bottom line
A TONIC FOR THE TROOPS A business will stand or fall according to the quality and happiness of its staff. That, certainly, is what Human Resources company Mercer seems to think. By John Hunt
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ercer is, according to its own literature, “the global leader for trusted Human Resources (HR) and related financial advice, products and services. In the work with clients, they make a positive impact on the world every day. We do this by enhancing the financial and retirement security, health, productivity and employment relationships of the global workforce.” That’s quite a boast, and worthy of further investigation. Qatar Today met Mercer’s Head of Marketing Development GCC, Tom O’Byrne to examine the hype. First things first; what does Mercer do? “What we do is work with organisations in ‘people strategies’ to help businesses realise their objectives,” says O’Byrne. “We help organisations develop their people, align them to the business strategy, so that they can deliver these objectives.” At first hearing, it sounds like O’Byrne’s line of work is ‘Human Resources, plus’. What is it he hopes to bring to the region, and, more specifically, Qatar? “Mercer wants to bring global best practice in HR to the region, customise it to an organisation, its lifestyle and its culture. This is a discipline that crosses numerous sectors: natural resources, telecoms, FMCG, hospitality and local government.
Qatari resilience
Tom O’Byrne Mercer’s Head of Marketing Development, GCC 50
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“In the GCC, as a whole there is a focus on scaling up the capability of workforces through various HR factors to keep pace with the aggressive business objectives in this market. It’s a high growth market so there is a lot of pressure on developing businesses.” Of Qatar in particular, O’Byrne says, “The Qatari market has shown a resilience when compared to the
UAE. Doha is using the market reality to position itself as an equal player, effectively and aggressively in all the HR methods of transformation.” How would Mercer manifest itself in improving a company’s HR? What are the most common methods Mercer employs? “Mercer is a human capital consulting firm. Human capital is as important to a business as financial capital.” “In the execution of our operating methods (see over), Mercer uses its own information products – a core part of our business is survey data from a massive range of global markets – and uses this to examine trends and provide accurate data which can be applied to HR requirements,” says O’Byrne. “If someone comes to Mercer and says, ‘we need to know what we should be paying our people in 2010 in Qatar’ then we need to be able to tell them. We can do this through the application of data we obtain in the course of our work, real numbers from real organisations. We get this information because people trust us,” says O’Byrne. It’s quite unusual – and always interesting – to learn of vertically integrated companies, especially when information gleaned in the furtherance of a paid task can be applied elsewhere, for additional payment.
Generational shifts
Mercer is by far the world’s biggest HR consultancy with annual sales in the billions of dollars and 15,000 employees operating in over 40 countries. Is Qatar showing the appetite seen elsewhere for Mercer’s wares? O’Byrne is adamant that it is, and that demand is growing, even relative to the GCC as a whole. “There is an optimism and a confidence here relative to the rest of the GCC,” he says. “A lot of the partnership activity with clients that
bottom line we have become involved in should be viewed as ‘generational shifts’, big plays to realign the order of things in the GCC. Qatar can do this because they have active government and the resources. Investment in human capital has really kicked off across all sectors in Qatar in the last two to three years.” In aligning themselves with Mercer, Qatari organisations will join the approximately two-thirds of the companies listed on the major stock exchanges of the world: the Nikkei Dow, the DAX, the NYSE. O’Byrne is keen to stress, however, that size is not a prerequisite to working with Mercer, explaining that in recent visits to Doha he has talked shop with one organisation just 50 people strong and another of 2,500 employees ‘famous for its labels’. His reticence to confirm the name of the organisation lends weight to O’Byrne’s claim that, “The reason Mercer gets called in is because we are trusted to be confidential. We have a strong client base here and across the GCC but just as importantly, we are very protective of what we do – for all the right reasons. It’s our relationship with our clients that holds our business together.” The company’s impressive numbers indicate that business is going well and there is an appetite for their services in this region. What will Qatari companies be doing in five years’ time that they are not doing now? “HR function and HR professionals will be thinking much more in line with what the business needs. We will see a more educated HR professional, a more experienced HR professional – more respected, more strategic and business focused. We see that already in this country and some good practices being shared and so we see that developing rapidly.
A geographic presence
“Qatari businesses want to become regional businesses and expand into global businesses, to go to the next level. We like to see ourselves as the best practitioners. The relationship we have with Qatar customers is long-term – it needs to be longterm to realise business objectives. Mercer has 50+ people working in the GCC with a mix of languages and areas of expertise. That we have a geographic presence in the 52
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O’Byrne speaks of the Mercer ‘standards’ in enhancing a company’s HR and he tells us that there are four ‘methods’ which are most frequently applied: Human capital strategy – help HR and company leadership align their strategies over one, three, five years. Address talent attraction [recruitment], growth and organisation design. Rewards – while this usually means money, it does not mean exclusively so. In a contract between an employer and an employee, the financial consideration is always the most important. There are many other considerations, [location, vocation and job security are also mentioned by O’Byrne] but money is at the top. There are a range of financial and non-financial tools and programmes which can help a company’s HR achieve the business goals – compensations, benefits programmes, incentives/ commission for retail employees, long-term incentives for senior executives, career development and so on. Health benefits also can be included here – wellness
“In the GCC, there is a focus on scaling up the capability of workforces through various HR factors to keep pace with the aggressive business objectives in this market.” region means that we are able to develop long-term relationships. To those companies that want to ‘get on’, what would you say? “We would suggest a review of ‘people strategy’, of HR programmes, practices and processes. To see what is causing discomfort – is it attracting
and medical programmes and, in this part of the world, time off to take part in Ramadan charity programmes for example. Talent – doing all we can with the business and HR leadership to attract, develop, retain and motivate the people within the organisation to bring results. This involves processes such as performance management and succession management – the latter relevant here with the relatively high percentage of familyowned businesses. Operations and technology – maximising the effectiveness of HR processes; holiday entitlement processing and administration, HR procedures and practices for example, even things like the employee handbook; handling the ‘micro dimensions’ needed to make judgements around HR. The technology aspect of this method is how the use of IT in an organisation can increase its impact on and effectiveness of strategy in HR systems. Examples of this include automated holiday, salary and performance level systems.
the right people? Keeping the right people? Have a look at what is keeping your CEO awake at night. It could be any number of things but the questions I would ask and would suspect that any ‘discomfort’ has to do with would be the people dimensions of an organisation. “Efficient HR is not just a Qatar challenge, but a global challenge in an era where talent mobility is more prevalent than ever, the way in which organisations attract and retain their people is more critical today than it ever has been,” says O’Byrne. The employee has always known that the human resource is the organisation’s most valuable asset. Now, it seems, the employer is beginning to realise it too n