May 6, 2010

50) McKinsey

危 wēi  danger

In its 2009 report, the UK CIPD’s Employment Survey claims that the average cost of filling a job vacancy is between £4333 and £7750.  This is the average across all sectors and doesn’t even include legal or training costs.  For Management Consultancies this number must be far larger – the firms visit universities in the recruitment drive and often give signing on bonuses.  With this in mind surely McKinsey’s average employee stay of about 3 years is a fundamental floor to the business model?

机 jī opportunity

Far from it, McKinsey cleverly keeps its leavers close to the Firm, recognizing their potential value.  It delivers this through its alumni services – both formal events and informal networking. This dynamic network is widely understood to be a lasting benefit of a career with McKinsey, thereby improving its appeal as a recruiter. The backbone of the McKinsey network is the firm’s alumni directory which lists the details of 3,500 ex-McKinseyites and is more up-to-date than the alumni rosters at Princeton or Harvard.  The strategy of setting up its alumni to be potential future clients must be working – McKinsey has produced more CEOs than any other company and is referred to by Fortune magazine as “the best CEO launch pad”. And you can’t blame the Firm for not publicizing the fact that Enron’s Jeff Skilling was among those high-flying CEO alumni.

How About…

  • Keeping departing employees close: supporting them where possible and viewing them as potential ambassadors for your company?

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October 16, 2009

14) Sun Life Financial

sunlife_logo

危 wēi  danger

Sun Life Financial, the Toronto-based insurance and financial services provider, has felt the downturn – in both its share price (down 70% between ’08 and ’09) and in its P&L.  With similar results many of its competitors have been reducing ‘non-essential’ budgets in order to improve their bottom line in the short-term.  Staff training is often the first to go.

机 jī opportunity

Sun Life has done the opposite and launched a 4-year, $15m training programme in February ’09.  By the end of the programme, which is co-run with Duke Corporate Education, it is expected that 2,500 Sun Life staff will have attended.  The course aims to identify talent and prepare staff for the upturn (when consumers are likely to exhibit radically different behaviours versus pre-recession).  In addition, many of the staff have pointed to the level of commitment from leadership as a signal of trust and intent.

how about…

  • using downturns (or just quiet spells) to build skills ready for the upturn
  • adapting training programmes in light of changing market conditions
October 2, 2009

12) Zappos

zappos logo

危 wēi  danger

It’s a recruiter’s market in any downturn, and that certainly holds at the moment with current US and UK unemployment rates widely predicted to significantly exceed 10% by the end of 2010.  Many recruiters spend much of this time of opportunity worrying about losing their talent when the market improves (known as brain-drain).

机 jī opportunity

Zappos has found a creative way to ensure that the talent it brings in is committed and therefore likelier to stick the course – it offers all staff an incentive of $1000 to leave after two weeks of its four week training programme.  This system, coupled with a rigorous recruitment process, yields it a winning combination of brains and commitment (and the sale of the business to Amazon for $880m in July ‘09).

how about…

  • incentivising uncommitted employees to leave the business early, ensuring a better return on your training investment
  • increasing training for those employees that have self-selected themselves as committed