what is a not really an appropriate or best retirement plan for most people anyway. Does it make the problem worse down the road?

MARTINE FERLAND: Well, I think we're in-- as Constance was saying earlier, we're in such a deep and unique crisis, unprecedented, that there's always a balance that you have to achieve. It's better to stay in business for a-- if you're the plan-- the plan sponsor, and you owe money over time to people who will retire or people who are retired, it-- it doesn't help if you go out of business.

And, therefore, it's a question of balance between short term now, going through the crisis, and longer term. And it's advantageous for both the employees and the retirees in the long run. There's an alignment of-- of interest there.

And, of course, we are seeing all kinds of different approaches. And we are seeing many companies that are actually protecting employees, first and foremost, and are looking at different ways to manage the capital at this point and looking at their liquidity and modeling their cash flow needs over the coming times.

RICK NEWMAN: Martine, it's Rick Newman. With regard to some bigger companies you're dealing with, do you have a sense for how long they can last while keeping people on the payroll, even if in some kind of reduced capacity? I mean, before they have to actually have permanent layoffs and firing, can they last six months? Or is it more in the order of one month?

MARTINE FERLAND: Well, if I knew the answer, Rick, I'd be-- I'd be very happy. That's the-- I think that's the one key question that everybody is asking is the duration of this crisis. And when can we restart the economy in a certain way?

I was in contact with my Italian leader this-- this morning. And they're a few weeks ahead here. And we've been in contact with our Chinese colleague as well all through the crisis to learn about how they're doing things and how they're coming back and how they-- they are restarting the economy.

And, therefore, the duration is unknown. The depth of the crisis, from an economic standpoint, is also a bit unknown. And it depends on the industry. Some industries, as you know, are actually doing quite well, technology industries. There are many, many places. So I-- and it all depends on how healthy you were, regardless of the industry, how healthy you were when the crisis hit. So it's very difficult to generalize the answer to that question, Rick.

DAN HOWLEY: Martine, this is Dan Howley. I want to know if there's any idea how much small businesses will go out of business, as a result of these shutdowns. I know there's a lot of independently owned restaurants, smaller stores that don't have the capacity to continue paying workers or even pay their rent past a certain number of months. What-- what are the expectations here for these small businesses to just simply close their doors and never reopen them again?

MARTINE FERLAND: I mean, I think you have to look to past crisis. And I know that the governments in the US and in many other countries around the world are doing their best with some policies to support these-- these small companies, to support individuals through. But it's inevitable, of course, that we will have some fatalities, in particular, in the small employer base. I don't think we've seen the last of the stimulus package yet to see us through this crisis.

JULIE HYMAN: Martine Ferland is CEO of Mercer. Thank you so much for your perspective, Martine, really appreciate it.

MARTINE FERLAND: My pleasure.