Denise Bell Email & Phone Number

Lisle, Illinois, United States

Greater Chicago Area

Led and/or supported business development, project delivery, project management, and client relationship management for a variety of talent strategy client engagements, exceeding sales and billable hours goals. Co-led inclusion assessment of performance management practices for a recreational automotive client. Facilitated HR leader workshop and conducted executive interviews to assess current state. Reviewed processes and practices, identified processes that were leading, on-trend or lagging, and provided recommendations. Co-facilitated over 20 virtual allyship training workshops for a power and energy company. Led courageous discussions to build confidence in showing up as an ally. Trained 50-80 executives/managers per workshop. Led succession planning initiative for a healthcare client. Facilitated discussions to identify critical roles, clarify role criteria, identify successors and their readiness, review successors leveraging the 9-box, and capture development actions. Facilitated a “how to” workshop with Americas Executive Leadership Team of an industrial manufacturer on establishing a rotational program. Evaluated HR processes with a DEI lens during a Workday deployment readiness project for a financial services client. Led project management for HR transformation engagements for clients in various industries. Conducted c-suite and executive stakeholder interviews to determine current state. Facilitated engaging workshops leveraging virtual tools to drive information gathering, discussions, and solution co-creation. Managed project plan and budgets. Directed work of junior consultants. Oversaw Chicago Office Diversity Taskforce of 20+ Mercer consultants with goal of increasing diverse consultant representation. Partnered with local universities to build Mercer brand and relationships with diverse students. Mobilized taskforce members to host information sessions and to volunteer at mock interview sessions, resume workshops, and virtual/live career fairs.

Greater Chicago Area

Collaborated with US Career Leadership Team and Career Office Business Leaders to create talent development strategies as well as to plan and deliver learning, career development, and onboarding programs for Mercer consultants at all levels within US and Canada Career consulting business (over 1000 colleagues in more than 10 offices). Brought structure to learning practices. Designed and delivered leadership development experience for Partner level consultants which fostered strategic alignment, client perspectives, skill building, and collaboration. Partners from across the US and Canada attended this in-person event. Created promotion guidelines for Career consultants, which increased transparency around what it takes to get promoted from one level to the next as well as increased promotion decision consistency. Guidelines became widely used by Career people managers and consultants during year-end review and development planning discussions. Designed and launched virtual college hire onboarding program that included pre-boarding learning communications, over 40 virtual training sessions, and a microsite to support remote working post training. Microsite idea was adopted by other business units. Wrote and delivered communications highlighting learning resources by level to drive self-directed learning. Tapped by Chicago Office Leader to launch Chicago Office Diversity Taskforce to accelerate diversity recruiting in office.

Greater Chicago Area

Delivered live and virtual learning events for US and Canadian Career consultants. Designed, planned, and delivered in-person New Hire, Intermediate, and Principal Sales Training events. Conducted learning assessments and aligned with leadership on training objectives. Managed participant nominations, trainer/speaker selection, content and materials creation, trainer prep, overall project management, course/program delivery, and post evaluation. Directed other resources for logistics planning. Managed City Rotation Program and a Hackathon event for early career consultants (US and Canada). Both programs drove engagement as well as development of junior consultants. Partnered with vendor to develop four e-learning modules on project management, which are offered globally via LMS.

Greater Chicago Area

Collaborated with Central Market Leader to design and implement talent strategy initiatives for all colleagues working within the market across business units/matrix. Encouraged and upported employee resource group (ERG) expansion in additional offices within market by coaching colleagues on launching ERGs. Drove increased collaboration & idea sharing across ERGs to promote growth and maximize impact. Elevated people manager skills by delivering targeted training, in partnership with Global Talent & Inclusion COE. Oversaw 10-person engagement committee that launched new initiatives addressing engagement survey feedback around recognition, communications, and colleague development. Analyzed engagement survey data for the market with team and leadership. Facilitated listening sessions to dive deeper on results. Findings informed initiatives that were launched. Designed “training in a box” modules to enhance client manager relationship building and selling skills. Piloted Diversity Summit event to introduce local college students from underrepresented groups to consulting at Mercer with goal of building a more diverse college hire pipeline. Event led to diverse actuarial and investment consulting analyst hires.

Greater Chicago Area

Advised North America HR Leaders on implementing Mercer's various talent management processes around performance management, engagement, leadership development, consultant training, and diversity & inclusion within the businesses/functions they support. Leveraged findings from annual learning assessment to develop training strategy, course offerings, and schedules within budget. Assisted with data collection and facilitation of the NA Region Leadership Team talent review meeting. Oversaw roll-out of Inclusive Leadership training. Identified leaders to co-present with training vendor, promoted sessions, and managed enrollment. Advised 6 ERGs on co-chair changes, executive sponsor identification, leadership responsibilities, and available resources. Served as co-chair of Chicago Office Racial Ethnic & Diversity ERG. Planned and hosted cultural and educational activities.

Greater Chicago Area

Led full-cycle recruiting across multiple consulting practices and offices within Central & Midwest markets. Progressed through roles, taking on recruitment responsibilities for more complex/senior roles. Helped leaders translate business needs into recruiting strategies given market trends and guided hiring managers through process. Regularly communicated progress throughout the search. Managed candidates through screening, assessment, interviewing, legal review of non-compete agreements, offer, negotiation, hiring, and background checks. Drove candidate sourcing with eye on best qualified candidates as well as diverse representation. Mobilized recruiting team to plan Mercer’s first Diversity Networking Event for experienced Chicago-area consulting talent. Event created pipeline of diverse talent and resulted in several hires.

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Led client-facing retained and contingent search engagements with some of the nation’s leading firms with a heavy focus on experienced MBA recruiting in the consumer-packaged goods and services industries. Recipient of Top Recruiter Award. Advised clients of market trends and collaborated on recruiting strategy. Managed client relationships and delivered high level of service which led to long term relationships.

Bs, Industrial Engineering & Management Science

Mba, Marketing

Activities and Societies: Consortium for Graduate Study in Management Alumni