Top-Consultant.com’s Management Consultancy … · Top-Consultant.com’s Management Consultancy Recruitment Channel Report 2014 PAGE 7 Figure 3: What staff attrition rate has your

Top-Consultant.com’s Management Consultancy Recruitment Channel Report 2014

Introduction

Part I - Recruitment trends

Part II - Recruitment channel use

Part III - Historical trends in recruitment

channel use and Recruiter & Media Awards Newspapers

Internet job sites

Personal contacts and referrals

Social media

Corporate websites

Recruitment agencies

Individual recruiter awards

Top-Consultant.com

3

4

17

18 19 21 22 24 25 26

12

INTRODUCTION

Bryan Hickson Managing Director

Top-Consultant.com

Top-Consultant.com

Now in its thirteenth year, this unique report has

been produced to help those facing the challenges

of the UK management consultancy recruitment

market in the coming year, both recruiters and

consulting candidates alike.

Part One of the report is based on responses to a

comprehensive survey of the Top-Consultant.com

consulting recruiter contacts and focuses on

recruitment and retention data and trends within

management consultancy.

Unsurprising perhaps given the 800+ responses

that we have now received to these surveys, the

recruiter report has historically proven to be

an extremely accurate predictor for what has

gone on to occur within the management

consultancy hiring market. The picture that

emerges this year is of an industry that is looking

ahead confidently to a year of strong growth - over

93% of consulting employers reporting they are

looking to hire staff this year at least as fast as

they did last year with the overwhelming majority

saying hiring will accelerate further in 2014.

This positive outlook is only qualified perhaps by

the skills shortage and ‘war for talent’ that many

commentators including the MCA already predict.

Part Two looks at the appeal and effectiveness

of different recruitment channels from the

candidate perspective and includes rankings of

recruitment agencies, job boards, offline

providers and so on. It too is built around a

comprehensive survey and with ~12,000

responses it also has been an accurate

forecaster of the changing use of the established

recruitment channels as well as the new

channels that have become available to them.

Taken together, I am confident that we have

generated the definitive resource for planning

recruitment campaigns and maximizing the

effectiveness of candidate applications.

Our thanks go out to all those that have

contributed once more to the surveys and we

hope that you find this report a valuable

resource. As always, the team at Top-

Consultant.com look forward to helping you all

we can as the year unfolds.

http://www.top-consultant.com/










Recruitment trends Trend data based on over 800 recruiter

responses

Part One


PAGE 5

Expectations are certainly positive for the coming year, in

spite of continued unease about the ongoing economic

outlook, with over 93% of consulting employers reporting

they are looking to hire staff this year at least as fast as

they did last year with the overwhelming majority saying hiring

will accelerate further in 2014.

While hiring expectations taken across the UK

consulting industry as a whole are favourable, they are

also patchy with the rebound not expected to be felt

across all industries and functional areas.

Attracting enough candidates with prior

consulting experience will continue to be a challenge.

Though more consultants are reporting that they

would like to stay within the profession this year,

recruiters continue to favour experienced consultant

hires so there will be increased difficulties in holding onto

existing staff as well as poaching new joiners from

competitors.

Why not try

advertising for

consulting

candidates on

Top-Consultant.com?

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yourself the types of

results that recruiters are

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their job listings on

Top-Consultant.com.

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Top-Consultant.com EXPECTATIONS

http://recruiters.top-consultant.com/UK/clientcentre/choosepackage.aspx





































































































PAGE 6

Surely the most important metric we provide each year

is the one we turn to first: how do employers anticipate

their hiring volumes for 2014 will compare with those

from 2013? We are pleased to report that recruiters'

expectations for the coming year are upbeat with the

fewest respondents expecting lower hiring levels

than at any time since the Lehman collapse.

This year 80% of recruiters polled expect to make

more hires this year than last year (up from 67%

last year) with over 32% of employers this year

looking to increase their hiring aggressively.

Figure 1: 2014 Recruitment targets

vs. 2013

Figure 2: Recruitment targets 2008

- 2014

Top-Consultant.com

32.6%

47.8%

13.0%

6.5%

0.0% Make considerably more hiresthan last year

Make slightly more hires thanlast year

Make as many hires as lastyear

Make slightly fewer hiresthan last year

Target for the year is to makeconsiderably fewer hires thanlast year

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Make considerably morehires than last year

Make slightly more hiresthan last year

Make as many hires aslast year

Make slightly fewer hiresthan last year

Make considerably fewerhires than last yearHIRING VOLUMES

The historical series below shows that recruiters

have correctly predicted trends in the last preceding

years. The sharp deterioration in 2009 hiring was

accurately predicted as was the hiring rebound in

2011 – that is until the Eurozone crisis impacted and

hiring fell off in the final third of that year. Explosive

growth in hiring is not expected but the gap to boom

market hiring levels is surely to be cut again this

year.


PAGE 7

Figure

3: What staff attrition rate has your

consulting business experienced in the

last year?

Figure

4: What do you believe will happen to

staff attrition rates during 2014?

Top-Consultant.com

8.7%

34.8%

41.3%

6.5%

8.7%

0% 20% 40% 60%

Staff attrition rates will improveconsiderably

Staff attrition rates will improve alittle

No change in staff attrition ratesexpected

Staff attrition rates will worsen alittle

Staff attrition rates will worsenconsiderablyATTRITION

11%

33%

28%

20%

4% 4% 0-5% of consultingstaff left

5-10% of consultingstaff left




The UK consulting market as a whole is experiencing a

median rate of staff loss at just over 10%, which is more

or less unchanged from 2008. Naturally some firms

have suffered more than others with 4% reporting

attrition rates of over 25% compared with 11% of

respondents reporting between 0 and 5% of consulting

staff had left the firm over the last year.

The rate of staff attrition is of course a significant driver

of recruitment activity and it is interesting to note that

more firms report an expectation that staff retention will

get worse over the next 12 months (43%) compared

with those that retention rates will improve (15%). Given

this, it is certain that more of the expected recruitment

that we have seen reported from employers will be to

simply stand still in terms of headcount rather than fuel

increased demand for consulting services and growth.


PAGE 8

The hiring rebound will not, however, be seen across

the board. We ask recruiters to identify the areas they

expect to be undertaking the most hiring and in the chart

that follows, a score close to 1 indicates firms expect to

undertake little or no hiring in that practice area; while

the greater the number the more hiring is expected

compared with the previous year.

Amongst recruiters the expectation is that the

strongest hiring is expected in Financial Services - the

largest source of private sector consulting spend by far –

followed in 2nd and 3rd places by Technology and IT ,

both leapfrogging Energy & Utilities this year.

The forecast demand for candidates that specialise in the

Engineering & Manufacturing and Automotive/Aerospace

industries is up, while the Public Sector falls back a little.

Figure 5: Recruitment activity by

practice area

Top-Consultant.com

LIKELY HIRING BY

PRACTICE AREA 0 1 2 3 4 5

Financial Services

Technology

Information Technology

Energy & Utilities

Healthcare & Pharma

Telecoms, Media & Entertainment

Retail / Consumer Goods

Engineering & Manufacturing

Automotive / Aerospace

Purchasing & Supply Chain

Public Sector

General Management

Distribution / Logistics

Transportation

Science / Research

Chemicals

Education

Leisure / Lifestyle

Facilities Management

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014


PAGE 9

When asked to provide the same steer on the types of

consulting expected to be contributing to hiring demand, it

is encouraging for the health of the sector as a whole to

see the increased appetite for strategy consulting hires.

Strategy consulting is often seen as a bell-weather for the

state of the consulting industry as a whole, so to record

strategy in first place , when it was fourth last year, and top

the last time back in 2010, is a positive reflection on

market sentiment for the year ahead.

Project/Programme Management and Business Process

Improvement stay steady in second and third places and

Technology consulting drops from top last year to fourth.

The appetite for Outsourcing and CRM hires drops this

year.

Figure 6: Recruitment activity by type

of consulting

Top-Consultant.com

LIKELY HIRING BY

TYPE OF

CONSULTING 0 1 2 3 4

Strategy

Project / Programme Management

Business Process Improvement

Technology

IT / Software Development

E-Business

Finance / Accounting

Marketing & Sales

HR Consulting

Outsourcing

CRM

Economics & Environmental…

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014


PAGE 10

Looking now at who recruiters are aiming to recruit

over the course of the coming year, it is clear once

more that those most in demand will be candidates

that bring prior consulting experience to the firm.

Those from government or public sector bodies remain

the least sought-after, with little change in appeal

amongst recruiters for those candidates coming from

industry and the City.

This year fewer recruiters will look to make their hires

from those coming from business schools but there’s a

continuation of the trend for firms to recruit more

candidates from University.

Figure 7: Desired hiring profile

2010 – 2014

Top-Consultant.com

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

EXPERIENCED

HIRES

INCREASINGLY

ATTRACTIVE


PAGE 11

To consider the other side of the equation – the

career intentions of the candidates in 2014 –

recruiters will be relieved that the proportion of

consultants most likely to move to another consulting

firm this year has started to climb back to pre-recession

levels. As employers are increasingly interested in

candidates that bring prior consulting experience with

them this will be welcome news, but there will be lots of

competition to hold onto existing employees and also to

poach new joiners from competitors.

Fewer consultants are looking to move client-side but the

appeal of taking a role in the City is on the increase once

again.

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Figure 8: Candidates’career intentions

for 2009 - 2014

Top-Consultant.com

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Most likely to accept a job with aconsulting employer

Not looking to change jobs in thenext 12 months

Most likely to accept a job with aclient organisation

Most likely to secure some otherkind of role outside consulting

Most likely to accept a job in theCity

Most likely to accept public sector/charity job

CONSULTANTS’

CAREER

INTENTIONS

Recruitment channel use Trend data based on ~12,000 candidate responses

Part Two


PAGE 13

Trends are based on data collected from almost

12,000 management consultancy candidates over

the last 13 years. Candidates from all the major

consulting firms have participated, together with

consultants currently working at niche consulting firms

and potential industry hires looking to move into

consulting.

Most respondents this year were Business

Transformation / Change Management consultants

(26%), Strategy consultants (22%), IT/ Technology

consultants (18%), Project / Programme management

Consultants (15%), Business Process Improvement

(11%), HR consultants (6%), Outsourcing (2%).

The sectors that candidates had most experience of

working in this year were Public Sector (26%), Energy /

Utilities (26%), Retail / Consumer Goods (25%),

Financial Services (Retail Financial Services focus)

(24%), Telecoms, Media & Entertainment (24%),

Financial Services (Investment Banking / Capital

Markets focus) (22%), Healthcare & Pharma (18%),

Automotive / Aerospace (14%).

36% of respondents had spent more than 3 years with

their current firm, 17% between 2 and 3 years, 15%

between 1 and 2 years, 13% between 6 months and 1

year and those that had joined their current firm within

the last 6 months accounted for 19% of the responses.

Survey responses were generated via direct mailshots to

the Top-Consultant.com readership; an invitation sent

to all screened consulting candidates on the Get-

Headhunted CV database; promotions via Twitter,

LinkedIn, Google News and Yahoo News, and by

invitations sent to candidates by recruitment agencies.

Are you a

Management

Consultancy

Recruiter?

Once a month the

Top-Consultant.com team

update recruiter contacts

regarding all the new

initiatives we’re planning,

free reports we’ve published

and any forthcoming

promotional offers they

could benefit from. If you

would like to be added to

our recruiter contact list

please email Bryan

Hickson.

Top-Consultant.com CANDIDATE POOL

mailto:[email protected]

































































































































PAGE 14

Let us now look back at candidate activity over the

last 12 months and specifically the channels used to

look for new career opportunities. Every year we ask

candidates to record the channels they used and the

number of applications that they made through each.

Collating the data allows us to analyse the

penetration performance of the channels (how many

candidates used each channel to make at least one

application) and the share of applications achieved from

each of the six major recruitment channels:

Our candidate respondents confirmed that there

are huge variations in the saturation enjoyed by the

different application channels with three of the channels

being used by a far greater proportion of candidates than

the others.

Recruitment agencies have been used by a greater

number of candidates than any of the other channels,

with Personal contacts and Internet job boards scoring

very nearly as highly. Social media generated

applications from 45% of candidates this year, Corporate

websites 39% with Newspapers falling to just 9%.

What’s apparent from these channel penetration

figures is that no single channel alone will reach all

candidates and that a multi-channel approach is essential

to saturate the market.

Figure 9: Application channels used last time

to apply for a job

• Newspapers

• Recruitment

agencies

• Internet job sites

• Social media

• Personal Contacts /

Referrals

• Corporate Websites

Top-Consultant.com

01020304050607080

2011 2012 2013 2014

%

CANDIDATE

ACTIVITY OVER

LAST YEAR


PAGE 15

Our respondents were also asked to record how many

applications they made through the six major channels.

This produces another measure of importance of each

recruitment channel within a recruitment strategy –

the share of CVs produced per channel.

What is immediately apparent is that internet job boards

and recruitment agencies are critical in generating

candidate applications – together they account for 55%

of applications made which is very similar to last year.

Corporate sites account for a steady 14.9% of all

applications made; Personal referrals are up slightly with

a 14% share; applications made via Social Media are

up slightly again this year at justover 12% and the share

of applications made as a result of adverts placed in

Newspapers continues to slide – this year down to

3.3%, bringing up the rear.

10%

Figure 10: Share of applications generated

in last job search

Top-Consultant.com

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

CANDIDATE

ACTIVITY OVER

LAST YEAR


PAGE 16

Candidates were asked to score the likely channels they

would use when next hunting for a new job, both to allow

them to change their bias to allow for dissatisfactions

with their most recent job hunt and also to factor in new

developments that they have seen affecting the market

such as Social Media.

As you can see from the chart, candidates clearly

intend to modify their jobhunt strategies only

marginally during their next job search. Comparing this

year’s responses with those from past years shows very

little change.

Given this, it seems likely that the share of applications

that employers will receive from each of the hiring

channels is likely to remain fairly constant for the

foreseeable future.

2

2.5

3

3.

Figure 11: Channels most likely to use if

currently looking for new job

Top-Consultant.com

00.5

11.5

22.5

33.5

44.5

5

LOOKING FORWARD

Historical trends in recruitment channel use and Recruiter & Media awards

Part Three


PAGE 18

In the main the historic newspaper advertisers

(direct employers and recruitment agencies) have

continued to switch spend to other channels.

Newspapers have suffered most in the last 13 years

with candidate penetration having fallen very

considerably indeed from a figure close to 50% to just 9%

of candidates making an application via this channel.

Share of applications continues to fall in a similar way

with just 3.3% of applications being made last year in

this way.

Figure 14: Share of applications -

Newspapers

10%

20%

30%

Figure 12: Newspapers and publications

consultants read regularly

Figure 13: Penetration -

Newspapers

0% 10% 20% 30%

Top-Consultant.com

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

18%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

i

Independent

Telegraph

Evening Standard

Guardian

Metro

Other

FT

The Economist

Times

NEWSPAPERS


PAGE 19

Internet job sites continue to enjoy a high share of

candidate usage with, once more, just under two thirds

of all candidates making approaches to new

employers via this channel, just behind referrals and

recruitment consultancies. The shape of the evolution

of job sites’ penetration for the last six years

suggests a plateauing, as does its share of applications

which is also stable with just over a third of all

applications coming from online advertising on job

boards.

It is worth noting here, and as will be seen later, a

significant proportion of candidates (23.6% - no

change from last year) that make applications direct

via corporate websites do so having first seen the role

that they apply to advertised on an internet job site.


Internet job sites

Top-Consultant.com


Internet job sites

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

INTERNET JOB

SITES


PAGE 20

Figure 17: Websites most regularly

reviewed for consulting opportunities

Top-Consultant.com

Figure 18: Websites preferred for

finding a consulting job

0 20 40 60 80

Twitter jobsearch

MCA

Consultantsboard

TopITConsultant

Executivesontheweb

FT

eFinancialCareers

Jobserve

Totaljobs

Jobsite

Monster

Exec-Appointments

Top-Consultant

LinkedIn

0 10 20 30

MCATwitter jobsearchTopITConsultant

ExecutivesonthewebConsultantsboard

TotaljobsFT

MonsterJobsite

eFinancialCareersExec-Appointments

JobserveTop-Consultant

LinkedIn

INTERNET JOB

SITES

Candidates were asked to reveal the jobboards that

they regularly review and the jobboards that they

rate best for finding a consulting job. LinkedIn and

Top-Consultant are easily the leaders in the sector.

LinkedIn's rise seems to have been at the expense

of the other major job board brands, all of whom

only attract a fraction of the interest and favourable

response of the two market leaders.


PAGE 21

Bounty schemes have consistently achieved high

market penetration, generating applications from 68% of

candidates this year, a figure that has been stable for the

last few years and is now the greatest penetration figure

of any channel. What’s more, they have also been the

most highly-preferred way for candidates to make

recruitment applications in management consultancy.

But while personnel referrals will never be able to

generate a massive share of applications – the natural

limitations in the size of individuals’ personal networks

prohibits this - we have seen companies using innovative

means such as advertising job referral programmes

through 3rd party media to eke the maximum share of

applications possible through this channel. This year we

have recorded a further if slight rise in share of

applications to 14%.


Personal referrals


Personal referrals

Top-Consultant.com

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

0%

5%

10%

15%

PERSONAL

REFERRALS


PAGE 22

Unlike the other major recruitment channels that we

have been tracking in these annual reports, we have

only been gathering data on consultancy candidates’use

of social media for making job applications for the past

four years. This makes trend commentary more difficult

but a picture is emerging.

The data reflects a continued growth in share of total

applications – albeit to just 12.1% up from 10.4% last year.

The percentage of candidates that make any application

through the channel has this year increased to 44.6%,

from 37.7% last year. It continues to be the case, for the

time being, that only a minority of consulting candidates

are using social media to apply for jobs.

While the vast majority of consultants have an active

profile (defined as being accessed at least once a week)

on a social media platform – with LinkedIn being the

favourite by a clear margin – the percentage of active

users on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter has grown

slightly this year.

Figure 22: Social media on which

consultants are active users

Top-Consultant.com

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

2011 2012 2013 2014

SOCIAL MEDIA 0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

2011 2012 2013 2014

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

2011 2012 2013 2014

Figure 23: Penetration –

Social Media

Figure 24 Share of applications –

Social Media


PAGE 23

Given that there is nearly 90% take-up of the leading

professional social-media channel and that only 12% of

all applications are made via social media as a whole, we

asked respondents what they use social media for.

Expanding professional networks remains, unsurprisingly,

the most common driver of social media’s use. Applying

for advertised job positions remains unchanged in 5th

place this year.

Top-Consultant.com

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Figure 25: Main uses of social media by consulting candidates

SOCIAL MEDIA


PAGE 24

Over the last few years we have seen a fall in the

number of candidates making applications directly

via corporate websites. This year, while we see a slight

rise to 39%, the trend over time suggests a continued

decline.

What’s more, corporate sites seem stuck in a rut of being

able to generate only 14-17% of application volumes.

This year a figure of 14.9% of all applications made

to management consultancy employers through their

websites was recorded.

But how do candidates find themselves making

applications direct via corporate websites? It should not

be assumed that all candidates navigate directly to

company websites to make their applications.

Each year we investigate the different sources of

visitor / application traffic that corporate websites enjoy

so as to be able to quantify as best possible the

‘indirects’ that the other channels drive to the corporate

sites.

Most candidates (53.3%) that made applications to

corporate websites already knew the firm and navigated

straight to their website to make the application –

interestingly this figure has dropped from 60% in 2009

when we first asked this question; 23.6% of candidates

made direct applications to firms they had seen

advertising on internet job sites; nearly 19.9% were

prompted to make a direct application by a personal

contact (up slightly); just over 15% found their way to the

corporate site following a search engine listing; 12% were

alerted to opportunities via Social Media adverts before

making their corporate website application (unchanged);

and 4.3% following adverts seen in newspapers.


Corporate sites

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013


Corporate sites

Top-Consultant.com

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

18%

CORPORATE SITES


PAGE 25

Recruitment agency candidate penetration continues

to hold up well and appears to be plateauing at

around 70% penetration. Share of total applications made

has, however fallen from 26.4% to 24.6% this year –

though this is, as we have seen, second only to Internet

Job Sites when compared with all six recruitment

channels.

Every year we ask candidates to feedback to us

on the different recruitment firms that they’ve used. A

ranking of firms that received the most praise and the

least complaints is then produced.

The results were very close indeed so no outright winner

has been identified this year. We congratulate all those

firms listed.

Figure 28: Penetration - Recruitment agencies

Figure 30: 2014 top recruitment firms by

praise

Figure 29: Share of applications - Recruitment

agencies

Top-Consultant.com

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

0%

10%

20%

30%

RECRUITMENT

AGENCIES

BLT

Consulting Point

Michael Warwick Nicholls

Prism

Selecture

SK Consultancy Solutions

Tassell Consulting


PAGE 26

Recruiters

– available

throughout 2014

All premium job listings

appearing on

Top-Consultant.com will be

added to the Management

Consultancies Association

(MCA) jobs board at no

additional cost

Take advantage

by registering for a

trial advertising package

Alongside the rankings of recruitment firms, we

asked candidates to help us identify the best individual

recruiters they had worked with. We asked them:

“If you have been particularly impressed with an

individual recruitment consultant you have worked with

in the past, please provide their name & company so

that we can give them special recognition”.

Twelve individuals stood out as receiving the most praise

and we warmly congratulate them all for their success.

They are listed in no particular order.

Figure 31: Best individual recruitment

consultants 2014

Top-Consultant.com

RECRUITMENT

AGENCIES

Chris Sale - Prism

Craig Milbourne - Comms Point

Darren Head - Selecture

Don Leslie - BLT

Genene Cooper - Michael Warwick Nicholls

James Cox - Consulting Point

Jonathan Tassell - Tassell Consulting

Mark Pierce - Michael Warwick Nicholls

Rakesh Pabbi - Consulting Point

Ruth Radnan-Skibin - SK Consultancy Solutions

Sally Wilson - Penna

Sasha Kemp - SK Consultancy Solutions




































































Find out how your firm could attract consulting hires

by:

• advertising on our websites

• advertising in our consultancy-focused publications

• accessing our CV databases

• running bespoke careers events

CALL TO SPEAK WITH ONE OF OUR TEAM For more information on Top-Consultant.com’s services or if you have any

questions about the data in this report please contact Bryan Hickson on 0207

667 6880 or email him on [email protected].

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Top-Consultant.com’s Management Consultancy … · Top-Consultant.com’s Management Consultancy Recruitment Channel Report 2014 PAGE 7 Figure 3: What staff attrition rate has your