10 tips to motivate and engage your consultants

Consulting is an industry that experiences very high attrition rates, of the order of 15% to 20% annually. As the war for talent rages, we must place the motivation and commitment of our employees at the center of management concerns, in order to keep our workforce as long as possible.

Employee motivation and commitment promote, in addition to reducing recruitment and training costs, customer satisfaction and productivity thanks to a better trained workforce.

Here are 10 tips for motivating and engaging your consultants:

1. Give management the means to engage and motivate their teams

Knowing how to engage your teams is an essential skill but this is not only acquired but also depends on the culture of the company. Top management must be fully invested in this objective of engaging consultants. This requires developing a corporate culture in which all managers are trained in coaching skills that make teams engaged and autonomous. It is therefore necessary beforehand that the organization has defined and shared a clear definition of management, its obligations and limits. It is only from there that a culture favorable to everyone's commitment will be able to develop.

2. Always more customer-centric

Successful organizations are those that place the customer at the center of their strategy. This is even more true for consulting companies and agencies whose service is entirely customer-focused. Consultant commitment should be channeled towards client satisfaction. When employees work to make decisions that help customers, they contribute to the company's strategy and goals. For example, when a client is dissatisfied, it is important to give consultants the tools and means to provide a response to the client and enable them to resolve the situation.

3. Continuing education

A culture that promotes commitment requires the promotion of continuing training. Employees must continually progress so that they have the means to always better meet customer needs.

Consultants can, for example, be trained to respond to client requests, receive training in negotiation or conflict resolution. The more tools you give your employees, the more confident they will be and will be innovative in the way of satisfying your customers.

4. Data access

Data is the key to an organization's success, and the more consultants understand this data and how it impacts the organization, the more they will help improve it.

Engage your employees by giving them access to data from the projects they are working on. This can range from budgetary topics, to customer feedback, including utilization rate .

By giving them, for example, a vision of the utilization rate of the different teams, they will be more able to engage proactively on future projects to maintain themselves at a favorable level for the company

5. Have a mentoring policy for consultants

Mentors always have a favorable impact for employees. Each consultant should have a mentor among management to ask them questions or to help them make decisions that may impact their career.

The mentor must be a person who has been able to successfully do things that the consultant is learning.

For example, if a consultant is learning methods to respond to a dissatisfied client, the mentor should have gone through projects during which he has demonstrated his ability to resolve difficult situations with the client.

6. Create an environment in which consultants do not feel in danger of making mistakes

We all make mistakes when we take on a new role, and it's important to create an environment where the consultant is coached when mistakes are made. We must favor very regular, almost daily feedback on the consultant's work, whether positive or negative. This type of feedback is much more positive for the employee, because it avoids feeling the feeling of judgment that annual or biannual feedback can produce. It allows you to acquire skills much faster and avoid repeating mistakes. It allows the manager to be more of a coach than a supervisor.

This type of environment further fuels creativity and innovation, because the entire hierarchy feels more confident to come up with ideas that would not otherwise come out.

7. Align salary packages with customer needs

It is important for consultants to understand that their compensation depends on their work.

It is therefore necessary to align performance objectives with customer expectations, and monitor performance metrics to link them with incentives. This motivates the employee to make the right decisions.

8. Consider personalities

Some people have an easier time interacting with others. Other people demonstrate more efficiency behind the scenes. Test and take into account these personality differences to offer the right roles to your consultants. Use DISC or Myers-Briggs tests to identify your consultants' strengths. Then put them in roles that suit them more, while allowing them to step out of their comfort zone whenever they want.

9. Write and communicate the criteria that allow you to move up the hierarchy:

The main reason for employee frustration is feeling stagnant within a company. It is necessary to very clearly define the reasons that make it possible to evolve, whether they are based on skills or on achieving objectives. In all cases, the more employees have a good understanding of hierarchical functioning, the more engaged and motivated they will be to make decisions that will be favorable to the firm.

10. The atmosphere conducive to teamwork

The atmosphere within the teams is particularly important to keep consultants motivated. It is up to the employer to put in place the necessary actions to promote this favorable atmosphere. Flatter organizations work better and are more productive, for example. Favoring more horizontal management can promote commitment. Setting up a platform to work together even remotely also promotes this feeling of teamwork. Finally, the organization of team building has proven its effectiveness in uniting a team.