Module- 2

Attracting, Retaining and Developing the Best Consulting Talent

Few industries in the world have undergone as many reincarnations or rechristening post the
Second World War as the Human Resources Department. Human Relations, Employee
Management, Personnel Management, Labor Relations, Human Capital Advisory and now
Management of Human Resources; it seems academicians have had as much a problem deciding
the nomenclature as they've had convincing the Business of their quintessence.

The big debate on how to improve employee’s performance levels has taken us places, from
Hawthorne studies to Customized Incentive Plans for employees, the Human Resources
Department has traversed quite a palpable distance in recent times. Industries are now able to see
the department as necessary and also deem its relevance and significance in business. The
strategic alignment of the HR practices with the organization’s goals, the clarity of purpose
established by the HR department has ensured better quality of work for the employer and better
quality of life for the employees. Just like the evolution of any other industry, HR too as a
standalone industry has developed and refined itself drastically of late. And with a more defined
understanding, HR Department has been able to lend itself more specifically and distinctly to
different industries. Despite such a high level of customization, the practices can be largely
extended from one place to another with minor tweaks, but in a human capital intensive industry
like Consulting, the practices require a major overhauling.

The biggest difference here is that in Consulting, which is a knowledge intensive industry,
human resources are considered to be the most important asset. This industry thrives on the
intellectual capacity of its employees, also usually as you grow up the ladder in such a firm your
stake in the firm increases and so does your buy into its failures and successes. With this kind of
performance and potential required for such a job, the scope is restricted to a small percentage of
the job market. Growth in such an industry can be achieved only by increasing the number of
consultants, and to acquire this talent the consulting firms compete against each other and with
other forward looking sectors. The relevant market for these firms is too small as they cannot
afford to hire "second-best‟ people. And the people at the top of the pyramid are aware of their
value and the range of options they have, forcing the firms to offer better careers and attractive
offers to these people. This ensures that the hiring department has its work cut out for them right
from the beginning of the acquisition process.

Attracting Top Talent : Recruitment Stage

At the recruitment stage, it is necessary for the Talent Acquisition team to develop a competency
model. This model need not be heavily firm-specific, but has to be tailored to the above
mentioned requirements of the consulting industry. This would detail out the threshold
competencies required in all employees and also the differentiating competencies that would
distinguish the star performers from the rest. While hiring, a competency mapping exercise
would help ascertain whether, and to 08 Fall what extent, a potential employee exhibits these
competencies, and how well that person would fit into the role.The kind of talent that consulting
firms require is anything but run-of-the-mill. It takes people wired in a specific way to do well as
consultants - people who deliver high performance and promise high potential. The consulting
lifestyle, which often requires the consultant to be out of town four days a week for months at a
time, is hard to maintain over the long run, especially for people with families. Some individuals
actually thrive on the pace and excitement of the energetic schedule. These are the people a
consulting firm aims to attract because only they can find such a lifestyle sustainable. And, it
takes a lot to attract and retain this talent which is ambitious and very demanding when it comes
to their career. A good way out is to develop an attractive Employee Value Proposition, which
may be customized for each employee. This would require understanding the demographic of the
desired talent, and what they value. For instance, for a consulting firm looking to attract
primarily Gen-Y consultants, it must offer clear opportunities for long-term career progression
and make use of employee engagement avenues, such as “being recognized and rewarded for
your individual contribution” and having a meritocratic culture where high performers are
promoted quicker. While Gen-X consultants would value a strong alumni network, in today‟s
increasingly social media savvy world, Gen-Y consultants would not rely on their employer to
develop their professional networks. Basing the total rewards on Total Rewards Optimization,
ensures a fine balance between business objectives and employee aspirations effectively by
providing quantitative insights to align rewards with employee aspirations ensuring targeted
spending by the organization.

Retention Of Talent

Retaining talent is another major issue with consulting firms, since it is an industry with high
intra-industry mobility of talent. Retention is a challenge in this industry owing to the out-sized
expectations and plethora of alternatives available to the employees. Hence the focus, here,
should be on the form of rewards rather than how they are distributed. Needless to say,since you
are working with the top 1-2% of the talent pool, the compensation and benefits have to be top
notch and on the higher side. What is more important is, if possible, giving these people a sneak
at having a better work life balance which gradually becomes the growing cause of a lot of
consultants leaving their jobs. Avenues like ‘Career Customization’ can help a consultant decide
the pace of his career growth rather than it being dictated to him by someone from the outside. A
good work atmosphere also goes a long way in ensuring that the best talent sticks around. Since
the best consulting talent would essentially consist of people with high Achievement Orientation,
and high level of ambition, it is important to create an atmosphere where the employee feels that
he is an asset to the company. What drives most consultants is the sheer joy of witnessing the
kind of impact their work has. It is critical to ensure they continue to see how their work is
meaningful. Also, by helping to develop social ties among key employees, companies can try to
reduce turnover among employees because often employees find it hard to leave to the company
as they don‟t want to walk out on their teammates and their teams as social ties increase their
commitment and loyalty to work and company. But at the end of the day it largely comes down
to the kind of career you are promising to an employee and how attractive that prospect sounds
to him. Eventually it‟s the recognition of work and providing these people more enticing career
paths is what that will ring-fence these employees from the head hunters who are fiercely
looking out for them.

Development Of Talent

In consulting it is impossible to pull out people in between their job for special training programs
and other kind of assessments designed for them. This kind of scenario is even more difficult at a
middle level. On the job training can only happen for people with technical skills but here since
the focus of the job, especially in India, is more on the client management aspect and knowledge
centres and data repositories exist to mitigate and technical handicap, such kind of interventions
involving the softer side of the business become all the more difficult to execute. In such
scenario, perhaps, training sessions based on the need analysis conducted for these people can be
carried out on weekends. There can be a CDC - Career Development Centre providing a CDC
Advisor and a mentor to each employee who is available for support and help through various
stages and phases of their career. There should be a Rotation Policy in place mandating exposure
to multiple industries and practice areas within a specific amount of time after joining. This will
widen the knowledge base and also bring in the variety to existing banality of job. International
exposure, by way of 2-3 month long stints or one project at foreign offices of the same firm,
would also help in developing the top talent further.

Conclusion

The work of human resources professionals in the consulting industry has not stood still in recent
years and neither is it going to do so any time soon. Similar to a client project, continuous
monitoring of existing benchmarks so as to motivate the workforce is required. They will have to
come up with new and innovative ways to acquire the best talent and ensure that it stays with
them and also that it stays the best. There‟s not a unilateral solution to this eternal problem of
keeping consultants at work satisfied, it has always been and it always be a right mix of different
approaches. The search is going on, the Human Resource Personnel have to keep exploring the
relevant and reliable parameters which will perhaps help them to plug this unsolved equation.