Global HR consulting firm Mercer has entered into a partnership with Crunchr, a Netherlands-based HR Tech company specialized in people analytics and workforce planning. 

The deal will enable Crunchr to accelerate its ambitions given that Mercer is active in more than 40 countries. For Mercer, the alliance bolsters its data science services to its clients.

Crunchr was founded in 2014 and has since grown to a team of around 20 professionals. The company provides software that analyses human capital data and translates insights into strategic information for executives and HR leaders. 

As per Dirk Jonker, founder of Crunchr, it collects and validates ‘people data’ to come to important insights. The analyses are presented in multidimensional reports, and a built-in function helps users with translating these insights into actions.

Jonker stated, “While there is a clear business case for workforce analytics, we see in practice that it requires time and effort to use effectively. Mercer’s consultants can help our customers make this integration fast and smooth. We are pleased that we have found a strategic partner that can realize this at an international level.” 

One of the areas for which Crunchr can be used is finding inconsistencies in employee data. Another area the software supports is strategic workforce planning for critical positions in a company, such as senior management, HR functions draft succession plans. Crunchr uses the many succession plans in a corporate – large international companies make a few thousand of such plans at a decentralized level – as input for a workforce planning algorithm. By running the algorithm when needed, companies are no longer dependent on outdated plans, while data can also be updated to reflect the most actual situation.

David Sanderse, the CEO of Mercer in the Netherlands stated that by collaborating with Crunchr, the HR consulting firm will enhance its ability to provide clients with a fact-based approach to measuring human capital return on investment. 

Sanderse added, “Organizations believe in the added value of workforce analytics, but are slow with integration. By combining Mercer's workforce data with Crunchr's technology, we can help our clients translate their HR objectives into concrete actions.”

For Crunchr, the partnership also means that the startup will be able to tap into the global network of Mercer, which is expected to provide a range of commercial opportunities.