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Seven Consulting, a consulting firm specializing in the delivery of programs and projects, has taken a number of measures to counter the impact of the covid-19 downturn.
The specialist consultancy employs approximately 100 staff in offices in Sydney and Melbourne and generates revenues of US$25 million.
Faced with lower demand for its services, Seven Consulting’s management team, led by founder Declan Boylan and managing director Gareth James, enacted a number of responses. However, in contrast to the top-down approach of most consulting firmsSeven Consulting followed a democratic approach that allowed all employees to vote on preferred austerity measures.
One of the introduced measures is the taking of paid leave, when consultants are not obliged to pay for the client. According to James, 10% of the consulting team are currently “on the bench” and have been asked to take time off.
Another measure focuses on reducing overall rewards. Employees have agreed to take a pay cut of up to 6% of their salary, with the final figure dependent on the company’s performance in the current financial year. The salaries of the owners (i.e. partners) were reduced by 10% to 50%.
Commenting on the decision to let the owners take a more than reasonable hit, James told the AFR: “Ultimately as an owner of an organization you understand there is risk and that comes with ownership. Ultimately, we think that having happy and engaged employees is a unique selling point for us as an organization, both for the employer and for the consultancy that needs to be involved.”
Founded in 2002, Seven Consulting takes responsibility for program delivery and/or program office management, as well as related services such as external program reviews or delivery capacity building. The firm works for clients such as CBA, NAB, Macquarie, City of Melbourne, BNP Paribas, Equifax and Woolworths.
Since the nationwide lockdown, the consultancy has seen various work shifts, with clients suspending some programs and re-prioritizing their portfolios amid the pandemic. Helping clients with this second process has skyrocketed and demand for this type of support has almost doubled in the past seven weeks.
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