Aon-Hewitt, formed with the $4.9 billion merger of HR firm Hewitt Associates with insurance brokerage Aon Corp, is eyeing to grab a share in the Indian market.
Aon-Hewitt plans to raise its headcount to 20,000 in India over the next three to four years against 8,000 at present. The company looks to tap the market with new recruits, fresh branding strategies and acquiring potential regional customers.
?Currently, one third (8,000) of Hewitt employees are based in India, but we aim to be a third of Hewitt ?Aon (20,000) in the next three to four years,? said Arjun Singh, senior vice-president & MD (Asia-Pacific), Aon-Hewitt. The global headcount of Hewitt is at 25,000 and for Aon it is 60,000.
Aon Corp has a captive in Bangalore which has 250 people at present. ?This merger will help in establishing a captive for Aon in India, with the assistance of our mature platform,? Singh told FE. Last year alone, Hewitt Associates signed 55 new customer deals in India. Hewitt has a strong presence in India, where its domestic HRO business services around 265 clients out of a total of 320. However, the regional (only India presence) clients of the company account for more than 50% of Hewitt customers. The Indian market, Singh noted, has started maturing, as more clients seek services beyond payroll and benefits (P&B), progressing to employee data management and other HR transactions.
A major repercussion of this merger is on the branding strategy of Hewitt which will now be consumer centric. ?We have been concentrating on a business to business (B2B) branding strategy as our customers are primarily business leaders. Our focus will now be to create awareness of Aon-Hewitt as a brand in the Indian market amongst the talent available in the country,? said Singh.
The two firms will bring their strengths in consulting, benefits administration and business process outsourcing to their clients not only in the consulting space, but also to the clients in the risk and reinsurance space as well, which creates the benefit of cross-selling. Based on 2009 revenues, the three leaders in HRO, combined with consulting space, would be Aon-Hewitt with $4.4 billion, followed by Mercer ($3.3 billion) and Towers Watson with $3.1 billion.