Strategy consulting can be defined as when an organization seeks the consultation of outside experts in order to get assistance in managing their organizations effectively. The strategy consulting firms India analyses the working process of the organization and then advises them to bring necessary changes in the operations, project management, as well as business strategies as per the requirements of the organization.
Not only they help you make the right business decisions but they also act as HR strategy consultants and help you implement more outward programs such as Outplacement Services in order to create a loyal team of employees in the long run. The simple purpose of these firms is to help businesses with their decision making when they have a complex problem to solve. Advantages Of Strategy Consulting The benefit of using these services is to make business operations better and make the company profitable in the long run. There are many benefits of taking management consultation. 1. Using The Knowledge Of Experts The foremost advantage of hiring a consulting firm is the expertise and the wide knowledge of the consultants that can be used to find the solution to the problem faced by the company at any given point of time. These consultants have sharp minds and years of experience with relevant education and skills to help provide you a whole new perspective on problems you are looking to solve. They have worked on similar problems in different organizations and have managed to gain the first-hand experience to tackle it in the best way possible. Even if its a new problem, their fresh methodology to deal with a specific problem can help bring something new to the table and can help you deal with it in an expert manner. 2. A Different Perspective To Look At Problems Another big advantage of bringing a firm is that they bring into a picture an impartial set of eyes to a problem, one that is not biased towards a particular solution and thus can actually help you deal with the problem rationally and from a different perspective. These people don’t work on a hunch but create long-term solutions on the basis of the skills and knowledge that they have. 3. Lesser Time Spends On Taking Important Decisions By using the services of a consulting firm, a company can save crucial hours, days or even months as they no more need to conduct deep research thanks to the expertise and past experience these consultants bring to the table providing fast and immediate solutions. 4. Making The Use Of New Skills It is always expensive to go through the hiring process every time something changes in the market. Consulting firms can help you study the market needs and can create a training analysis plan to help you identify gaps at an early stage so that you can bridge them in a timely manner without having to suffer the consequences. 5. Helpful In Exploring New Market Strategy consulting firms are the most beneficial when you are about to charter in untested waters or planning to expand in a whole new country with no idea about the rules and regulations in place. With their global reach and network, they can help you establish in a risk-free manner so that you can reap the maximum benefits out of your investments.
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Whether you wish to hire the services of the strategy consulting firms India to generate new and fresh ideas for different projects of your business or to gain benefit from their experience and expertise or managing your HR related issues or simply to augment the line of business you are dealing in, the below mentioned tips can help in ensuring that you hire and collaborate with the right strategy consulting firm. Read through:
In the very first meeting with the consulting firm, you should be quite clear on what your business objectives are and the related time frames for completion of tasks and the desired outcome that is sought. Tell them each and everything that they should or need to know in terms of growth opportunities in the business and the present challenges. Refrain from leaving even the smallest of details.
The chances are that you and your strategist will be using the same language to communicate with one another. But, you need to ensure that you are being understood by the consulting firm in the manner you require your concerns to be taken care of. To leave no room for ambiguities, ensure that all the technical jargons are properly explained to the strategy consulting firms. This will help the strategy consulting firms better understand terminology and language the company converses in.
It is important to communicate the time and your budget to the strategy consultant up front. With your budget in mind, the consultant can better help you in devising a consulting plan which can give the desired results in an efficient manner. Thus, no time is wasted on part of both the consultant and client in making negotiations.
While working with the strategy consultants, the best strategy is to always focus on the expected outcome rather than on the time required for delivering the same. You need to be clear with the consulting firm with regard to the body of the work and the expected outcome. For instance, when you hire HR strategy consultants, you need to focus more on the business outcome rather than the hours they spend on the task. This makes them accountable for the results within the budget and the timeline.
It is a fact that working with the strategy consulting companies is not a one way road. The consultants can never be expected to go here and there just for the brief and will reach you as soon as the desired outcome is achieved. Rather, it is a collaborative project where both the parties are required to take equal proportion of interest and most importantly stay active to the desired outcome. The consulting firm should be seen as an extension of your own team. You should invite the members of the strategy consulting firms to be present on the site and get integrated with the team. When it is about business relationships, sustaining trust is highly important, particularly, when the consultants are contacted by the business organisations in order to navigate the tricky water.
There are certain behaviors of the successful consultants which help in distinguishing them from the rest. If you are looking to hire the outside expertise, and searching for ways to search for the right person; we tell you the behaviors demonstrated by successful strategy consulting firms India while embarking a trusted consulting engagement: Listening To The Problem At Hand It is a fact that if any business organization approaches a consultant, for instance, an HR strategy consultant, then they need advice for some problem that they are facing. In order to instill confidence in the client organization that the consultant has the potential to tackle the problem, they attentively listen to the problem at hand. Before the first meeting with the client organization, the consultants are required to do their homework about the business organization and the individual involved in the issue. This way, nothing in terms of information will be new to the consultant, and they can simply ask the doubts they have about the case. On the basis of responses supplied, they can provide a crisp proposal to the client organization for resolving the issues. Turning Down The Request Of The Client There are a number of consultants whose default response to everything is saying yes. This is being done out of the worry that their work may get dried up if the clients get annoyed. But, pleasing every client is not a trait of a successful consultant, particularly those providing outplacement services. The successful consultants extend a ‘no’ when the client asks for additional deliverables without any increase in the fee. The successful consultants are often seen turning down the request for a service when performance of the duties goes out of the professional capabilities of the consultant. The honest approach of the consultants is always appreciated by the client organisations in the long run. Pricing There are a good number of potential clients who try their best to squeeze the consultants on initial assignments with a promise of more gigs in the future. But, successful consultant firms usually don’t allow lowering the price. If the niche is significant one, and the charges seem to be appropriate, then the consulting firms may turn down the counter offer. Offering Creative Solutions There are situations when the consultants are approached by the client for the issues and matters which do not lie fully in the purview of the consultant. For instance, a digital PR consultant receives request from the client for SEO advice and tools or simply to manage the Facebook handle of the company. In such situations, out rightly rejecting the request may sound rude, so instead, the embrace the problem and try providing even a partial solution or the contact details of the right person to resolve the issue at disposal. This sounds to be more integrated and sophisticated. The Top management faces a number of business challenges, but one of the deadliest of the challenges is to manage the human resource of the organization. Thus, the role of the HR has gone beyond traditional one and turned into a strategic one. This is the reason most of the organisations are hiring the services of HR strategy consultants.
We tell you how the HR consultants increase HR values in an organization:
The customers of HR consultants include top management, current employees and the prospective employees, in short, the corporate umbrella. These consultants need to define these customers and then deliver good experience to them in accordance with the individual needs of the customer. They even devise processes which are in line with the expectations of the different categories of customers, the HR professionals need to deal with.
Corporate culture, performance evaluation, employee engagement, operational efficiency and talent mapping are some of the key areas where the HR consultants can create an impact. They play a critical role in defining the organizational goals and then cascading the same to the employees. They follow a proactive approach and consult the Top Management in order to understand the necessary gaps and finding the solutions for the same.
The various HR strategy consulting firms India measures the progress of their initiatives and make sure to benchmark them with the prevailing industry standards. To understand the value of the progress made and measure in numbers, the feedback of the targeted segment also plays a key role. Thus, it helps in understanding the value of HR initiatives and also justifies the efforts taken for doing the same.
Once the HR consultants understand the impact created with the different initiatives taken by them, they move further and focus more upon expanding their actions for getting a better return. They understand the requirements and the related issues and then work out a solution by demonstrating the actions that are required to be taken for implementing the said solution. They ensure that an optimum utilization of resources is done for achieving the desired results.
The most crucial aspect of each and every HR strategy is its connect with the people who are going to be impacted by the said strategy implementation. It is the personal connect which creates employee engagement, loyalty and motivation in the employees in turn leading to a strong corporate culture. The values which are acknowledged and measured also helps in aligning the behavior. A strategic plan for HR initiatives here help in increasing the success quotient of the strategy. This is the reason each and every strategy is accompanied with a guidelines and the intended results. It’s high time HR makes a giant leap and evolves itself to cater to the different customer base of the organization by understanding the value and capitalizing on the same. This will lead to better hiring, increase in efficiency and productivity and thus the overall success of the organization. In the era of fast pace, every move counts. And moreover, every move has an unexpected impact on everything that you plan for the present and also for the future goals. Thus, after fulfilling the necessity of having a top notch team for a company to grow more, it is an utmost priority to lay down your strategies with thorough research and hypothesis. And let's all of us face the truth that whenever, as a board team collectively comes up with strategies, we are unknowingly biased towards it. And it is psychologically fair as it is a product of our thoughts and experiences. But with that, we often happen to be ignorant about the drawbacks of our planned strategy which in return tend to backfire us. And this mistake has been realized by several MNCs and companies. And to avoid the same, have opened the doors for HR strategy consultants.
Strategy consultants in India have been a booming industry and their value has been lately recognized and rightly applied by the companies. The perks of vouching for a strategy consulting firms India is that mainly they aren't biased about thoughts, are highly updates with the market scenario and also have experts who excel in forecasting the future possibilities. It is highly essential to put things clear on the table because that is when you can bring the best offer on the table for your team and the clients to pitch in. And for that you need a dedicated team who are experts in differentiating vision, mission, small term goals and long term goals amongst everyone and ensure that everyone is on the same page. And this might seem easy to read, but is a task in itself as it has to be passed on amongst each and everyone without forcing a thought. Which in itself requires strategy to build a cohesive workplace and workflow without a conscious effort. Well, this is merely a small example of how important it is to strategy every move to win the checkmate and how it cannot be attain single handedly by the board itself. Having a kick starting strategy in mind and in the board meet is excellent, but to execute it with the confidence that it will return in with positive graphs is a little unstable. And to fill in this void of contemplation, HR strategy experts pick the right people, pick the right way to do research, pick the right people from their own team who suits the best to the company profile, and finally draw out strategies and plans and layout them on the table with sheer confidence and experience. And this is when, two independent thoughts come together, the chances of failure reduces as all the aspects of negative outcome are analyzed and worked on. And that is when a well crafted and articulated plan is executed with throwing light on one individual goal and techniques so that the disputes are resolved way prior and everyone is on the same page of the book. Integrating Compensation Planning With Financial And HR Objectives For Better Employee Retention8/1/2019 For most organizations today, the ability to attract and retain top talent in a highly competitive environment is at the forefront of their business development efforts. Contrary to the popular belief, attracting, motivating and retaining a highly-skilled and diverse workforce in a limited budget is quite possible. For this, companies need to have a more strategic approach to compensation management.
Taking A Closer Look At Compensation Management Compensation management is the process aimed at ensuring that any investment decisions related to paying the employees of an organization are made in an effective manner. In this context, organizations generally seek the help and advice of HR strategy consultants and compensation professionals for developing a well-defined compensation management process. The processes focus on the key objectives of ensuring appropriate compensation to professionals with different skills and experience levels, generating a return on investment and maximize the productivity of employees with the help of rewards and benefits. In addition, the process also uses compensation data to accurately predict the likely contributions of the employees to the organization in the future. This data is provided by managers based on their understanding of individual employees and their complete skill set and capabilities. Developing An Efficient Compensation Management Program An efficient compensation management program aims to enhance employee engagement besides aligning the business objectives of an organization. However, developing such a program is not an easy task as it involves the alignment of compensation plans with the financial and HR objectives. This helps in placing compensation as the key component of the overall talent strategy of an organization and fostering a culture based on performance. According to the experts from strategy execution consulting firms, employees feel valued in an organization that follows trusted performance feedback and promptly delivered reward system. This, in turn, helps in driving performance and ensuring better returns on compensation investments. Promoting Manager- Employee Communication An important aspect of developing an efficient compensation management program is efficient communication between managers and employees. Promoting a transparent dialogue between managers and employees helps the leaders to efficiently communicate the basis of staffing and pay decisions. It also helps them to explain any compensation discrepancies to the employees with the support of reliable and fair data. Professionals offering leadership consulting services also stress on the importance of promoting a coaching dialogue between managers and employees. Such dialogue helps the managers to gain a better understanding of the employee capabilities and their significance towards fulfillment of business objectives. This information can then be used for taking more accurate and effective compensation decisions in the future. Significance Of Rewards And Recognition It has become important for business organizations to ensure that they invest in employees, who contribute more to the organization while staying within their compensation budget. Moreover, frequent and informal rewards and recognition also need to be factored in for efficient compensation planning. A well-planned compensation program aligns award categories with employee behaviors that the organizations need to encourage. For this managers need to gain a clear understanding of both the financial and HR objectives of the company. It helps in incorporating a company culture where rewarded behaviors are supported by organizational values. Each and every business organization faces a number of problems when it comes to running the business or consistent enforcement of certain policies across all the departments. During such scenarios, the organizations feel the need to take help from HR Strategy consultants.
To throw more light, let’s take a look at certain HR related issues and how the HR strategist can conveniently deal with them: Retention It is a myth that the prime task of the HR consultants in an organization is to source new talent in the company. Instead, the main activity involves retaining the existing talent in the organization. The employees are indeed the lifeblood of any organization who are responsible to make or break the business. This is the reason, it is the utmost responsibility of HR functionaries to protect the valuable asset which comes in the form of employees. As per the companies providing leadership consulting services, the employees are attracted to those companies which offers a fine mix of remuneration and a good company culture. Recruitment In order to cope up with the loss due to natural attrition and to complement the existing team, recruitment of new talent is one of the issues faced by HR consultants. Searching for the staff with the correct blend of skill set, personality and motivation is a cumbersome task. The HR Managers can take the help of strategy execution consulting firms in effectively processing the applications and CVs received for the job posting. Productivity When the productivity is low, the HR is required to know the reasons for low productivity and ensure to eliminate the same, so that the business can operate in an efficient manner. A Time and Motion study is required to be done to understand who works and how an employee works. This will give powerful insights on efficiency gains and will give directions to the improved productivity. Training In order to ensure employee development, training is seen as the best avenue. There are certain roles in an organization which demands specialization and certification, for those roles, HR initiatives should include paying for the fee of exam and keeping a track and ensuring that the employee completes that course. Even during in-house training, to ensure genuine participation by the employees, the HR consultants are required to record the attendance for the course and take an assessment of the skills developed. Discipline When it is about discipline, HR is one department, which can satisfactorily resolve the issues between employer and employees. They are required to keep a well maintained, accurate and updated record of the disciplinary issues, if any. This may include, minutes of meetings, letters exchanged between employer and employee and other follow-up activities. With an integrated HR approach, much of the disciplinary work can be simplified which helps in reduction of legwork at a later stage of time. Payroll Accurate and timely payment of salaries to all the staff members is one of the attributes of an effective and efficient organization. The HR manager is required to maintain the records related to salary, perks, bonuses and other benefits which are payable to an employee, however the payment of salaries is being done through payroll. In order to prevent pay problems, the HR managers should integrate their systems with that of the payroll supervisor. Addressing the talent needs of the organization in a timely manner is essential for any business to gain long term success. For this, the HR executives need to be able to anticipate the skill gaps and nominate candidates for fulfilling critical roles. They also need to pair the training and learning initiatives of the employees with various mentoring and coaching opportunities. However, performing these and various other succession planning management tasks is not that easy. This is because, the type of succession management strategy that proves most beneficial for a business, may differ from one organization to another. That is why it is not uncommon for business organizations to hire professional HR strategy consultants to provide guidance and support to their in-house HR executives.
Two Common Methods Of Succession Management Contrary to popular belief, business organizations do not, generally, have a lot of choices when it comes to choosing the best strategy for succession management. In fact, there are only two common methods that HR professionals can opt from and these are described in brief as follows. Replacement Planning : This method of succession management involves replacing the employees, mostly by their immediate juniors, as and when they choose to leave the organization. In this scenario, the HR professionals simply assume that the people replacing the outgoing employees would be ready, willing and capable of shouldering the enhanced responsibility. However, in most cases, such an assumption proves to be erroneous as even the best professional might need some sort of mentoring and support before they can take on a higher job role. In fact, such a sudden rise might actually reduce the performance efficiency of the employees in question and might even affect the morale of the entire team. Talent Flow : This is an alternative method of succession management and focuses on building talent pools after proper identification of the skills and competencies that might be required by an organization. In this method, the actual task of filling vacancies is performed in real time based on the availability of a vacancy rather than focusing on filling a specific position. According to top strategy execution consulting firms, this method of succession management is slightly more advantageous as it ensures the skills and the attitude of the candidates appropriately matches the needs for the job role. Choosing The Best Option Having gained basic information about both types of succession management strategies, choosing the best one as per their organization needs, becomes easier for the HR professionals. The one important thing that they need to remember before making their choice is that both these methods are not mutually exclusive. This means that HR professionals can implement both these methods if they consider it to be the best way to get desired results. In fact, the professionals providing leadership consulting services advice their clients to have a plan for both of these management strategies. This requires them to believe in the growth potential of their employees and also to invest in development activities to prepare the candidates with the right potential for their next big role. It also requires them to develop strategies focused on promoting positive talent flow within the organization. Business organizations often face the need to seek expert advice and guidance in matters that might be beyond their level of expertise. In most such cases, the companies choose to hire the services of professional strategy consultants offering their services within a specific niche. These strategy consultants are highly skilled and experienced management experts, who can offer reliable advice about the strategic measures that an organization might be considering taking. They also help in providing the right direction for the companies to grow by providing a proper roadmap for the companies to implement the strategies they consider will be most effective.
In addition to hiring the services of financial and marketing strategy consultants, an increasing number of business organizations are now opting for HR strategy consultants as well. Discussed below are the three key roles that these professionals play in enhancing the business growth of their clients. They Encourage Informed Decision Making One of the key responsibilities of HR professionals is to make a wide range of decisions on a daily basis. These decisions impact not only the overall working of the organization but may also influence the performance efficiency and satisfaction level of the members of the workforce. The strategy consultants help in ensuring that HR professionals are able to make these everyday decisions in an informed manner. They design a customized framework that helps to clearly define the way of thinking of HR professionals and streamlining the process of decision-making. This requires the strategic consultants to actively participate in the HR team meetings of their client organizations. They are thus able to establish the requirements of the consultancy project, prepare a proposal and perform the research, analysis, and assessment of the various growth options. The consultants provide an unbiased perspective of the various HR decisions, enhancing their effectiveness. They Inspire The HR Teams To Do An Introspection The strategy consultants help their client HR teams to identify their strengths, weaknesses, and capabilities that can help promote growth and success. The help the HR professionals to gain a comprehensive understanding of the various factors that inspire the members of the workforce to give optimum performance. At the same time, they enable HR professionals to learn about the impact of their various policies and decisions on the motivation levels of the employees. This makes it possible for the HR teams to reflect on the things that they might have been doing wrong and the best ways to rectify these mistakes for better organizational growth. Suggest The Best Strategies And Methods To Boost Business Growth The HR strategy consultants help n bridging the gap between the current capabilities of their client organization and the available market opportunities. They do so by making suggestions about the best strategies and methods that can help boost business growth. The strategy execution consulting firms even provide a roadmap to help the HR teams with effective implementation of these strategies. In addition, the professional strategy consultants also help the client organizations to understand the risk factors and profitability margins associated with different growth options. They work consistently to help identify the issues hampering business growth and provide the best solutions for the same. Developing the right strategies is one of the key parameters for businesses to ensure a consistent and faster growth and a significant increase in its value. Traditionally the responsibility of developing such strategies lied on the shoulders of top management of an organization. However, with the increasing competition and the rapidly changing market needs and expectations, modern business organizations are now seeking the services of professional business and HR strategy consultants.
An Overview Of Strategy Consultants The primary responsibility of strategy consultants is to help and support the clients with strategic decision making and execution. Given the nature of their responsibility, these consultants generally work in close co-ordination with the top level executives and senior members of the management within a business organization. They help the companies to define the vision, mission and policies for the business besides offering advice on their objective and future direction. These professionals use their expertise and knowledge within the industry to analyse the company situation and develop the most appropriate plans for gaining a competitive advantage for enhanced market share and revenue generation. Need For Strategy Consultants Contrary to the popular belief, strategy consultation is not just about offering advice and guidance about key business issues to the clients. They can offer a wide range of services to help companies grow faster through the development and implementation of effective corporate, organizational and functional strategies. With the blurring of the lines of distinction between the strategic planning for different business disciplines, seeking the help and support of professionals has become extremely vital. In this context the strategic consultants possess the right vision and attitude to help businesses overcome the challenges in the path of their success and growth. Benefits Offered By Strategic Consultants Businesses can reap a multitude of benefits by opting to hire the services of strategy execution consulting firms. The most common of these benefits are discussed in brief as follows. Framework For Effective Decision Making Strategy consultants provide their clients with an effective framework that can streamline their decision making process. They educate the clients about developing the best way of thinking to tackle future challenges. They even perform the research, analysis and assessment of the different growth scenarios and options. Their independent perspective and detailed recommendations help the clients to make informed business decisions. Provide A Focused Approach The strategy consultants help their clients to define their operations and also identify their strengths, weaknesses and capabilities. In order for businesses to ensure that the market understands its capabilities, it is essential for organizations to first create an understanding of what they do. The consultants make work towards analyzing the product range of their client business besides learning about the skills of its workforce, its client base as well as its marketing communications. This information is then used to assess the current capabilities of the business and design the most appropriate strategic plans. Identify The Market Opportunities The strategic consultants help their clients to compare their current capabilities with the market opportunities. This enables them to identify a range of options that match the current capabilities of the client. They also help in defining the associated risks and any requisite changes. |
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