Mercer and online learning destination edX announced a strategic alliance designed to meld Mercer’s consulting services and edX’s MOOC platform to help organizations “build their workforce for the future.”
The service will be added to Mercer Digital. The companies will curate catalogs of courses based on an employer’s specific objectives to help bridge skill gaps.
“Research shows that just 35 percent of employees’ skills today will be relevant in five years and current jobs will require new skillsets,” Ilya Bonic, senior partner and president of Mercer’s career business, said in a press release. The alliance with edX, he continued, will help organizations transition their workforce through up-skilling and re-skilling.
The announcement came just weeks after Mercer announced a similar arrangement with add Fuel50’s career-pathing to Mercer Digital. According to Bonic, that deal offers employees “a meaningful approach to career planning with an effective digital process,” all in the name of increasing engagement and retention.
Fuel50’s software helps employees take advantage of opportunities within their organization. The company says it provides “a more intuitive assessment” of employees’ current skills and interests, then uncovers opportunities that align with them.
Launched in 2017, Mercer Digital packages the services of several subsidiaries and partners. At the time, Bonic told Employee Benefits News that work on Mercer Digital began after the company studied its 2017 Global Talent Trends survey. He said CEOs were focusing on changing organizations, “and as we dug into it, we understood it as an opportunity for digital technologies.”
We still see Mercer Digital essentially as an effort to keep up with the times, but in a smart way. Mercer’s well-known in the benefits space and, according to Source Media Research, benefits made up a big chunk of planned HCM technology spending during 2017. Since then, employers have put an increasing emphasis on engaging their workers through various channels, and both learning and career planning are big hot buttons with younger workers.
Image: Mercer Digital
