The value in taking care of a staffing firm’s most vital assets cannot be understated. It is imperative a firm learns not only to place consultants in open positions, but also to nurture those relationships so those consultants are happy within their roles and pleased with the organization that placed them. This is a critical element to ensuring their willingness to be placed over and over again by your firm.
The strategies behind meaningful consultant care are geared toward engaging consultant employees to delight clients and build long-term relationships, while also identifying possible areas of growth and improvement within the placement firm. Excellent consultant care can easily set a firm apart from others as it offers a personal experience to each consultant and can benefit clients by increasing a consultant’s desire to perform and engage.
At Disys, we have a large team dedicated to consultant care within our US offices. Known as human resource business partners (HRBP), these professionals are dedicated to consultant care that begins as soon as a candidate receives an offer and runs through the end of engagement as well as throughout the offboarding process.
Here are some key tenets of our process:
Offer acceptance communication. After a consultant has accepted an offer, HRBPs reach out to welcome the new consultant and give them a sense of what they can expect throughout the onboarding process. From there, the team stays in contact with the consultant to ensure they have all of the information they need before they begin an assignment. Regular communication leading up to their start date is a key element that helps consultants feel aligned with an organization and helps alleviate some of those first day jitters we all experience.
First week communication. Throughout the first week on assignment, HRBPs communicate with the consultant to help them understand what they can expect during their first few weeks on the job, as well as the weeks and months ahead. We are able to provide this information through research on the client organization, similar placements, and also our expert understanding of the role the consultant has taken on.
Contributing to the success of the consultant is very important to us. While we do have a wealth of information at our fingertips to share with a consultant, our most valuable tool is listening to the candidate and then providing them what they need to complete a successful engagement.
This not only gives the consultant an opportunity to raise any initial questions about their new role, but also helps us spot any red flags early on. Our team asks questions such as:
- Is the job what they thought it would be?
- Do they have any early concerns about the role that might cause them to leave before the assignment has ended?
Answers to these questions help us navigate concerns and also gives us the opportunity to raise them proactively with the client if necessary, to resolve them quickly and efficiently.
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Quarterly touchpoints. After we ensure the consultant has settled into their role, we stay in contact with them throughout their assignment by performing quarterly touchpoint interactions.
During these touchpoint discussions, we ask questions that will give us insight into the consultant’s overall satisfaction level with their role and with Disys as a firm.
In addition to making sure the consultant is satisfied, we also look for information that we can share with our field and recruiting teams. For example:
- Do they have a project coming up that will require more headcount?
- Has someone on the team left recently, leaving an open spot to be filled?
Each touchpoint is completed and documented in an internal system the field team has access to, allowing them to quickly see the most recent communication with the consultant and also read through feedback.
Staying connected. Often times, when consultants sit at a client site, they can end up feeling disconnected from their placement firm and forgotten. This is one of the most common causes of a consultant being unsatisfied with an engagement. By establishing a rapport and a relationship with consultants through our Consultant Care touchpoints, our HRBPs, and asking specific questions outlined in our documented program, we are reminding our consultants who they need to reach out to with concerns. This prevents them from going to the client with those questions. We want to show our clients that the company is connected and engaged with its external employee population.
Consultant Offboarding. A smooth offboarding process is just as important as an onboarding one. Once a consultant’s assignment has come to an end, our HRBP team reaches out with an offboarding guide.
This guide provides the consultant with all of the information they will need as they prepare to leave.
It includes information on equipment return, final payment terms, benefits information, and what they can expect next, including how to obtain employment verification and how they will be able to access pay stubs and W2s after they become an inactive employee with us.
Our guide touches on every key concern and helps ease a consultant’s mind once they have left a client site.
We have found our consultant care program to be invaluable and are constantly looking for ways to enhance it. Understanding the needs of our clients is every bit as important as understanding the client and the type of candidate they are looking for to fill vital roles within an organization.
