The Consultancy Of The Future NOW
Published: January 2010
With the New Year come plans for radical changes to Relay’s operational architecture that will make the company “unrecognisable” within months.
People, processes, attitudes, locations, staff development and customer relationships will all be overhauled as the ambitious programme lifts the company's offering to clients dramatically.
Managing Director, Steven Street said of the exercise: "We have been consulting a mixed panel of employers, asking them what their ideal staff supplier should look like in three years.
"What services will they need? How should they be delivered? By whom and where? What skills and knowledge must recruitment consultants have in 2013? What rankles about today's staff supply process that really will have to go in the leaner, more competitive trading conditions everyone anticipates?
"The feedback gave us a detailed picture of the complete future recruiter and we will be first to market with that model. Clients will get what they're going to need from a consultancy ahead of time, so they can steal a march on their competitors."
Consistency of Excellence
While the precise changes will stay under wraps until March, Steven promises that their sweep and scope will be astonishing. The aim is consistency of excellence across the new-look company. "Although driven by external demands, these were canvassed by us and only changes that benefit clients will be introduced. Essentially, we said to them, ‘You set the bar to the height that suits you and we will reach it'."
One improvement that can be revealed is a pioneering drive to tackle a perennial complaint about the recruitment sector; the variables of performance from desk to desk and the effects on clients of the migration of high-flying consultants.
Steven added: "We are getting intellectual property out of individuals and into the agency, where it should reside. If skills, knowledge bases, contacts, relationships and contacts are shared properly, they won't walk out of the company if any one person leaves.
"Far too often, consultancies are reliant on the capabilities of established star players who will champion one employer one year, then another the next - disrupting clients' operations as they come and go."
Relay has already made great strides in lessening the impact of turnover on customers - simply by reducing it substantially. Indeed, its seven principal players boast a combined 89 years' service with the company, which is an average 12 years plus each - an incredible figure in a predatory sector, where tenures are short and poaching common.
Staff have been fully consulted about restructuring throughout and many of their suggestions have been adopted. The planning process entered the final straight recently, when all employees across all offices gathered at a Leeds restaurant and meeting facility for a group wide conference, where the options for change were presented.
Relay Academy
Major themes were that nobody can rely on ‘old certainties' any more and that the need for bold, dynamic, entrepreneurial thinking rules out comfort zones. The upgraded Relay Academy was also introduced.
Under the stewardship of development director, Alex Golding, the Academy will ensure that personal development programmes for all staff match those of even the largest recruitment groups. It will also see to it that they are equipped with the skills needed to match client demands in more demanding trading conditions, where innovations and advanced technologies emerge ever faster.
Crucially, each individual will have an experienced personal mentor, both in the classroom and the workplace. They will be on hand to not only check that training received is applied correctly, but to encourage and instil confidence as new skills are practiced and perfected.
The ‘Be The Best You Can Be' commitment aims to make more people ‘A' performers than the 20% statistical average for workforces.
This will be benchmarked by how well they demonstrate the four Es:
Has Energy
Can Energise others
Has Edge
Can Execute tasks and challenges
Ideas
Conference delegates were invited to offer their ideas for the company's development - then, after the session, to submit proposals for their personal development at the Academy and future roles. Selected consultants were also asked to formally apply for emerging senior posts with the reshaped operation.
According to Alex Golding, who will project manage Relay's transformation, the quality of responses was incredibly high, reflecting the calibre of its workforce.
She said: "We have a formidable array of skills and are rightly proud of standards that invariably see us exceed expectations. However, there is always room for improvement and innovation - and our people are professional enough to see that. They know that rates of learning have to be equal to or greater than changes in our environment, or they will find themselves obsolete.
"The near future will see businesses forced to adapt by differentiating in a faster, more flexible commercial world demanded by their clients and consumers. We are determined to keep pace, supporting employers with fleet-footedness, impressive knowledge banks and an insatiable appetite for staying abreast of technologies, techniques and trends.
"The changes that will be unveiled shortly will allow us to always to deliver the right people and HR services first time."
Watch out for an announcement on the full range of changes in the forthcoming weeks.