6 signs that your consulting company is a zombie

Do you feel the suffocating stench of decay in your consulting company? Are you at risk of being turned into a zombie company? In honor of Halloween, we’ve listed the top 6 signs that your consulting company is becoming a zombie.

If you tick off the points listed, do not panic – Skills Management can repel even the most terrifying zombies.

1. You lack a central skills database/skills inventory.

A consulting company that spends hours finding the right skills for the assignment due to not having control over its accumulated knowledge, will sooner or later be overtaken by competitors and caught by a zombie. 

Solution? Know Your Skills.

Work proactively with strategic issues regarding market demand, ongoing trends, and your supply: which skills need to be developed internally? What kind of expertise needs to be recruited? In which areas do you need help from your partner network?

Cinode Skills compiles all your competence data in one database.  You get a clear overview of all your data, and can easily find the specific info that you’re looking for via the search function.  In addition, it will be easier to present your consultants to new customers. Streamline your processes. Lower the threshold for capturing, motivating, and providing a context for your employees by working with transparency

Lower the threshold for capturing, motivating, and providing a context for your employees and grow your business by working with transparency

2. Your consulting company uses word to handle all your resumes

Are your consultant profiles spread across different folders? Do you have different versions of every profile that are rarely updated? Do employees experience pressure over their chest when they open their consultant profile in Word? Is your template ugly and hard to work with? A consulting company that does not keep its consultants’ profiles up to date will sooner or later become a zombie company.

Solution? Show Your Skills.

Create digital and customizable consultant profiles that are easy to update and adjust to each specific assignment.

3. Complicated and person-dependent collaborations.

Do you spend too much time trying to find the right sub-consultants for your assignments? Do you need to manually contact your partners when you have available resources? Is your delivery capacity person-dependent?

Solution? Grow Your Skills.

Strengthen your delivery capacity by streamlining the handling of sub-consultants and partners. Find, match, announce and build your network with partners.

4. You have a high staff turnover

High staff turnover is not only costly, but it is also a clear warning signal to stakeholders and future recruits that management has not succeeded in establishing a pleasant and transparent culture. With the wrong company culture, you can end up attracting the wrong people, and all sorts of zombies.

Solution? Effective pre-, on- and offboarding.

How do you ensure that the new employees thrive? How do they become productive and independent from an early stage? It has been shown that employee onboarding can extend employment by as much as 82 percent. Studies also indicate that it is possible to achieve increased productivity by 70 percent. With effective pre-, on- and offboarding, you minimize the risk of individuals leaving or spreading negative opinions about your company.

5. You use Excel to keep track of your occupancy

Consulting companies often have different systems for resumes, sales activities, and delivery, along with a pile of spreadsheets for occupancy planning and skills. 

This leads to time-consuming manual coordination between different tools and processes.

Solution? Pipeline Management!

Streamline your skill inventory, sales activities, and assignment planning to create new opportunities. When sales support is synchronized with assignment and occupancy planning, you can act quickly, work more efficiently and optimize the staffing of your projects. 

6. Your product/service is superior to your purpose

Lastly, but most importantly: Is your purpose overshadowed by your product or service? Do you focus more on WHAT than WHY?  Have employees become unwilling, understimulated sleepwalkers?

Solution? Find your higher purpose!

The company’s higher purpose must be more important than the financial gains. Regardless of what you call this purpose / long-term goal, it constitutes a vital foundation for the entire company’s future existence. Do employees feel that they also develop on a personal level and not just in working life? Do you inspire others to do their best? Are you building a strong culture?