Future of work Transformation

Operating by Design: An outcomes model for perpetual change

This is a living operating model. Future updates, tools, and examples will continue to be added.

For decades, human resources (HR) was built to optimize two scarcities: time and skills. So we built the holy trinity of HR — Business Partners, Centres of Excellence (COEs), Shared Services — and called it good. And for a minute, it was.

Functional, respectable, outdated. The corporate equivalent of a flip phone.

Artificial intelligence (AI) creates the very capacity the old HR model was built to ration. The new bottlenecks are far more human: quality data, AI fluency, governance, discernment, and — the biggie — trust.

Design around yesterday’s limits and you’ll keep getting yesterday’s outcomes. Start from the future instead. Decide what outcomes matter, then assemble the right humans, machines, and intelligent workflows to make them real.

This paper shows you what that looks like. It’s time to retire the flip phone and design like you know AI exists.

The problem in one line

Centralize, standardize, segregate, and specialize

Those answers won in yesterday’s world — but now they can slow decisions, fragment data and hide accountability. Modern organizations need result-first design, flexible teams, and trustworthy AI controls.

What's inside & what's coming next

Nine paradigm shifts defining the New Operating Model
The structural anatomy you can start implementing today:
- Digital fabric
- Outcome Delivery Teams (ODTs)
- Domain expertise
- Enablement services
- AI empowerment centre
Practical scenarios illustrating the model in action
Examples, questions and prompts for applying the model in your context
A glide path to pilot outcomes without overhauling existing systems

How the model works

Who this model is for

This model is built for perpetual change and for scale. It works whether you run a small organization or a global enterprise. You can start in one function (HR or IT) and prove value and expand the approach across the business to include all functions. It’s for Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs), C-suite leaders, Information Technology (IT) heads and anyone responsible for making work and technology deliver real results.

Why Mercer

Mercer helps design, pilot and scale outcomes driven models that derisk AI, modernize essential services, and create measurable business impact. We bring playbooks for AI governance, ODT pilots, budget redesign and leader enablement so leaders become “wisdom workers” who make better tradeoffs faster.

Too Long; Didn't Read your way

We know this point of view (POV) is deep. It’s meant to, because transformation isn’t surface-level. But if you’d like a quick tailored summary, copy and paste this prompt into your generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) of choice, “Summarize Mercer’s operating by design paper from the perspective of [a insert your role and title]. Highlight the key impacts for my function, what actions I should consider, and how this model could change the way we work.”

This is human and machine teaming in action, spoiler alert, a foundational paradigm of the new model.

A new chapter begins