Top 5 employee dissatisfactions in consulting
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Estelle
Content manager
February 3, 2022
7 min
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Do we really know what it's like to be a consultant?
In order to better understand the dissatisfaction of the employees of a consulting firm, let's first look at their job. Moreover, do we really know the consulting profession?
By definition, a consultant is an expert in a sector that is specific to him. We send him to a client company where he looks for solutions to improve his smooth functioning.
The completion of certain missions may take several months or even several years.
The consultant can be seconded to the client structure 5 days a week or less. Depending on the type of organization of the consulting firm, the consultant may have to juggle several missions or focus on a single...
This profession therefore imposes a particularly intense pace of life. This is why it is essential to take into consideration the needs and expectations of teams to guarantee their motivation on projects, and thus support their performance.
Proof of this is the outlier number of turnover experienced by consulting firms.
In 2021, it was almost 25%, it is now around 25%, it is now around 33%.
This rate is particularly high compared to other sectors, the average being 15% in France over the same period.
But it is possible to change things!
This is why we decided to establish, using testimonies from former consultants, a top 5 of employee dissatisfactions in the consulting world. You will thus be able to better understand what motivates your employees and reverse the trend if necessary.
Many sectors face internal communication problems and the consulting world is fully concerned, generally due to the lack of fluidity in the hierarchical structure. This lack slows down the transmission and flow of information on a daily basis, ultimately affecting the smooth running of missions.
This can result in various situations:
This last situation represents a real obstacle to the development of employees, but also to the satisfaction of managers and customers. Indeed, if, during an assignment, the objectives are met and the client is satisfied with the consultant's service but the consultant does not wish to renew this mission, this necessarily creates frustration. Either with the customer and the manager who let a good person “go”, or with the employee who is refused his request for change.
To combat this phenomenon, some consultants will even go so far as to threaten the structure with resigning in order to be heard. It can also happen that a consultant prefers to fake his resignation rather than confront his client to change his mission, for fear of losing the latter.
Today, over the long term, the consulting profession lacks prospects.
With a junior/senior seniority system, you gain experience and responsibilities over the course of the missions. However, several factors can slow this progression.
It is difficult for a consultant who has been working on the same mission for years to see himself gain in responsibilities and to be able to manage teams within his consulting company.
Also, the fact of not being able to evolve easily in the client company fuels the distance with certain collaborators internal to the latter, who would not consider the consultant as their equal in terms of responsibilities.
The only career path that sometimes arises for a consultant is that of being recruited by the client in order to become an internal collaborator. This is not an ideal outcome for a consulting firm that is potentially losing a competent and expert collaborator on its subjects.
In addition, taking a turn in your career by yourself: your career path involves using your personal time outside of that of the initial mission, in order not to cause any delay. Few find the motivation for this over-involvement.
This lack of career visibility often ends up generating “brown out"*.
The consultant loses motivation and commitment because he/she no longer feels that he/she is contributing to something. The feeling that what he/she is doing no longer makes sense.
Fortunately, the lack of career perspective is not a generality. Some consulting firms have made career management and skills development a priority:
Making employees active in their work, their objectives, their training and their skills development is the key to allowing everyone to be committed and to participate in the performance of the company.
Marine Normand, HR manager at TNP consultants.
* definition: decrease in employee engagement resulting from a loss of meaning at work, a lack of understanding of why their mission is and a lack of perspective on their tasks.
As mentioned indirectly in all of the previous points, the profession of consultant can generate dissatisfaction, which is a source of stress and pressure.
Overall, how can this pressure be exerted?
Consulting is a sector that is constantly looking for performance. The image and reputation of the company that the client has decided to trust depend on the work carried out by consultants. This is not a bad thing in itself, it is also an unparalleled source of motivation. But from this image comes the idea that a consultant has no right to make mistakes.
This fear of failure stems from the fact that you can be much less flexible in terms of management with a consultant than with an internal profile. It is a source of pressure that can (more rarely) turn into frustration when interns rely on the efforts of consultants. Thus, this inevitably reinforces the already existing gap between the consultant and the client's collaborator...
Finally, calling on a consultant reveals a crucial need of the client company on a well-defined subject. Whether the client seeks to make the consultant understand it or not, it is common for the consultant to be considered an indispensable resource, perhaps even more than an internal collaborator.
Perhaps this is one of the causes of the division that can occur between external consultants and company employees. In any case, this creates a daily source of pressure for the consultant that will result in additional hours of work:
In fact, it is an unspoken word. Because we feel obliged to prove that we deserve our place as much as the interns, we invest even more. I often stayed later when my missions were complete, just to show that I was involved.
Clément, 32 years old, consultant for 7 years.
This point came up numerous times during our interviews with consultants.
This is not a generality, but it may happen that the client with whom the consultant carries out his mission does not take sufficient time to train his consultants on the internal functioning and its values, considering that he does not need them since he was recommended by the consulting company.
Sometimes a consultant can be sent on a mission without first having the skills required to complete the mission properly. In this situation, the consulting firm seeks to be reassuring, convinced that the skills development will take place in the field. Whether this vision of the work succeeds and is conclusive or not, this puts the consultant in difficulty with respect to the client and potentially the client uncomfortable with respect to the consultant. Finally, if the firm provides training, it is often possible for it to be provided by a peer during his working time. As this organization is perceived as a waste of time, the trainer (except in separate cases) seeks to finish it as soon as possible.
We then come to our last point in this ranking of employee dissatisfaction...
Feeling a sense of belonging to your company is essential to maintain motivation and performance. However, when the consultant spends most of his time with the client, it is difficult for him to create a link with his consultant colleagues, since he rarely sees them/rarely works with them. It is also difficult to create and feel belonging to the client company, because the consultant is often considered as an outsider by the client company's teams.
Being the object of this marginalization when you are a consultant is a reality and it is often necessary to show great strength of character to overcome this disorder and ensure that it does not impact the work in any way.
Take the example of Isabelle, a consultant who agreed to testify for this article. She was surprised to see her internal colleagues meeting and going out after work regularly, without ever inviting her.
Despite all these dissatisfactions that may be felt, the profession of consultant remains an enriching experience that allows you to develop both professionally and personally.
The world of consulting opens up access to a wealth of knowledge and discoveries from a variety of professional worlds. This is the major apprenticeship in this profession:
Get out of your comfort zone.
A job that allows you to greatly develop your autonomy and your knowledge, but which today has difficulty being considered as a career profession, for all the reasons mentioned in this article.
Hoping that the latter has given you answers or that it has aroused your curiosity for this profession, we thank you for your time and the interest you have shown in it!
If you want to discover in more detail potential areas for improvement that can be applied to consulting, Napta has what you need:
Click here to discover and consult the replay of our webinar on the Big Quit in the world of consulting, presented by our CEO Arnaud Caldichoury.
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