 The company also began an autism hiring initiative in 2015 and pledged to hire qualified refugees during the 2016 European migrant crisis.In the late 1990s, Mercer Management Consulting introduced substantial new benefits to employees to better compete with the e-commerce industry for top graduates.Former Vice Chairman James Down noted that "[h]istorically, it's been all the major consulting firms and all the major investment banks going after the best and brightest... now that e-commerce firms have joined the fray, we certainly have lost some very good people."