A talent management consultancy is a firm rather than a person: a team with a method, a set of instruments they have used before, and a bench of their own so the engagement does not stop when one consultant is ill. For a small HR team the choice between a consultancy and an independent is not about quality, it is about what the company is buying. This page is for the HR lead or owner weighing the two: what a consultancy offers that an independent cannot, what it costs beyond the fee, and when each is the right purchase. The free succession exposure worksheet on this site works the three-year gap and the development budget a consultancy would otherwise work for you, with no account.
What a consultancy offers that an independent does not
A method that has been run many times, instruments such as assessment tools and calibrated rating scales, continuity when a consultant leaves, and the capacity to run a large calibration across many managers at once. For a company of several hundred people with a dozen managers who have never calibrated, that capacity is the purchase. The CIPD's succession planning factsheet, cited below, describes the assessment and readiness instruments a firm brings, and they are real; the question is whether a sixty-person company needs them.
What it costs beyond the fee
Access and time. A consultancy engagement is run through its process, which means the company's managers spend time in the firm's workshops and instruments rather than in a single afternoon's calibration. The output is often the firm's format, which the company then has to translate into its own record. And the fee is a firm's fee: the partner who sold the work is rarely the person who does it. None of this is a reason not to buy; it is the reason to buy for a problem the firm's scale fits.
When the consultancy is the right purchase, and when the independent is
The consultancy fits a first review across many managers, an assessment of a leadership team for a succession plan the board will read, or a merger where two companies' grids have to become one. The independent fits a small team's first design and first calibration, where what is wanted is one experienced person in the room. Either way, the exposure arithmetic afterwards is the same: how many critical roles turn over within three years, how many successors are ready, how many to develop and what that costs. The worksheet works it from the plan either produced.
What stays with the company whichever it buys
The record. Roles, slates, readiness dated, and the grid's counts per cycle belong to the company, and a consultancy's report should be turned into that record before the engagement closes. Ninebix Pro keeps it between cycles so the next review starts from the last one rather than from the firm's deck; the worksheets count the grid, work the bench and the exposure, and price the leavers free, and need no account.
Questions people ask about talent management consultancy
What is the difference between a talent management consultancy and a consultant?
A consultancy is a firm with a method, instruments and a bench of consultants; a consultant is one person with experience. The firm fits a large calibration or a board-level succession assessment; the person fits a small team's first design and first calibration.
Does a small business need a talent management consultancy?
Rarely for the first review of a sixty-person team, where an experienced independent in the room does the job. A consultancy earns its fee where its scale fits: many managers to calibrate at once, a leadership assessment the board will read, or two companies' grids becoming one.
What should stay with the company after a consultancy engagement?
The roles, slates and readiness as data, and the grid's counts per cycle. Ask for the report to be turned into that record before the engagement closes; Ninebix Pro keeps it between cycles and the worksheets work the arithmetic free.