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Mercer, a leading player in the talent acquisition space, is looking to expand its footprint in the health, retirement, and investment research areas in India, said Anish Sarkar, Country Leader, India Consulting, Mercer.
It is open to inorganic growth, Sarkar said, hinting that there was the possibility of a couple of small acquisitions over the next 18 months. The company is also open to exploring strategic alliances with other players in those areas, he said. Mercer India currently has about 100 consultants on its payrolls. Mercer also operates a back office for its global operations with about 2,500 people in Noida and Gurgaon. Asked about the growth outlook for its India business, Sarkar was optimistic that the rising trend of mergers and acquisitions (domestic as well as cross-border) would see volumes pick up after a relatively stagnant period. He expected consolidation in the e-commerce segment as well as auto, pharma, FMCG and heavy engineering. On the HR challenges faced by top Indian corporates, Sarkar said that although business had grown, their ‘people practices’ had not kept pace with the changes and were still ‘primitive’. There was often no clear role definition or understanding of critical roles in an enterprise. Many companies are also struggling with their middle layer that needs re-skilling. In many enterprises, this problem lay dormant but had now come to the fore because they had reached a certain size. These enterprises now felt the need to set up proper processes and systems, he said. His advice to middle managers was to invest in personal development and be aware of what the company expects from them at different points of time.
Asked about how companies should deal with the challenges of attrition with a young workforce, Sarkar said, “Don’t fight the inevitable.” He said companies should focus on getting the maximum out of their young work force, while also grooming them and improving their marketability even if it meant that they left for better opportunities within a few years.
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