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 Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...

tasks and decisions. HR Consultants can fill two typical roles (1) Expert Resource Consultant (2) Process/People consultant. These two roles are defined by Steele F. (1975), Kubr,M. (1993, 1996); Niedereicholz (1996), Curnow-Reuvid (2003) and Kipping, K. and Clarck (2014). 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 quality, time and cost. Benchmarking is used to measure performan ...

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 i ...

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 Defined benefit (DB) pension plan is a type of pension plan in which an employer/sponsor promises a specified pension payment, lump-sum, or combination thereof on retirement that depends on an employee's earnings history, tenure of service and age, ...

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 due diligence, coordinate and administer cross-functional activities during execution, including

payroll A payroll is the list of employees of some company that is entitled to receive payments as well as other work benefits and the amounts that each should receive. Along with the amounts that each employee should receive for time worked or tasks pe ...

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 Korn Ferry is a management consulting firm headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1969 and as of 2019, operates in 111 offices in 53 countries and employs 8,198 people worldwide. Korn Ferry operates through four business segm ...

Mercer Mercer may refer to: Business * Mercer (car), a defunct American automobile manufacturer (1909–1925) * Mercer (consulting firm), a large human resources consulting firm headquartered in New York City * Mercer (occupation), a merchant or trader, ...

Towers Watson Towers Watson & Co. was a global professional services firm. Its principal lines of business were risk management and human resource consulting. It also had actuarial and investment consulting practices. In January 2016, Towers Watson merged w ...

Aon Hewitt Aon Hewitt (formerly known as Hewitt Associates) was a provider of human capital and management consulting services headquartered in Lincolnshire, Illinois in the United States. From 500 offices in 120 countries, it provided consulting, outsour ...

, 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 Mark Stanford Oldman (born January 5, 1969) is an American entrepreneur, wine expert, and author of several books on wine. He has been described as "one of the wine world's great populizers" and "one of the wine world's great showmen." He regularl ...

, a website that provides career information by industry and by Fortune 1000 company, the top 10 HR Consulting Firms to work for in 2019 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 ASA as an abbreviation or initialism may refer to: Biology and medicine * Accessible surface area of a biomolecule, accessible to a solvent * Acetylsalicylic acid, aspirin * Advanced surface ablation, refractive eye surgery * Anterior spinal ar ...

, FSA, MAAA,

FIA FIA is the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (English: International Automobile Federation), the world's governing body for all forms of motor sport where four or more wheels are used. Fia or FIA may also refer to: People * Fia Backst ...

, FIAA, FFA *Educational: MS in Management/HR/Industrial Organizational psychology,

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in Management, DBA, J.D. *Finance: CFA *General consulting: CMC *HR consulting: Associate or Fellow Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (Assoc. CIPD 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)

References

{{Consulting

Consulting A consultant (from la, consultare "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice and other purposeful activities in an area of specialization. Consulting servic ...

Consulting by type

Core fields in practice

Companies in the field

Qualifications and certifications

See also

References