A new world of confidence

Hay Management Consultants' American origins may go some way to explaining the adventurous business spirit that led to the breakaway group setting up what has become the biggest human resource consultancy in the world.

That same spirit may also explain why its Glasgow-based consultants are drawn from such diverse backgrounds as local government, pharmaceuticals, steel manufacturing, football and the priesthood.

With about 1300 professionals employed in the consultancy in 30 countries across the globe, Hay's focus is purely people-based. Concerned with the people side of business strategy implementation, almost half of its work is pay-

related, although there has been a diversification into general job-related areas like competencies.

''We identify the competencies which the good people in the job do and train the less good to do it so that the performance of the organisation is improved,'' says director Bill Brackenridge. ''It is about benchmarking the good against the better, about developing performance management.

''One of my favourite stories is about the Edinburgh-based life insurance salesman who sold the most number of policies but did not get any bonus at all because the way he did it was totally wrong. It's not what you do it's the way that you do it.''

Another human resource management tool Hay has developed is a culture sort, a process which allows the top teams to identify ''what is strong currently in their culture and what they want to be strong in their culture in the future''. Once agreed, the decision is focused on how major or minor the necessary change will be.

Management style is another area where human resource consultancy has a part to play. ''The way that we manage our people has a lot to do with the success of the organisation and there are six management styles ranging from autocratic to participatory and democratic,'' says Brackenridge.

''The autocrat says: 'Do it' and the democrat says 'What shall we do?' As managers, most of us don't use all the styles but we use some, and that can give problems.

''It is about leadership but also about coaching and the combination of those two styles works in most situations, although there are other situations which demand other styles.''

Finding out which style suits companies best involves issuing managers with questionnaires about their behaviour, asking them to identify what they think is their management style. When subordinates fill in the same

questionnaires and the answers

co-ordinate then the indication is that the management style being used is working well.

''Alternately, there may be situations where I might think I walk on water and they don't even think I can pass it,'' says Brackenridge, in illustration. ''If you simply tell me that my management style is not what I think it is I'm not actually going to believe you.

''But if you have asked my six subordinates and they all say the same thing, then there's a message there which I have to take on board or reject. If I'm going to do something to develop myself I will take it on board.

''It's all about clarity. This is what the job is, that is what I

want from you, this is the way I expect you to do it, and I can help you get there.''

According to Brackenridge, good management practice does not necessarily mean good recruitment practices and admits to finding recruitment a difficult process.

''Recruitment is the biggest decision we ever make. The way you recruit does a lot to sell the organisation to the potential candidate, and although we are a

people consultancy, we still find it difficult,'' he said. ''Recruitment is not a buying decision, it is a selling decision and you have to set your stall out. Good people have a choice of places to go, so if you want the best you have to impress them from the word go.

''It is about letting the candidate know what he will be doing, making it clear what the job is, what the organisation is like, so that they know what they are coming in to and want to come in.''

Consultancy is particularly difficult to define to prospective candidates and he has found that most people are unclear as to what is involved. Having a former local government officer, a former pharmaceutical salesperson, a

former British Steel operator, a former professional footballer and a former priest on board may appear a dangerous mix but in fact, given all of their different strengths, the combination has worked very well.

''We work in a relationship with the clients where we are part time members of their staff, and often end up working with a number of clients at the same time,'' says Brackenridge. ''The new consultant is put with team members involved with recruitment and that helps them to fit in. As a team we come together once a fortnight to share the work we do, to help each other and to develop as consultants, to get the right balance of chemistry for different projects.''

Hay Management Consultants has set three criteria which act together to make a project durable. It must be challenging professionally, commercially sensible and, equally importantly, it has to be fun.

The philosophy is that, if consultants are going to get close to clients and make changes, they have to win the clients' confidence, and to do that, they have to enjoy being there themselves.