A quality consulting firm sells the judgement of people who improve how other companies make, check and fix things. Its output is a client plant that works better, so the firm depends on a few experienced consultants and on proving their depth.
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Share your requirementsA quality consulting firm works inside client plants and service units, setting up quality systems, training line staff, running process studies and preparing teams for customer or certification reviews. Work is sold by the project or by the day, and consultants spend most weeks at client sites, often in other cities. A senior consultant carries the reputation, while junior associates collect data, draft procedures and sit through long plant days. Billing follows days on site, so every unplanned gap shows on the firm's books. The wider professional services hub covers what advisory firms share, and the consulting firms hub compares neighbouring practices.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
A consultant says they know a method, yet the firm has no record of where they used it, so staffing a project rests on memory and the partner's favourites.
Consultants spend many nights at client plants, and the firm treats travel as ordinary until someone resigns for a desk job.
Associates are sent to collect data and rewrite forms without being taught why, and the best of them leave within two years.
A consultant between engagements has no billing, and the firm cannot tell whether that is bad luck, poor planning or a thin skill.
Hours entered on Friday for the whole week blur between client work, proposal writing and training, so billable use looks better or worse than it is.
Travel and stay claims reach the office weeks late, and clients dispute pass-through costs that were never agreed in writing.
The consultant who brings a fresh client is praised, and the one who built the method library or trained juniors gets little credit.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Organisation Design; Learning and Development; HR Analytics and Management Reporting. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for professional services, not in general.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a quality consulting business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
A grid of methods and sectors against each consultant, with levels from observed to leads alone, so project teams are chosen from evidence.
What this coversHideA grid of methods and sectors against each consultant, with levels from observed to leads alone, so project teams are chosen from evidence. See competency and talent management.
Maximum consecutive site weeks, rest days after a long stay, who approves a change and how late changes are paid, written once and applied alike.
What this coversHideMaximum consecutive site weeks, rest days after a long stay, who approves a change and how late changes are paid, written once and applied alike.
A sequence from data collection to drafting to leading a workshop, with a named senior who reviews progress every quarter.
What this coversHideA sequence from data collection to drafting to leading a workshop, with a named senior who reviews progress every quarter.
Client work, proposal, training and bench time recorded separately, so utilisation can be read honestly.
What this coversHideClient work, proposal, training and bench time recorded separately, so utilisation can be read honestly. Attendance and leave rules can include the timesheet habit.
What is billed back, what the firm absorbs and the date by which claims are filed, shared with consultants and client alike.
What this coversHideWhat is billed back, what the firm absorbs and the date by which claims are filed, shared with consultants and client alike.
Appraisals that count method building, mentoring and client feedback alongside business brought in.
What this coversHideAppraisals that count method building, mentoring and client feedback alongside business brought in.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
Skill grids that show which consultant can lead which method, and where the firm is thin.
Plain monthly views of billable use, bench days and travel load by consultant and team.
A route that turns associates into consultants who can lead a client workshop alone.
Appraisal and incentive design that rewards method building and mentoring as well as new business.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in professional services, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why associates and managers leave consulting, accounting, legal and advisory firms, and how to ask about progression, workload and partners at exit.
6 min readRead article
A flat structure works until the founder becomes the only route to a decision. How to tell when you have passed that point, and how to redesign without a reorganisation.
8 min readRead article
Plastics training dies when it waits for a free Saturday. Tie it to mould changes, purges and cold starts, use one-point lessons and a visible skill ladder, and protect it in peak months.
7 min readRead article
Six numbers, one page, same format each month. What they are, how to define them so they mean the same thing twice, and what each one tells you.
8 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Staff from a competency grid that shows methods, sectors and levels, then check availability and travel load. Choosing by habit sends the same few people everywhere and leaves others unproven.
Set it with your consultants, not for them. Agree a longest run of site weeks, a rest rule after it and a way to approve exceptions, then review it each half year against resignations.
Often because they feel used for data and paperwork without a route upward. A written path, a named mentor and a first chance to lead a workshop give them a reason to stay.
Yes, as its own line. Bench days are not shameful, and counting them lets you see whether gaps come from planning, skills or the market, and use them for training and proposals.
Write it into the appraisal as visible work, with feedback from the juniors involved. If only revenue counts, senior people will spend their time selling and not teaching.
We would ask which methods your seniors would stake the firm's name on, check how many site weeks consultants ran last quarter and read a few timesheets. A competency grid with a travel rule is a sensible first piece, and scope is agreed in writing for your sign-off.
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