BrazilMiddle East CEO Mustafa Faizani on Mercer's footprint in the region
Mustafa Faizani, the CEO of Mercer for India, Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (IMETA), reflects on the firm’s footprint and service portfolio in the region.
Placing people at the core
As a global leader in Health, Wealth, and Career, Mercer is driven to solve complex problems and find new ways to make a positive impact. “Creating better outcomes for the clients we serve is our guiding principle. Our clients' success is the true measure of our success. We have touched 110 million lives globally and offer regional and hyperlocal support to all of our markets. Especially within the Middle East, we have taken global intellectual capital and localised it to help our clients. Health, wealth, and career challenges, including but not limited to managing rising labour costs, developing the skills of local national employees and matching employer demand with talent supply – are influencing how organisations operate and manage their people throughout the Middle East,” said Mustafa Faizani.
“Our expertise and ability to apply data-driven research, analysis and insights, allows us to bring greater value to our clients. We are especially recognised for our Human Resources solutions in the region [IMETA], as we help our clients with talent strategy, workforce rewards and planning, workforce analytics and productivity, employee engagement and compensation benchmarking. One of our leading research initiatives, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, details that 50 per cent of the skill sets individuals possess today will not be applicable in the next four years. Adopting digital skillsets will be critical to remaining competitive.” 
Driving digital transformation
“In response to the ongoing digital transformation taking place across international markets, we launched Mercer Digital. This unifying brand provides our clients digital solutions to automate HR processes, helps our clients engage with their talent, meets changing workforce needs, and supports their people in achieving better health and financial well-being. For example, one of our data-driven apps, Mercer Match, applies psychometric analytics to accurately identify the right candidate based on client specifications. Already proven successful in North America, we are deploying it in Saudi Arabia and with some of our clients here in the UAE,” explained Faizani.
In addition to the various solutions within Mercer's wealth domain, their private client investment consulting team specialises in the formation and implementation of financial strategies developed to meet the unique objectives of each family. “We work with clients to establish family offices, investment plans and processes to effectively manage inter-generational family wealth. Our analytical rigour, insights and global expertise allow us to create comprehensive, tailor-made solutions for our clients' needs.”
“With a firm-wide focus on innovation, Mercer is dedicated to and specialises in planning effectively for change in health, wealth, career platforms where policy changes and shifting workforce demographics abound. Lastly, our global reach ensures we can deliver the right solutions, anytime, anywhere,” Faizani added.
About Mercer
Founded in 1945, Mercer spearheaded operations from Canada as an actuarial and benefits consulting firm. In 1959, Mercer was acquired by Marsh & McLennan Companies. The consulting firm has since expanded through growth and acquisition to become a global leader in Health, Wealth, and Career.
Expansion into the U.S. and across North America and Europe ensued throughout the '70s and '80s. The '90s marked Mercer's global expansion into Latin American, Asia, Australia, and Eastern European markets. By 2000, Mercer entered the Middle East, Africa and India. With 21,000+ colleagues, 26,000+ clients and offices in 140 countries, Mercer is a dominant brand across the world, and is rapidly growing throughout growth economies including the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
