Consulting talent wars: The Battle of Silicon Valley

Consulting’s eternal war for talent has only intensified of late as rapid growth in some large markets and a need to recruit for digital skills has left many firms feeling short staffed. But perhaps the more daunting challenge comes from new sources of talent competition: whereas firms previously competed primarily among themselves and with investment banks to win the brightest recruits, they’re now facing a challenge from tech companies and start-ups, which many job seekers consider more exciting and possibly less brutal places to work.

As it turns out, that widely held perception of tech companies as creative, fun places—and of consultant firms as, well, not—is a serious problem. For our new report, Winning the talent war: Critical success factors for consulting firms, we interviewed more than 100 job-hunting consultants and found that a huge 70% of them rate firms’ culture as one of the most important factors in choosing their next employer. While it’s not surprising that culture is important—especially in today’s over-connected world, people want to like their company and their co-workers—we were a bit surprised by just how much more important culture is relative to everything else. The second-placed factor—a good career path within the firm—was a top concern for only 55% of candidates, and the almighty dollar is a primary factor only 54% of the time.

In the US market, we’re hearing that it’s already getting hard to win a head-to-head talent battle with tech companies, especially where recent graduates are concerned, and the situation is unlikely to improve unless firms start actively working to combat their stodgy image. In our report, top recruitment specialists offer six critical success factors firms can employ to win the best candidates—including how firms can tell a different (and more appealing) story about who they are and what they stand for. After all, some of these firms are actually rather celebrated as good places to work. If they can get that story out there, the battle looks far less arduous.