Top-Consultant 2014 Recruitment Channel Report

Top-Consultant.
coms Management Consultancy

Recruitment Channel Report 2014
Introduction
Part I - Recruitment trends
Part II - Recruitment channel use
Part III - Historical trends in recruitment
channel use and Recruiter & Media Awards
Newspapers
Internet job sites
Personal contacts and referrals
Social media
Corporate websites
Recruitment agencies
Individual recruiter awards
Top-Consultant.com
3
4
17
18
19
21
22
24
25
26
12
INTRODUCTION
Bryan Hickson
Managing Director
Top-Consultant.com
Top-Consultant.com
Now in its thirteenth year, this unique report has
been produced to help those facing the challenges
of the UK management consultancy recruitment
market in the coming year, both recruiters and
consulting candidates alike.

Part One of the report is based on responses to a
comprehensive survey of the Top-Consultant.com
consulting recruiter contacts and focuses on
recruitment and retention data and trends within
management consultancy.

Unsurprising perhaps given the 800+ responses
that we have now received to these surveys, the
recruiter report has historically proven to be
an extremely accurate predictor for what has
gone on to occur within the management
consultancy hiring market. The picture that
emerges this year is of an industry that is looking
ahead confidently to a year of strong growth - over
93% of consulting employers reporting they are
looking to hire staff this year at least as fast as
they did last year with the overwhelming majority
saying hiring will accelerate further in 2014.

This positive outlook is only qualified perhaps by
the skills shortage and war for talent that many
commentators including the MCA already predict.
Part Two looks at the appeal and effectiveness
of different recruitment channels from the
candidate perspective and includes rankings of
recruitment agencies, job boards, offline
providers and so on. It too is built around a
comprehensive survey and with ~12,000
responses it also has been an accurate
forecaster of the changing use of the established
recruitment channels as well as the new
channels that have become available to them.

Taken together, I am confident that we have
generated the definitive resource for planning
recruitment campaigns and maximizing the
effectiveness of candidate applications.

Our thanks go out to all those that have
contributed once more to the surveys and we
hope that you find this report a valuable
resource. As always, the team at Top-
Consultant.com look forward to helping you all
we can as the year unfolds.
Recruitment trends
Trend data based on over 800 recruiter
responses
Part One
Top-Consultant.coms Management Consultancy
PAGE 5
Expectations are certainly positive for the coming year, in
spite of continued unease about the ongoing economic
outlook, with over 93% of consulting employers reporting
they are looking to hire staff this year at least as fast as
they did last year with the overwhelming majority saying hiring
will accelerate further in 2014.
While hiring expectations taken across the UK
consulting industry as a whole are favourable, they are
also patchy with the rebound not expected to be felt
across all industries and functional areas.
Attracting enough candidates with prior
consulting experience will continue to be a challenge.
Though more consultants are reporting that they
would like to stay within the profession this year,
recruiters continue to favour experienced consultant
hires so there will be increased difficulties in holding onto
existing staff as well as poaching new joiners from
competitors.
Why not try
advertising for
consulting
candidates on
Top-Consultant.com?
Our low priced
advertising packages
allow you to see for
yourself the types of
results that recruiters are
experiencing by placing
their job listings on
Top-Consultant.com.
Click here to find out more
Top-Consultant.com
EXPECTATIONS
PAGE 6
Surely the most important metric we provide each year
is the one we turn to first: how do employers anticipate
their hiring volumes for 2014 will compare with those
from 2013? We are pleased to report that recruiters'
expectations for the coming year are upbeat with the
fewest respondents expecting lower hiring levels
than at any time since the Lehman collapse.

This year 80% of recruiters polled expect to make
more hires this year than last year (up from 67%
last year) with over 32% of employers this year
looking to increase their hiring aggressively.
Figure 1: 2014 Recruitment targets
vs. 2013
Figure 2:
Recruitment targets 2008
- 2014
Top-Consultant.com
32.6%
47.8%
13.0%
6.5%
0.0%
Make considerably more hires
than last year
Make slightly more hires than
last year
Make as many hires as last
year
Make slightly fewer hires
than last year
Target for the year is to make
considerably fewer hires than
last year
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Make considerably more
hires than last year
Make slightly more hires
than last year
Make as many hires as
last year
Make slightly fewer hires
than last year
Make considerably fewer
hires than last year HIRING VOLUMES
The historical series below shows that recruiters
have correctly predicted trends in the last preceding
years. The sharp deterioration in 2009 hiring was
accurately predicted as was the hiring rebound in
2011 that is until the Eurozone crisis impacted and
hiring fell off in the final third of that year. Explosive
growth in hiring is not expected but the gap to boom
market hiring levels is surely to be cut again this
year.
PAGE 7
Figure
3:
What staff attrition rate has your
consulting business experienced in the
last year?
Figure
4:
What do you believe will happen to
staff attrition rates during 2014?
Top-Consultant.com
8.7%
34.8%
41.3%
6.5%
8.7%
0% 20% 40% 60%
Staff attrition rates will improve
considerably
Staff attrition rates will improve a
little
No change in staff attrition rates
expected
Staff attrition rates will worsen a
little
Staff attrition rates will worsen
considerably
ATTRITION
11%
33%
28%
20%
4%
4%
0-5% of consulting
staff left
5-10% of consulting
staff left
10-15% of consulting
staff left
staff left
staff left
The UK consulting market as a whole is experiencing a
median rate of staff loss at just over 10%, which is more
or less unchanged from 2008. Naturally some firms
have suffered more than others with 4% reporting
attrition rates of over 25% compared with 11% of
respondents reporting between 0 and 5% of consulting
staff had left the firm over the last year.

The rate of staff attrition is of course a significant driver
of recruitment activity and it is interesting to note that
more firms report an expectation that staff retention will
get worse over the next 12 months (43%) compared
with those that retention rates will improve (15%). Given
this, it is certain that more of the expected recruitment
that we have seen reported from employers will be to
simply stand still in terms of headcount rather than fuel
increased demand for consulting services and growth.

PAGE 8
The hiring rebound will not, however, be seen across
the board. We ask recruiters to identify the areas they
expect to be undertaking the most hiring and in the chart
that follows, a score close to 1 indicates firms expect to
undertake little or no hiring in that practice area; while
the greater the number the more hiring is expected
compared with the previous year.

Amongst recruiters the expectation is that the
strongest hiring is expected in Financial Services - the
largest source of private sector consulting spend by far
followed in 2nd and 3rd places by Technology and IT ,
both leapfrogging Energy & Utilities this year.
The forecast demand for candidates that specialise in the
Engineering & Manufacturing and Automotive/Aerospace
industries is up, while the Public Sector falls back a little.
Figure 5:
Recruitment activity by
practice area
Top-Consultant.com
LIKELY HIRING BY
PRACTICE AREA
0 1 2 3 4 5
Financial Services
Technology
Information Technology
Energy & Utilities
Healthcare & Pharma
Telecoms, Media & Entertainment
Retail / Consumer Goods
Engineering & Manufacturing
Automotive / Aerospace
Purchasing & Supply Chain
Public Sector
General Management
Distribution / Logistics
Transportation
Science / Research
Chemicals
Education
Leisure / Lifestyle
Facilities Management
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
PAGE 9
When asked to provide the same steer on the types of
consulting expected to be contributing to hiring demand, it
is encouraging for the health of the sector as a whole to
see the increased appetite for strategy consulting hires.
Strategy consulting is often seen as a bell-weather for the
state of the consulting industry as a whole, so to record
strategy in first place , when it was fourth last year, and top
the last time back in 2010, is a positive reflection on
market sentiment for the year ahead.

Project/Programme Management and Business Process
Improvement stay steady in second and third places and
Technology consulting drops from top last year to fourth.
The appetite for Outsourcing and CRM hires drops this
year.
Figure 6: Recruitment activity by type
of consulting
Top-Consultant.com
LIKELY HIRING BY
TYPE OF
CONSULTING
0 1 2 3 4
Strategy
Project / Programme Management
Business Process Improvement
Technology
IT / Software Development
E-Business
Finance / Accounting
Marketing & Sales
HR Consulting
Outsourcing
CRM
Economics & Environmental
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
PAGE 10
Looking now at who recruiters are aiming to recruit
over the course of the coming year, it is clear once
more that those most in demand will be candidates
that bring prior consulting experience to the firm.

Those from government or public sector bodies remain
the least sought-after, with little change in appeal
amongst recruiters for those candidates coming from
industry and the City.

This year fewer recruiters will look to make their hires
from those coming from business schools but theres a
continuation of the trend for firms to recruit more
candidates from University.
Figure 7: Desired hiring profile
2010 2014

Top-Consultant.com
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
EXPERIENCED
HIRES
INCREASINGLY
ATTRACTIVE
PAGE 11
To consider the other side of the equation the
career intentions of the candidates in 2014
recruiters will be relieved that the proportion of
consultants most likely to move to another consulting
firm this year has started to climb back to pre-recession
levels. As employers are increasingly interested in
candidates that bring prior consulting experience with
them this will be welcome news, but there will be lots of
competition to hold onto existing employees and also to
poach new joiners from competitors.

Fewer consultants are looking to move client-side but the
appeal of taking a role in the City is on the increase once
again.
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Figure 8: Candidates career intentions
for 2009 - 2014
Top-Consultant.com
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Most likely to accept a job with a
consulting employer
Not looking to change jobs in the
next 12 months
Most likely to accept a job with a
client organisation
Most likely to secure some other
kind of role outside consulting
Most likely to accept a job in the
City
Most likely to accept public sector/
charity job
CONSULTANTS
CAREER
INTENTIONS
Recruitment channel use
Trend data based on ~12,000 candidate responses
Part Two
PAGE 13
Trends are based on data collected from almost
12,000 management consultancy candidates over
the last 13 years. Candidates from all the major
consulting firms have participated, together with
consultants currently working at niche consulting firms
and potential industry hires looking to move into
consulting.
Most respondents this year were Business
Transformation / Change Management consultants
(26%), Strategy consultants (22%), IT/ Technology
consultants (18%), Project / Programme management
Consultants (15%), Business Process Improvement
(11%), HR consultants (6%), Outsourcing (2%).

The sectors that candidates had most experience of
working in this year were Public Sector (26%), Energy /
Utilities (26%), Retail / Consumer Goods (25%),
Financial Services (Retail Financial Services focus)
(24%), Telecoms, Media & Entertainment (24%),
Financial Services (Investment Banking / Capital
Markets focus) (22%), Healthcare & Pharma (18%),
Automotive / Aerospace (14%).

36% of respondents had spent more than 3 years with
their current firm, 17% between 2 and 3 years, 15%
between 1 and 2 years, 13% between 6 months and 1
year and those that had joined their current firm within
the last 6 months accounted for 19% of the responses.
Survey responses were generated via direct mailshots to
the Top-Consultant.com readership; an invitation sent
to all screened consulting candidates on the Get-
Headhunted CV database; promotions via Twitter,
LinkedIn, Google News and Yahoo News, and by
invitations sent to candidates by recruitment agencies.
Are you a
Management
Consultancy
Recruiter?
Once a month the
Top-Consultant.com team
update recruiter contacts
regarding all the new
initiatives were planning,
free reports weve published
and any forthcoming
promotional offers they
could benefit from. If you
would like to be added to
our recruiter contact list
please email Bryan
Hickson.
Top-Consultant.com
CANDIDATE POOL
PAGE 14
Let us now look back at candidate activity over the
last 12 months and specifically the channels used to
look for new career opportunities. Every year we ask
candidates to record the channels they used and the
number of applications that they made through each.

Collating the data allows us to analyse the
penetration performance of the channels (how many
candidates used each channel to make at least one
application) and the share of applications achieved from
each of the six major recruitment channels:
Our candidate respondents confirmed that there
are huge variations in the saturation enjoyed by the
different application channels with three of the channels
being used by a far greater proportion of candidates than
the others.
Recruitment agencies have been used by a greater
number of candidates than any of the other channels,
with Personal contacts and Internet job boards scoring
very nearly as highly. Social media generated
applications from 45% of candidates this year, Corporate
websites 39% with Newspapers falling to just 9%.
Whats apparent from these channel penetration
figures is that no single channel alone will reach all
candidates and that a multi-channel approach is essential
to saturate the market.
Figure 9: Application channels used last time
to apply for a job
Newspapers
Recruitment
agencies
Internet job sites
Social media
Personal Contacts /
Referrals
Corporate Websites
Top-Consultant.com
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
2011 2012 2013 2014
%
CANDIDATE
ACTIVITY OVER
LAST YEAR
PAGE 15
Our respondents were also asked to record how many
applications they made through the six major channels.
This produces another measure of importance of each
recruitment channel within a recruitment strategy
the share of CVs produced per channel.

What is immediately apparent is that internet job boards
and recruitment agencies are critical in generating
candidate applications together they account for 55%
of applications made which is very similar to last year.
Corporate sites account for a steady 14.9% of all
applications made; Personal referrals are up slightly with
a 14% share; applications made via Social Media are
up slightly again this year at justover 12% and the share
of applications made as a result of adverts placed in
Newspapers continues to slide this year down to
3.3%, bringing up the rear.
10%
Figure 10: Share of applications generated
in last job search
Top-Consultant.com
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
CANDIDATE
ACTIVITY OVER
LAST YEAR
PAGE 16
Candidates were asked to score the likely channels they
would use when next hunting for a new job, both to allow
them to change their bias to allow for dissatisfactions
with their most recent job hunt and also to factor in new
developments that they have seen affecting the market
such as Social Media.
As you can see from the chart, candidates clearly
intend to modify their jobhunt strategies only
marginally during their next job search. Comparing this
years responses with those from past years shows very
little change.
Given this, it seems likely that the share of applications
that employers will receive from each of the hiring
channels is likely to remain fairly constant for the
foreseeable future.
2
2.5
3
3.
Figure 11: Channels most likely to use if
currently looking for new job
Top-Consultant.com
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
LOOKING FORWARD
Historical trends in recruitment channel use and
Recruiter & Media awards
Part Three
PAGE 18
In the main the historic newspaper advertisers
(direct employers and recruitment agencies) have
continued to switch spend to other channels.
Newspapers have suffered most in the last 13 years
with candidate penetration having fallen very
considerably indeed from a figure close to 50% to just 9%
of candidates making an application via this channel.
Share of applications continues to fall in a similar way
with just 3.3% of applications being made last year in
this way.

Figure 14: Share of applications -
Newspapers
10%
20%
30%
Figure 12: Newspapers and publications
consultants read regularly
Figure 13: Penetration -
Newspapers
0% 10% 20% 30%
Top-Consultant.com
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
16%
18%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
i
Independent
Telegraph
Evening Standard
Guardian
Metro
Other
FT
The Economist
Times
NEWSPAPERS
PAGE 19
Internet job sites continue to enjoy a high share of
candidate usage with, once more, just under two thirds
of all candidates making approaches to new
employers via this channel, just behind referrals and
recruitment consultancies. The shape of the evolution
of job sites penetration for the last six years
suggests a plateauing, as does its share of applications
which is also stable with just over a third of all
applications coming from online advertising on job
boards.
It is worth noting here, and as will be seen later, a
significant proportion of candidates (23.6% - no
change from last year) that make applications direct
via corporate websites do so having first seen the role
that they apply to advertised on an internet job site.
Internet job sites
Top-Consultant.com
Internet job sites
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
INTERNET JOB
SITES
PAGE 20
Figure 17: Websites most regularly
reviewed for consulting opportunities
Top-Consultant.com
Figure 18: Websites preferred for
finding a consulting job
0 20 40 60 80
Twitter jobsearch
MCA
Consultantsboard
TopITConsultant
Executivesontheweb
FT
eFinancialCareers
Jobserve
Totaljobs
Jobsite
Monster
Exec-Appointments
Top-Consultant
LinkedIn
0 10 20 30
MCA
Twitter jobsearch
TopITConsultant
Executivesontheweb
Consultantsboard
Totaljobs
FT
Monster
Jobsite
eFinancialCareers
Exec-Appointments
Jobserve
Top-Consultant
LinkedIn
INTERNET JOB
SITES
Candidates were asked to reveal the jobboards that
they regularly review and the jobboards that they
rate best for finding a consulting job. LinkedIn and
Top-Consultant are easily the leaders in the sector.

LinkedIn's rise seems to have been at the expense
of the other major job board brands, all of whom
only attract a fraction of the interest and favourable
response of the two market leaders.
PAGE 21
Bounty schemes have consistently achieved high
market penetration, generating applications from 68% of
candidates this year, a figure that has been stable for the
last few years and is now the greatest penetration figure
of any channel. Whats more, they have also been the
most highly-preferred way for candidates to make
recruitment applications in management consultancy.
But while personnel referrals will never be able to
generate a massive share of applications the natural
limitations in the size of individuals personal networks
prohibits this - we have seen companies using innovative
means such as advertising job referral programmes
through 3rd party media to eke the maximum share of
applications possible through this channel. This year we
have recorded a further if slight rise in share of
applications to 14%.
Personal referrals
Personal referrals
Top-Consultant.com
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
0%
5%
10%
15%
PERSONAL
REFERRALS
PAGE 22
Unlike the other major recruitment channels that we
have been tracking in these annual reports, we have
only been gathering data on consultancy candidates use
of social media for making job applications for the past
four years. This makes trend commentary more difficult
but a picture is emerging.

The data reflects a continued growth in share of total
applications albeit to just 12.1% up from 10.4% last year.
The percentage of candidates that make any application
through the channel has this year increased to 44.6%,
from 37.7% last year. It continues to be the case, for the
time being, that only a minority of consulting candidates
are using social media to apply for jobs.
While the vast majority of consultants have an active
profile (defined as being accessed at least once a week)
on a social media platform with LinkedIn being the
favourite by a clear margin the percentage of active
users on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter has grown
slightly this year.
Figure 22: Social media on which
consultants are active users
Top-Consultant.com
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
2011 2012 2013 2014
SOCIAL MEDIA
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
2011 2012 2013 2014
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
2011 2012 2013 2014
Figure 23: Penetration
Social Media
Figure 24 Share of applications
Social Media
PAGE 23
Given that there is nearly 90% take-up of the leading
professional social-media channel and that only 12% of
all applications are made via social media as a whole, we
asked respondents what they use social media for.

Expanding professional networks remains, unsurprisingly,
the most common driver of social medias use. Applying
for advertised job positions remains unchanged in 5
th

place this year.
Top-Consultant.com
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Figure 25: Main uses of social media by consulting candidates
SOCIAL MEDIA
PAGE 24
Over the last few years we have seen a fall in the
number of candidates making applications directly
via corporate websites. This year, while we see a slight
rise to 39%, the trend over time suggests a continued
decline.
Whats more, corporate sites seem stuck in a rut of being
able to generate only 14-17% of application volumes.
This year a figure of 14.9% of all applications made
to management consultancy employers through their
websites was recorded.
But how do candidates find themselves making
applications direct via corporate websites? It should not
be assumed that all candidates navigate directly to
company websites to make their applications.
Each year we investigate the different sources of
visitor / application traffic that corporate websites enjoy
so as to be able to quantify as best possible the
indirects that the other channels drive to the corporate
sites.
Most candidates (53.3%) that made applications to
corporate websites already knew the firm and navigated
straight to their website to make the application
interestingly this figure has dropped from 60% in 2009
when we first asked this question; 23.6% of candidates
made direct applications to firms they had seen
advertising on internet job sites; nearly 19.9% were
prompted to make a direct application by a personal
contact (up slightly); just over 15% found their way to the
corporate site following a search engine listing; 12% were
alerted to opportunities via Social Media adverts before
making their corporate website application (unchanged);
and 4.3% following adverts seen in newspapers.
Corporate sites
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Corporate sites
Top-Consultant.com
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
16%
18%
CORPORATE SITES
PAGE 25
Recruitment agency candidate penetration continues
to hold up well and appears to be plateauing at
around 70% penetration. Share of total applications made
has, however fallen from 26.4% to 24.6% this year
though this is, as we have seen, second only to Internet
Job Sites when compared with all six recruitment
channels.
Every year we ask candidates to feedback to us
on the different recruitment firms that theyve used. A
ranking of firms that received the most praise and the
least complaints is then produced.
The results were very close indeed so no outright winner
has been identified this year. We congratulate all those
firms listed.
Figure 28: Penetration - Recruitment agencies
Figure 30: 2014 top recruitment firms by
praise
Figure 29: Share of applications - Recruitment
agencies

Top-Consultant.com
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
0%
10%
20%
30%
RECRUITMENT
AGENCIES
BLT
Consulting Point
Michael Warwick Nicholls
Prism
Selecture
SK Consultancy Solutions
Tassell Consulting
PAGE 26
Recruiters
available
throughout 2014
All premium job listings
appearing on
Top-Consultant.com will be
added to the Management
Consultancies Association
(MCA) jobs board at no
additional cost
Take advantage
by registering for a
trial advertising package
Alongside the rankings of recruitment firms, we
asked candidates to help us identify the best individual
recruiters they had worked with. We asked them:
If you have been particularly impressed with an
individual recruitment consultant you have worked with
in the past, please provide their name & company so
that we can give them special recognition.
Twelve individuals stood out as receiving the most praise
and we warmly congratulate them all for their success.
They are listed in no particular order.
Figure 31: Best individual recruitment
consultants 2014
Top-Consultant.com
RECRUITMENT
AGENCIES
Chris Sale - Prism
Craig Milbourne - Comms Point
Darren Head - Selecture
Don Leslie - BLT
Genene Cooper - Michael Warwick Nicholls
James Cox - Consulting Point
Jonathan Tassell - Tassell Consulting
Mark Pierce - Michael Warwick Nicholls
Rakesh Pabbi - Consulting Point
Ruth Radnan-Skibin - SK Consultancy Solutions
Sally Wilson - Penna
Sasha Kemp - SK Consultancy Solutions
Find out how your firm could attract consulting hires
by:
advertising on our websites
advertising in our consultancy-focused publications
accessing our CV databases
running bespoke careers events

CALL TO SPEAK WITH ONE OF OUR TEAM
For more information on Top-Consultant.coms services or if you have any
questions about the data in this report please contact Bryan Hickson on 0207
667 6880 or email him on bryan@top-consultant.com.

REQUEST A BROCHURE
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you may have, using the address customer.services@top-consultant.com.
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reserved.

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