Few would disagree that we are (and have been in the post-Covid era) experiencing a period of change in the UK to many aspects of employment. Some are sector and business specific, and others are social. However, in addition there is another set of changes being driven by government to “reset” some aspects of the employer/employee relationship.
The 150-page Employment Bill of Rights proposed in 2024 seeks to amend many aspects of the relationship and some of these have received notable media attention. Currently under consultation is the period after which employees gain rights that would otherwise have been gained after two years. Of, course, employees already have rights from day one. These include health and safety, discrimination, minimum wage, contractual clarity etc.
Advocates for day one rights argue that there is little to fear and that the changes will merely make the relationship more equal. Opponents argue that they will restrict employer decision-making. Whichever side of the debate prevails, all will agree that there will be need to sharpen recruitment decisions and other HR processes such as performance appraisals.
Our Approach
In MDC Advisory we routinely support businesses in enhancing their selection decisions. We do this by applying our collective commercial and professional experience to six key stages of our support to them.
In addition, and as previously highlighted by MDC Advisory, there are some simple steps a business can take to ensure that it runs its recruitment and selection processes effectively. Inevitably, one of the recurrent questions we consider regularly in MDC Advisory is client value for money.
Value For Money
Whether a client is getting value for money from their consultants is very much a “beauty in the eye of the beholder” topic. Investments that look fair and reasonable to some may look like unfair profiteering to others.
There is, of course, a market norm that sets some limits that are then adjusted to reflect, scale, complexity, subjective appreciation of the value added etc. From a consultancy firm perspective, these are all factored in when providing clients with costs quotations.
One specific topic where these value for money issues are highlighted is in the fees for selection and development assessments. As suggested above, changes to the employer/employee relationship are likely to mean there will be a need for many businesses to be more thorough in how they select employees.
In turn, these necessary enhancements based, for example, on introducing or expanding assessments, will bring into focus value for money debates.
Ten Key Issues
In our experience, there are ten issues here that our clients highlight in the value for money discussions they have behind closed doors.
- Does the assessment add additional insights about the individuals that could not be gained by other, simpler, or low-cost means?
- Are some of the issues measured in the assessment, by their fundamental nature, not amenable to measurement in ways other than by assessment tools such as psychometric tests?
- Will the consultants be explicit in their comments and avoid sitting on the fence?
- Do the consultants have sound commercial experience beyond just being consultants, along with knowledge beyond expertise in the technicalities of the assessment tools and do they know what to emphasise, downplay or ignore when offering advice?
- Can the consultants provide insights into relevant sector or functional trends and practices in similar firms that would not be gained other than by being exposed to them when working with multiple firms?
- Are the consultants prepared to challenge the client’s thinking with reasoned, evidence-based arguments that moves the client’s thinking in a better direction?
- Does the consultant have special experience, expertise or methods that are unique to them or are otherwise, at best, hard to develop or find elsewhere?
- Are the consultants credible and do they have the reputation and market profile that itself, adds to the authority from which they speak?
- Does the advice target the right issues in the right way and leave the client feeling better about the decisions than they would have done without consultant input?
- Can all concerned, if challenged, be able to articulate the value added by the consultants without resorting to complicated technical issues or bland, high-level generalities that sound right but lack meaningful depth?
Summary
At MDC Advisory, we address all of these issues when contracting with clients. Not only do we discuss them openly at the early stages of the relationship, but we review them and ensure that all concerned are up to date with the value we can add.
In the future UK employment world where selection decisions and the role of assessments are likely to be of even greater importance than now, getting the value for money judgements right, strikes us as a fundamental debate that clients will need to have sooner rather than later.
About The Author
Dr. Steve Sloan is an acknowledged leadership expert and consultant who has over 20 years’ experience advising clients globally.
He can be contacted via email or by calling 07585 548420
