The human resource consulting industry has emerged from
management consulting
Management consulting is the practice of providing consulting services to organizations to improve their performance or in any way to assist in achieving organizational objectives. Organizations may draw upon the services of management consultant ...
and addresses
human resource management
Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the effective and efficient management of people in a company or organization such that they help their business gain a competitive advantage. It is designed to maximize e ...
tasks and decisions.
The ''Expert Resource Consultant'' suggests solutions based on expertise and experience, and assists in their implementation. The role is very typical in information
benchmarking
Benchmarking is the practice of comparing business processes and performance metrics to industry bests and best practices from other companies. Dimensions typically measured are Project management triangle, quality, time and cost.
Benchmarking is ...
and design consulting (see examples of actual design practices in the subsequent section below).
The ''Process/People consultant'' assists in searching for solutions with methods that facilitate and raise creativity of the client company so that they will be able to implement solutions themselves. The role is traditionally demonstrated by
organizational development and change consulting.
Core fields in practice
The following are core fields around which most human resource consultancies are based:
Employee engagement: Measure
employee engagement
Employee engagement is a fundamental concept in the effort to understand and describe, both qualitatively and quantitatively, the nature of the relationship between an organization and its employees. An "engaged employee" is defined as one who ...
levels through surveys and interviews, define and improve performance in employee engagement and retention. While this area of HR consulting is necessarily broad, encapsulating total rewards strategy, employee performance management, leadership transformation, and organisation structure design, most companies do have very specialised independent practices.
Compensation: Design and manage compensation programs related to basic salary, bonuses, and stock plans.
Evaluation of positions and building of salary structures, bonus plans and stock plans for clients are common. Specialisations are often based on employee types (e.g. Executive compensation consultants and sales compensation consultants.
Employee benefits: Optimize benefit plan design and administration (inclusive of health-related benefits) by assessing competitiveness and effectiveness of benefit plans (analytics and design), and cost-effectiveness and quality of vendors (brokerage).
Actuarial and retirement: Provide actuarial and administration services to manage cost and effectiveness of retirement programs, including
defined benefit and
defined contribution
A defined contribution (DC) plan is a type of retirement plan in which the employer, employee or both make contributions on a regular basis. Individual accounts are set up for participants and benefits are based on the amounts credited to these a ...
plans.
Mergers and acquisitions: Conduct
human capital
Human capital or human assets is a concept used by economists to designate personal attributes considered useful in the production process. It encompasses employee knowledge, skills, know-how, good health, and education. Human capital has a subs ...
due diligence, coordinate and administer cross-functional activities during execution, including
payroll
A payroll is a list of employment, employees of a company who are entitled to receive compensation as well as other work benefits, as well as the amounts that each should obtain. Along with the amounts that each employee should receive for time ...
and
Human resource management system technology. Align organizational cultures and work styles during post-merger integration.
Talent mobility: Provides the insight and execution for full international expatriates (usually for executives) or local plus (partial-package expatriates), from pre-move informative guide, to post-move expat management program.
Other services may also include legal counseling, global initiatives, investments consulting, and the implementation of human resource technologies to facilitate human capital management.
Companies in the field
Human resource consultancies vary in their ranges of services and sizes, with many consultants and academicians breaking off to form their own practices. In 2007, there were 950 human resource consultancies globally, constituting a US$18.4 billion market.
As of 2015,
Korn Ferry,
Mercer,
Towers Watson
Towers Watson & Co. was a global professional services firm that provided risk management services, human resource consulting, actuarial services, and investment management
Investment management (sometimes referred to more generally as fina ...
,
Aon Hewitt, and
Buck Consultants were referred to as the largest HR consulting firms. While the
MBB and
Big Fours may not have the largest HR Consulting practice, some of them are known to be among the best in this field. According to
Vault.com, a website that provides career information by industry and by Fortune 1000 company, the top 10 HR Consulting Firms to work for in 2023 are as follows:
Qualifications and certifications
Many human resource consultants have specialized qualifications or certifications, such as:
*Accountancy:
ACCA,
CA,
CPA,
CCA
*Actuarial:
EA,
ASA,
FSA,
MAAA,
FIA, FIAA,
FFA
*Educational:
MS in Management/HR/Industrial Organizational psychology,
MBA
A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...
,
Ph.D. in Management,
DBA,
J.D.
*Finance:
CFA
*General consulting:
CMC
*HR consulting: Associate, Member or Fellow Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (Assoc. CIPD, MCIPD or FCIPD), Fellow Australian Human Resources Institute (FAHRI), Certified Human Resources Consultant (CHRC), Professional in Human Resources (PHR), SPHR, GPHR by HRCI, USA, SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP by SHRM, USA
*Health and benefits: CEBS, CBP
*Compensation: CCP (Certified Compensation Professional)
*Human resources: SHRM (US),
PHR and
SPHR (Canada), FCIPD, MCIPD, PGDHR, DHR (UK), Registered Professional Recruiter (RPR) (Canada), CIPM (Nigeria)
*Science: Behaviour(Psychology)
See also
*
Consulting firm
A consulting firm or simply consultancy is a professional service firm that provides expertise and specialised labour for a fee, through the use of consultants. Consulting firms may have one employee or thousands; they may consult in a broad ra ...
*
Industrial and organizational psychology
Industrial and organizational psychology (I-O psychology) "focuses the lens of psychological science on a key aspect of human life, namely, their work lives. In general, the goals of I-O psychology are to better understand and optimize the effec ...
References
{{Consulting
Consulting
A consultant (from "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice or services in an area of specialization (generally to medium or large-size corporations). Cons ...
Consulting by type