| | As with many preceding
years, August 2006 can
be viewed as the "calm
before the storm" – for
those interested in
recruiting or being
recruited in the
management consultancy
space that is. Right
across Europe, havoc is
wreaked on interviewing
schedules as the
combination of partner
vacations and candidate
holidays force the
recruitment process to
grind to a halt.
But all that will
change in September.
Like a pressure
cooker gradually
building up a head of
steam, a buoyant
consulting market cannot
tolerate more than a few
weeks of slower
recruitment activity.
Client demand is still
rising; staff defections | |
|
| | are an ever-present
problem; headcount
targets continue to look
daunting; and staff
utilisation rates remain
sky high. We've seen it
in previous years and
we'll see it again this
year – the minute
everyone is back from
the holiday season,
recruitment teams will
go into overdrive as
they make that final
push to bring new blood
into the business before
the year-end.
"We're gearing up for
an exceptionally busy
September/ October/
November period,"
comments
Top-Consultant.com
director Tony Restell.
"There's an
interesting dynamic to
this consulting growth
spurt in that money
cannot be thrown at the | |
|
| | recruitment problem the
same way it was during
the dot-com boom.
Consulting firms are
facing a dual squeeze.
On the one side, there's
continued pricing
pressure that means
margins aren't as
healthy as during the
last boom; and on the
other side, many firms
are now publicly listed
and end up prioritising
the short-term demands
of the investor
community. Both of these
factors combine to mean
there's less money in
the pot for recruitment
and retention – and so
now more than ever firms
are looking to get the
best possible return for
their recruitment spend.
That inevitably favours
businesses like ours
that are able to deliver
consulting hires at a | |
|
| | fraction of the expense
of more traditional
channels," adds Restell.
However, recruitment
suppliers are also in
agreement that
consulting firms will
have to broaden their
pools of target
candidates to include
executives that have no
prior experience in
consulting. With the
industry growing by more
than 10% per year, firms
have only two choices.
Firstly, to accept only
those with prior
consulting experience
and to hope that they
are better at poaching
staff from competitors
than those competitors
are at poaching from
them. This can work for
individual firms but not
for the industry as a
whole. Or secondly, to
accept that there are | |
|
| | not enough experienced
consultants to go round
and to seek to broaden
the pool of consulting
staff by bringing
professionals in from
the accounting, banking
and legal professions
and by attracting
high-flyers from the
public sector into the
profession.
Firms need to hire
the equivalent of 20% of
their current headcount
in the current year in
those markets that have
seen a modest return to
growth; and in the most
buoyant markets such as
the UK and the Middle
East, hiring targets
equivalent to 30% or
more of headcount are
not unusual.
| |
|
Previous Page 
