Employee Engagement and Experience for Professional Services
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
What this looks like in professional services
The parts of employee engagement and experience that are specific to this sector, rather than general.
Engagement Under the Billable Clock
Where development time and chargeable time compete directly.
What this coversHide
Engagement Under the Billable Clock
Where development time and chargeable time compete directly.
What this coversHideIn a firm where output is measured in billable hours, every engagement intervention competes with utilisation, and staff can see which one the firm actually protects.
- Utilisation targets set with a stated basis
- Non-chargeable development time protected in practice, not policy
- Work allocation seen to be fair, particularly on quality of work
- Partner and manager behaviour as the principal lever
- Progression criteria explicit rather than discretionary
- Client pressure managed by the firm rather than passed through
- Recognition beyond the hours recorded
Work allocation is the quiet engagement issue. Junior staff repeatedly given the least developmental work draw an accurate conclusion about their future in the firm long before anyone discusses it.
The general method — what employee engagement and experience covers, the questions it answers and what an engagement produces — is the same whatever the sector, and is set out on the employee engagement and culture page. What is above is the part that differs for professional services.
Other HR topics for professional services
Where to start
Most engagements begin with a review of how this runs in your business today, then a written process and the sequence to implement it.
See all HR topics for professional services, or another industry.