Glassdoor is your free inside look at Mercer reviews and ratings — including employee satisfaction and approval rating for Mercer CEO Julio A. Portalatin. All 428 reviews posted anonymously by Mercer employees.
85% of the CEO
Julio A. Portalatin
Current Employee – been working at Mercer full-time for more than 10 years
Pros – Work with and learn from lots of smart folks with deep expertise. Many interesting, complex and challenging projects for some of the largest, most sophisticated clients. Gain business acumen while participating in efforts that have significant real-world impacts.
Cons – Like many large companies, probably more bureaucracy, structure and systems than necessary.
Advice to Senior Management – Unclutter. Simplify. Reinvest. Let people have the tools and flexibility to amaze clients and exceed expectations.
Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company
2013-04-30 19:36 PDT
Current Employee – been working at Mercer full-time for less than a year
Pros – Pretty easy going group of people
Cons – Need to up their salary and bonus pools. Make more room for growth and create more job opportunities.
Advice to Senior Management – Need to compensate employees more or else they will continue to lose good yiung employess.
No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company
2013-04-22 21:33 PDT
Former Employee – worked at Mercer
Pros – Great people who are incredibly helpful; you'll learn a lot right off the bat. A lot of responsibility early on.
Cons – Client-focused (could be good or bad), A lot of repetitive work for first few years.
Advice to Senior Management – More meritocracy, look to expand into other business areas.
2013-04-16 10:55 PDT
Former Employee – worked at Mercer full-time for more than a year
Pros – Over all pay and benefits good.
Cons – Lack of promotion opportunity for advancement
Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend
2013-04-16 06:06 PDT
Current Employee – been working at Mercer full-time for more than 8 years
Pros – The people are very smart and committed to excellent client service. It can be a very strong foundation for a career at Mercer or with its clients.
Cons – The matrix organization is complex and bureaucatic. There is also a fairly high administrative and process burden that can distract from doing good work.
Advice to Senior Management – Eliminate or tone down all the distractions and you'd have better business results and happier people.
Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend
2013-04-10 17:46 PDT
Current Employee – been working at Mercer for more than 7 years
Pros – Stable...as long as you know one of the girls in charge
Cons – -Outdated technology
-Views employees as expenses not investments
-Management is very aged and set in their ways
Advice to Senior Management – Leave
No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company
2013-04-06 14:28 PDT
2 people found this helpful
Former Employee – worked at Mercer as a contractor for less than a year
Pros – The people you work with are nice and usually intelligent. They will train you on things you know nothing about and the company is prestigious and will look good on your resume. Most are happy to help, which is in large part why Mercer is known for customer service. You will learn a lot by working here at the very least and gain a lot of transferable skills. There is a lot of opportunity for overtime, and the permanent benefits are nice if they don't drag you out for a year as a temp like some. There is a good amount of promoting from within, but...it's usually like the private in the army being promoted to captain when his whole squad gets killed.
Cons – It's a call center, so if you don't know what that means, make sure you research before you accept the job here. The generally feeling is half will quit and the other half will be asked to leave, and the remaining couple of people will maybe last a year or two. Of a 20 person team there are about 3 left after 5-6 months. Even the supervisors get sick of the atmosphere. You might get lucky and get a low volume gate with super nice people calling, or you'll take 100 calls a day of nightmares. Speaking of those, you will start to have them every time you fall asleep. I am glad I worked there, but its a sign that something's wrong when you legit hope you get in an accident on your way to work everyday.
The biggest issue for the qualified employees is you just have to be lucky to get promoted. It really is right place, right time at Mercer; hard, quality work will see you continue to take calls while your inexperienced co-worker who gets 5 calls a day gets promoted because he was sitting near a manager who needed an analyst. Some management is good, and the others are good at deterring you from asking questions and IMing you about limiting your wrap and idle time. If you don't like fighting with a bureaucracy whenever you try to innovate or take the initiative, don't work here. If you enjoy taking calls from people whose insurance gets inexplicably dropped at least 3 times a year (or 3 times in a month), this is the place for you.
The reason I left was because Mercer takes good employees and ruins them. I saw quite a few quality workers develop unprofessional habits just during my several months there. Some honestly hope and even try to get fired. Most won't fully realize how bad it is since for many reps it is their first 'real' job, but this can be a plus once you start your second because you will never have stress like this again.
Advice to Senior Management – You should probably start caring about your employees, and I'm not talking about giving them a 401k match. Everyone knows what needs to change at Mercer but it's nobody's job to change it. Stop promoting a culture of "covering your assets" and promote a culture of mutual responsibility and teamwork. Recognize who is doing a good job and hire and retain more people like them instead of shoveling replacements into the void when they eventually leave. I also almost forgot to mention that the technology is almost as bad as the atmosphere.
No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company
2013-03-21 16:57 PDT
Current Employee – been working at Mercer full-time for more than 3 years
Pros – From an IT services perspective, Mercer HR Outsourcing is very tech heavy and encourages employees to find ways to use technology to make the business better. This in turn provides lots of exposure to different projects and opportunities. Career advancement is possible for employees that are willing to work hard and own their own career path. Some managers are able to compensate for lack of monetary compensation with job flexibility.
Cons – Compensation is not at current market levels.
Advice to Senior Management – Invest in your people more. The turnover rate is high even for top performers and most of the people I asked leave because of compensation. They can either be paid more for the same job at a competitor or there were no raises or bonuses paid for too many years.
Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend
2013-03-11 13:15 PDT
Current Employee – been working at Mercer full-time for less than a year
Pros – As a call center representative there are plenty of opportunities to move around and learn multiple lines of business such as health and benefits, 401k, pension, etc. If you continue to focus and do your job, you will be recognized and have plenty of opportunities to better yourself and move up. Coming in as a temp employee, i was quickly transitioned to a permanent employee with generous pay and benefits within 6 short months. Staff is fun and friendly and is always available to answer your questions when you need them.
Cons – Like any company, technical issues such as upgrading software could be improved but they are working on that. Also, being on the phone all day can be exhausting but it is the job description and if you are a generally perky person than this will be no problem. People can be mean at times, but a majority of people are a delight to work with over the phone.
Advice to Senior Management – Keep temporary employees in the loop during the busy season on their status with the job. Even after the busy season, let people know before they start looking elsewhere.
Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company
2013-03-02 15:19 PST
Current Employee – been working at Mercer full-time for more than 10 years
Pros – Interesting work, great company culture.
Cons – Comp and advancement can be slow.
Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend
2013-02-27 09:21 PST
Mercer is a global provider of human resources solutions and world leader in helping organizations leverage the power of their people to achieve peak performance. If you thrive on challenge, are passionate about ideas… — Full Overview
Provided by employer [?]
This is the employer's chance to tell you why you should work for them. The information provided is from their perspective.
Would you like us to review something? Please describe the problem with this {0} and we will look into it.
We're sorry but your feedback didn't make it to the team. Your input is valuable to us – would you mind trying again?
Your response will be removed from the review – this cannot be undone.
Copyright © 2008–2013, Glassdoor. All Rights Reserved. Your use of this service is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy & Cookies Policy. Glassdoor ® is a registered trademark of Glassdoor, Inc.
Simply post an anonymous review for a current/former employer or recent interview experience. Your post is anonymous – and if you're worried someone will be able to identify your review, you can even post without telling us your job title and location. Learn More.
No thanks – I'll just look around