Workforce Strategy & Analytics

Building Evidence Into Your Diversity And Inclusion Strategy


Mercer consults with clients to build diverse workforces and inclusive workplaces in support of compliance, talent optimization, and business growth through innovation. Mercer’s distinct approach to diversity and inclusion combines the latest scientific research with workforce analytics, world-class expertise in leadership and organization performance, and peer-to-peer networking opportunities for our clients.

Three Elements of a Diverse Workforce


Mercer has found the most successful starting point for meaningful conversation with executives is to bring together three elements.

  1. An understanding of the legal and environmental contexts for diversity, which represent business imperatives for change.

  2. Representation data by country, industry and occupation that highlight areas of opportunity and provoke action.

  3. An examination of the organization’s internal labor flow—the process by which an organization attracts, develops, rewards and retains its talent—using Mercer’s proprietary Internal Labor Market (ILM®) tool, with the objective of identifying unique points of risk and areas of opportunity.

Case Study: Evidence + Engagement + Partnership = Success


A professional services organization praised for its diversity programs was not making any progress against its representation goals—and numbers looked weak relative to external benchmarks.

Analysis of its own workforce data and direct engagement with business leaders led to a series of interventions driven by HR to enable diversity:

  • Eliminating ratings in the first year for senior hires to prevent lateral turnover, particularly among diverse employees.
  • Pairing diverse talent with top-rated supervisors and mentors.
  • Proactively marketing critical cross-business and cross-geography experience (for example, training).
  • Conducting regular pay equity assessments to counter diverse exits.
  • Implementing leadership interventions after a maternity leave of absence.

These combined actions put the organization back on its critical path, dramatically improving retention of diverse talent and accelerating its leadership pipeline. 

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