Thomas L Elliott, chief operating officer
| Pages | 6-6 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14754390980000990 |
| Published date | 21 October 2007 |
| Date | 21 October 2007 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
Thomas L Elliott
is chief operating officer at
Mercer Human Resource
Consulting. He has 26 years’ consulting and leadership
experience, and was previously president of Unisys
Corporation’s Global Commercial Industries unit.
6Volume 6 Issue 5 July/August 2007
PRACTITIONER PROFILE
,
HR executives share their experience in human resources
Thomas L Elliott,
chief operating officer
A
t the start of this year, Thomas L
Elliott joined Mercer Human
Resource Consulting as chief
operating officer. He brought with him
some 26 years’ core consulting and
leadership experience, with previous roles
including president of Unisys
Corporation’s Global Commercial
Industries unit, executive vice president of
global integration at BearingPoint and a
series of executive leadership positions
during 22 years with Arthur Andersen.
This background has given him a wide
range of experience with people issues.
As he explains, not all were pleasurable,
but all contributed to a comprehensive
and valuable learning curve: “When I
joined Arthur Andersen in 1980, its
reputation for integrity set the standard
for public accounting and consulting, a
position it retained for nearly all the 22
years I was associated with the firm. But
in 2002, as a result of prosecution by the
Department of Justice stemming from the
firm’s relationship with Enron, Andersen
was effectively forced out of business.”
Helping people through the crisis
He says: “This was gut-wrenching because
so many of my friends and colleagues
were affected even though they had no
involvement in the actions that brought
down the firm. I was lucky, however,
because I was given an opportunity to
play a positive role in helping those
colleagues land on their feet.
“From 2002 to 2004, I was given the
role of overseeing the integration of
KPMG Consulting, now BearingPoint,
and the Arthur Andersen global business
consulting practice. About half of the
11,000 employees in the business
consulting unit were offered jobs at
BearingPoint, and we were also able to
help a large percentage of the others
find positions so they could continue
their careers. We helped employees from
19 countries, so this was a truly global
effort. Similar initiatives were taking
place in the three other lines of business
that comprised Arthur Andersen.
“I don’t ever want to go through such
an ordeal again, but I learned the
importance of corporate reputation. I
had an opportunity to help colleagues in
a business where the assets – people – go
up and down the elevator each day. In
some ways this experience, painful
though it was, counts as one of the most
professionally rewarding of my career.”
At the heart of the action
Elliott believes that Mercer’s role in
addressing critical HR issues positions
him right at the center of business action
today. He comments: “These issues can
be as broad as the change in global
demographics and the aging population
in many major economies, and as specific
as the need to attract the best
employees in a hot job market such as
China. Companies have unprecedented
challenges and opportunities in a
globally competitive business
environment. Human resource strategy
can make a critical difference in this fast-
changing global marketplace.”
He gives an example: “For many
companies, two of the fastest-growing
areas of cost are health benefits and
retirement benefits. But in contrast to
managing the efficiency of their business
– say, manufacturing costs, distribution
costs, marketing costs – senior executives
tell me that they often feel that these
benefit programs are outside their central
area of expertise. That’s scary. Even if they
spend time focusing on these cost items
they aren’t sure where to start, and they
worry that they will take their eye off
their own business. As HR consultants, we
can help. That is where a firm with the
global expertise and professional insight
of Mercer can really add value.”
Elliott says there are several examples
of challenges he could cite, but the main
point is that “we and our clients in
human resources are where the action is.
It’s stimulating and rewarding to address
issues that are so important to CEOs
around the world, and to contribute to
the competitiveness and success of their
companies in the global marketplace.”
Enjoying the challenge
Challenge is something that Elliott
relishes, and he expects his role at Mercer
to be demanding and enjoyable. He says:
“Our clients expect us not only to have
the best answers for the issues they
currently face, but also to anticipate the
issues that may not yet be very apparent.
In a global marketplace, competition
changes rapidly and the HR challenges
are constantly changing as well. These
can range from the rapidly shifting HR
needs that arise from doing business in
China to changes in technology that
affect the way companies can effectively
manage a global workforce.
“In addition to concentrating on our
clients, I also must think about how we
attract, retain and develop the 17,000
people who work for Mercer. I’ve never
been so challenged and I’ve never had
so much fun.”
© Melcrum publishing 2007.For more information visit our website www.melcrum.com or e-mail info@melcrum.com
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