Consulting firms are constantly hiring.

The big firms recruit top university students to join for an average of two years before they go on ‘to industry,” or graduate school. Firms recruit at masters and PhD programs in business, law and STEM . Firms recruit mid-career specialists or senior executives with large networks for client acquisition roles. Recruiters also look for consultants who might change firms for more money or a clearer promotion path.

Most consultants stay in the field for between two to five years. Many firms have an “up or out” or “grow or go” policy to ensure that they keep the most productive people.  Consulting firms have worked on life balance, but consulting is still a hard job with long hours and lots of travel.

Firms quote annual staff turnover of 9 -15%  Most observers think that is conservative. Also, consulting is extremely sensitive to business cycles. Firms laid off people during Covid, over-hired immediately after, and had more layoffs when the business didn’t maintain the post -pandemic rebound rate.

Given all this, one might think that consulting firms would be good at on-boarding new consultants. Some are; others are not very good at bringing new people on board.

What is on-boarding and why is it important in consulting?

On-boarding is new hires’ introduction to the work and culture of the firm so they can be productive as soon as possible. This education begins during recruitment, but then the new hire and the firm are putting on the best face to close the deal.

Consulting work is complex and fast paced. Consulting firms hire smart, nice, people. They want quick learners who get along with clients and teams and are easily managed.  Firms never tell you this but they want over-achievers, those of us who are a little insecure, who’ll work harder. These are “ready-fire-aim” folks, who often cover what they don’t know with feigned confidence. This is why consultants are described as “frequently wrong, but never in doubt.”

Methods of on-boarding

Most large consulting firms, have a new hire briefing pack, with a welcome letter from the Managing Partner, maybe a history of the firm, Human Resource data to be filled out and confirmed, payroll direct deposit data, an employee manual. Smaller firms may provide this information less formally.

From there the on-boarding methods vary considerably, but there is usually some kind of new hire orientation, some training about the methodologies of the firm, both generally and specific to assigned project work. As time progresses there may be team events, conferences, lessons learned sessions. Some firms have formal mentoring programs; some use a less formal peer mentoring in a “buddy system.”

Training

At Gemini Consulting, everyone, regardless of level, went through a two-week residential program call Gemini Skills Workshop (GSW). This program included formal training in all Gemini’s methodologies, and specific consulting skills. Gemini was a strong team based culture, so there were many team building exercises and a simulated client project that you worked in teams for the two weeks to deliver. The project presentation was evaluated by officers of the firm and occasionally a client.

It was not unusual for the days to run from 7:00 a.m.-11:00 p.m. We were told that people were “washed out” during GSW, mostly for treating colleagues poorly under pressure. In truth that happened infrequently, but in my session and those I coached as a principal, some people were “spoken to.”

Strong career-long relationships were formed at GSW. There was further training at Gemini University over your whole career. GSW was created so that consultants could show up on a project anywhere in the world and instantly form teams as a part of one unified culture. For the most part that worked, and when ex-Gemini people get together they talk wistfully about Gemini’s “magic culture.”

At the Forum corporation, there was a one week orientation, but Forum sold training and everyone had to take every course and learn to deliver at least one program. Everyone trained, regardless of role.

Katzenbach Partners, a McKinsey spin-off, was start-up when I joined. There was no formal training. I was experienced but not in the McKinsey Way. Later, I helped establish some formal training.

Doing the work – project related training

When I started at Harbridge House Europe (HHE), I was a second year London Business School student. All the training was about learning the commercial vehicle industry. It consisted of the firm librarian using materials from past “cases,” and industry executives and consultants lecturing and grilling us on content.

That kind of intense project education existed to varying degrees in the firms where I worked and all those where I have friends. Gemini had project introduction decks, put together by the second level. You learn best what you teach others. In places where this project orientation was poorly done, projects did not go well, no matter how experienced the team was. Starting on the same page matters.

Mentoring

Gemini had a formal mentoring program, but mentees were assigned and results were spotty. Katzenbach Partners had a less formal “buddy system” of peer mentors, which seemed to work well especially at junior levels. The founding partners had their favorite protégés, but when I was there, the pyramid was too thin for a more formal system. In the smaller firms where I worked, I was fortunate to have some great mentors, like Dick Connell at HHE, and Dr. George Litwin at HRI, but not everyone was so fortunate

Some challenges for on-boarding consultants

• In a “time-is-money business” acculturation seems extravagant – firms want to hire experienced consultants who can “hit the ground running,” but they create internal conflict and may lose the firm’s uniqueness if they short change it.
• One size doesn’t fit all – at Gemini senior people and industry expert hires sometimes resented attending GSW with the “noobs.” At Katzenbach Partners the “McKinsey-trained associate” had a leg up on language and expectations.
• Loose-tight might be the way to go – If too much focus is placed upon the “one-true-way we do things around here” the firm may lose the innovation and hybrid vigor of hiring. If too little focus is placed on the firm’s strengths, then consultants  don’t effectively “join” and realize they might be better as independents “keeping the multiplier.”

Consultants often work on processes like on-boarding for their clients, but fail to apply the same principles to their own firms. In a downturn their training and mentoring programs are cut, even when they’d advise clients not to do that. Some even joke about it using a cliché from medieval times, “the cobbler’s children have no shoes.”

On-boarding isn’t a joke or unnecessary fluff, it is the life-blood of the specialized service of consulting firms.

Traveling the Consulting Road: Career Wisdom for New Consultants, Candidates, and Their Mentors is a complete consulting career guide. This book describes what it’s like to become a consultant including how to get hired and promoted, how to start a consulting firm, whether to become an independent consultant, and how to find and serve clients.

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