We wanted to make sure you were aware of an exciting development which was announced on Wednesday. Birches Group has entered into an exclusive collaboration with Aon Hewitt, one of the world’s leading human capital consultancies. (Click here for the press release.) The Birches-Aon collaboration will greatly expand the reach of Birches Group surveys, offering clients of both firms high quality labor market data in the developing world. With the addition of Birches Group surveys, Aon Hewitt will now offer market data in over 180 countries—more than any other survey provider.
Birches Group is now an exclusive, collaborative partner of Aon Hewitt, but will remain an independent firm, with the same management team and staff. Our surveys will continue to be conducted as they always have been, using personal interviews with each participating employer, and relying on Birches Group staff to ensure job matching is accurate and reliable. With 148 countries across five continents, Birches Group continues to be the leading source of market information in the developing world.
NGO Local Pay will continue without change – the approach, scheduling, methodology and pricing will remain exactly as before. We expect that our multi-sector surveys will have increased participation and therefore, provide an even more valuable market reference for those clients that use this data, or create custom profiles that mix NGO and multi-sector data. Over time, we hope to be able to leverage our new relationship with Aon Hewitt to provide additional services in areas where they have expertise that we do not, such as issues related to benefits financing and pension plan compliance.
This collaboration is a key indicator of how important developing markets have become to global businesses. The globalization of business is continuing at a rapid pace, despite the economic slowdown in Western Europe and the US. Global multi-nationals as well as new multi-nationals from countries such as India, China and Brazil are expanding aggressively into new developing country markets, making labor conditions even more competitive and challenging for development organizations.
Together with our collaborative partners – InsideNGO and People In Aid, Birches Group remains well-positioned to be your source of market data in any developing country market. Our surveys are designed specifically to capture the market conditions that prevail in the developing world, and have been tested by the leading public and private employers that operate there.
We are very excited to announce this development to our clients and friends, and hope we will continue to have the privilege to continue to work with each of you in the coming months. Should you have any questions regarding this announcement, please contact us.
January, 2012
