TRS Success Story

Indonesian conglomerate Astra International uses Mercer's Total Remuneration Survey data to develop a talent strategy that has attracted and retained top talent for the past 20 years. 

Before Astra International teamed up with Mercer in the 1990s, several Human resources (HR) staff were dedicated to just conducting salary surveys for the organization. They wanted to ensure that their employees were paid fairly based on their job roles and performance.

However, this approach required significant time and effort from the team - time that could have been better spent on more strategic initiatives. 

“They used to gather data on the cost of living and desired benefits from all our branches across Indonesia,” says Ema Poedjiwati, the head of human capital at Astra International.

“The business was about half the size it is now and was only involved in two industries – now we’re across seven!”

Today, Astra has interests in automotive, financial services, mining and construction, agribusiness, infrastructure and logistics, IT, and property, and has 198,000 employees across 270 subsidiary businesses. 

“We have so many sectors in our portfolio,” Poedjiwati says. “Thus, we need to be up to date on each industry to offer the fairest remuneration package. That's why we participate in Mercer’s Total Remuneration Survey (TRS).

“The TRS has reliable data and the most comprehensive survey data across all the industries we operate in. The insights from the data help inform our remuneration benchmarking and salary adjustments.”

Staying competitive in the market 

What's important for a conglomerate like Astra International? Benchmarking their rewards data based on market developments. 

And what makes it difficult to attract and retain top talent? If employee expectations aren't met.

“That’s why market data is so important for us,” says Poedjiwati. We need it as a benchmark to create a compensation and benefits strategy that ensures we stay competitive in the market."

Now Astra leverages TRS’s insights to: 

• determine annual HR budgets
• stay updated on market trends and developments 
• analyze work-from-home policies
• find out where it stands against its competitors; and
• propose rewards package recommendations to management

“If we don't use the TRS data, we have to rely on our own research, and we can't be sure if it's valid because it comes from unvaried and unsolicited sources,” says Poedjiwati.

“Figuring out the right level of compensation, thanks to TRS, has helped us create a competitive and attractive reward strategy,” Poedjiwati says.