Mercer’s enhanced product and service offerings

Many of you already know me, but for those that do not, my name is Ilya Bonic and I lead Mercer's Information Product Solutions business (IPS). I would like to take a moment to personally welcome the former-ORC clients to the Mercer family, and share what Mercer's acquisition of ORC means to all of us.

The acquisition has expanded our presence in Europe, the US, Canada and Asia Pacific making us the preeminent provider of international compensation and global mobility consulting services worldwide. With information from over 1,000 firms, our multi-national global mobility policies and practices database enables us to evaluate, benchmark and design policies that help you meet your business objectives. Whether you are seeking to do a cost evaluation, design a localization policy, or evaluate how mobility impacts your business performance, Mercer can help.

We are actively reviewing Mercer and ORC’s combined suite of product and service offerings so we can help you understand all of the available options and recommend comprehensive solutions to your mobility needs. During and after the integration, you will continue to have access to the same quality data, consulting services, and support as always. This includes contact with the same people who have provided you service in the past.

The remainder of my message provides an update on the progress and decisions that have been made on the integration of many of our mobility products so far. We will continue to keep you up to date on this information through webinars and formal communications such as this, however do not hesitate to reach out to me or your Mercer consultant with questions at any time.

Ilya Bonic

Product integration update

Prepared by Geoffrey Latta and Carlos A. Mestre, both Partners at Mercer and leaders of the combined Global Mobility services at Mercer.

Cost-of-living (goods and services) indexes
It is our intention to preserve both ORC’s traditional home based and Mercer’s international based cost-of-living indices. The difference in methodologies provides alternative solutions to clients dealing with the complexities of global compensation management, and together represent the richest array of data options available in the market.

Goods and services spendable income and weights
Spendable income and weights are critical to the index design and allowance recommendations, so we will be preserving both organizations’ sets of data.

Housing norms
Housing norm data explains the appropriate portion of the base salary typically spent in the home country on housing. As both organizations provide similar data, we are examining the potential of integrating the two into one solution that provides clients with the same data they have always received but with additional options and locations.

Host location rental housing
Mercer and ORC’s rental housing data is similar in respect to design and level. This provides us the opportunity to collect a richer stream of data and offer clients an enhanced suite of housing products.

Mercer clients now have the option to purchase the Real-Time Rent Check (RTRC) service launched to ORC clients earlier this year. This service provides up to the minute host location rental housing information at a client’s request. Access to the combined database of housing information means significant expansion in the number of locations for which the RTRC service is available.

Taxes
Slight differentiation in the assumptions used by the two companies to prepare hypothetical tax data provides our clients with a range of options. Each option’s methodology is adapted to fit the specific characteristics of the COL indices used. Mercer’s approach when calculating gross to net is based on standard deductions while ORC’s approach includes additional deductions. Due to the impact these assumptions have on net and spendable income, we will maintain the two approaches providing clients with a wider range of options and consistency in the application of these tax tables.

Mercer produces tax reports in nearly 90 countries around the world and our easy to use approach now enables ORC clients to also quickly estimate tax and social security costs when doing net to gross calculations. Subscribers receive this data on an ongoing basis.

Short-term assignee pay
As Mercer and ORC integrate, subscribers now have access to more robust short-term (typically 3-12 months) expatriate pay data.

Hardship allowance
Mercer and ORC have two separate products designed to help clients determine an appropriate hardship allowance for their expatriates—the ORC Location Evaluation Reports and the Mercer Quality of Living Reports. These reports use different approaches and philosophies to determine hardship payments. It is our intention to continue to provide both products and work with clients to decide which approach is best-suited to their situation.
Mercer’s approach is a home city to host city approach to measure the differences in quality of living while ORC’s approach is a host country based approach, regardless of base city.

Education
Subscribers will have access to a list of international schools and the costs associated with them. Cost information includes tuition fees at kindergarten, primary and secondary school levels, as well as typical fees.

Business travel cost
Mercer and ORC’s separate products will be integrated into one enhanced offering with a wider range of locations. This combined offering will include information on business travel costs such as food and lodging.

Car information
While historically Mercer has provided clients with information on typical company car practices in various countries, ORC has provided information on purchase and lease costs. We anticipate bringing these two products together into one comprehensive offering.

Compensation data
As the leading provider of compensation data, Mercer provides subscribers access to diverse industry analyses and survey data choices.

Mercer is looking forward to releasing the WIN platform, a state of the art web-based portal that facilitates survey analysis, job pricings and global compensation comparisons. WIN will allow our clients to access compensation data in over 70 countries around the world.

Global Insights
Mercer continues to expand its offering with in-depth reports and analyses on a wide range of international HR subjects including the Worldwide Benefits and Employment Guide (WBEG), which provides a wealth of information on statutory benefits and employment conditions in 60 countries around the world.

You will become familiar with this expanded library over the coming weeks as we begin to include ORC reports and publications.

MercerPassport
MercerPassport is a country-based service that provides valuable information to expatriates adapting to their assignment locations. This service, which can be hosted on your company’s intranet, can now be purchased by former-ORC clients.

Client websites
It is our intention to enhance Mercer’s existing web capabilities and transition the combined client portfolio to a single-access point that will allow much more robust functionality. This is not a short-term process, but we believe that during 2011 you will see a significant enhancement in capability that would not have been possible without the two organizations coming together.

Participate today
The Worldwide Survey of International Assignment Policies and Practices covers more than 15 international assignment topics and has the largest participant base in the market with nearly 1,000 multinational participants–including the top 10 Fortune 500 companies.

Participation means you receive a FREE region-specific question-by-question analysis report and executive summary with the option to purchase the all-region report for $400 USD and/or custom reports by industry, comparator group, or expatriate population size for $1,375 USD. Click here for more information.