Talent management consultants come in three shapes for a small team: the independent who has run HR somewhere similar, the boutique that does reviews and succession for companies of your size, and the large firm whose smallest engagement is bigger than your budget. Choosing between them is easier if the brief is the same for all three and asks for the same deliverables back. This page is for the HR lead or owner comparing consultants: how to write the brief so the proposals compare, what to score them on, and what to insist on receiving at the end so the work is not bought twice. The free succession plan worksheet on this site works bench strength and the roles exposed from the plan a consultant helps you build, with no account.
Write the brief around the deliverables, not the problem
A brief that says the company needs help with talent invites a proposal about the company's culture. A brief that says the company needs a rating scale, a calibration runbook, a succession plan for twelve critical roles with readiness dated, and the first grid's counts invites proposals that can be compared on price and on time. Put the roles count and the headcount in the brief; a consultant who cannot price twelve roles and sixty-four people has not done this for a company your size. The SHRM succession toolkit, cited below, lists the plan's components and is a fair checklist for the brief.
Score them on what stays behind
The proposals will differ on approach and the differences will be hard to judge from outside. What can be judged is what each proposes to leave: the process as a runbook the HR lead can repeat alone, the plan as data rather than as slides, the grid as counts. Score the proposals on those three and on price; the approach matters less than whether the next review cycle can run without buying the consultant again. Ask each to name the person who will do the work, because the boutique's partner and the large firm's associate are not the same purchase.
Insist on the record, in a form the next cycle can read
The plan should come back as a list: role, successor, readiness, the date it was assessed, who confirmed it. The grid should come back as nine counts and the names behind them. With those two the HR lead can work bench strength and exposure on the worksheet in a minute and keep the slates in Ninebix Pro so the next cycle starts from the last one. Without them the engagement produced a workshop, and the second consultant will start by rebuilding what the first one knew.
What a consultant should not be paid to do
Count the grid, work the bench, price the leavers, or keep the record between cycles. Those are arithmetic and filing, and the worksheets on this site do the arithmetic free while the subscription does the filing. A proposal that includes an annual return visit to recount the grid is charging for what a worksheet does; the return visit worth paying for is the one that re-runs the calibration and re-tests the slates against what changed.
Questions people ask about talent management consultants
How do I choose between talent management consultants?
Send all of them the same brief written around deliverables: a rating scale, a calibration runbook, a succession plan with readiness dated, and the first grid's counts. Score the proposals on what stays behind and on price, and ask who will do the work.
What should a talent management consultant deliver?
The process as a runbook, the plan as a list of roles and slates with readiness dated, and the grid as counts. With those the HR lead can run the next cycle alone; without them the work is bought again.
Do I need a consultant every year?
Not to count the grid or work the bench; the worksheets on this site do that free and Ninebix Pro keeps the record between cycles. A return visit earns its fee when it re-runs the calibration or re-tests the slates against what changed, not when it recounts.