The globe's best consulting firms for digital HR transformation
The Big Four firms – Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC – along with rivals McKinsey & Company and Bain & Company, are the globe’s best consulting firms in the area of digital HR transformation, according to a new competitive benchmark study. The frontrunners, with Deloitte marked out as the study’s runaway leader, are followed by a group of challengers, including BCG, BearingPoint and Accenture.
According to a recent Deloitte survey, 71% of the organisations surveyed give HR analytics a large priority. Looking at the current trends and developments in HR, this is not a surprise as HR processes are increasingly optimised and digitalised. As a result, the role of HR is changing from an administrative and operational function to a more strategic and advisory one. HR professionals consider HR analytics to be a condition to successfully fulfil this new role and provide the organisation with data-driven advice – putting the consulting industry at the heart of HR transformations for most businesses.
Every year, dozens of analyst firms rate the quality of the services offered by consultancies. One of those firms, US based ALM Intelligence, recently released its competitive analysis of the digital HR transformation space, trying to answer one simple question: who are the best digital Human Resources (HR) transformation consultants in the world? To come to its analysis, the firm assessed how well consultancies are doing with regards to realising results for their clients. Researchers looked into the breadth and depth of their consulting offerings, and their ability to deploy those capabilities across sectors and geographies.
From its global database of leading consulting firms, the analysts uncovered that there are twelve names which stand out in digital HR transformation. In an era where digital is very important, and in which digital transformation consulting has become a $23 billion industry, organisations are embarking on large transitions to transform their HR functions, and they way they operate. While this includes numerous functions, regardless of who is in control of an organisation’s digital transformation agenda, top priority among HR leadership and management is the matter of successfully adapting to cloud computing.
The shift to cloud-based HR service delivery models is a technologically driven, structural change, which cuts across multiple industrial sectors, just as the advents of multidivisional corporate structures and the outsourcing of non-central business needs were in the past. Similarly, transitioning to this new model is complex, and involves significant business risks – so to consider how to best navigate this situation, consultants have seen demand for their services pick up notably. Digital HR transformation consulting involves the application of a set of tools and approaches – including data analytics, design thinking, and connected systems – to help clients redesign their HR organisations, processes and service delivery models to fit the digital age.
Other key services part of HR transformation consulting include HR technology strategy, HR security, HR vendor/software selection, HR architecture and change management, but also newer offerings such as HR process automation through robotics and cognitive computing. According to the most recent data of ALM Intelligence, the global digital HR transformation market was worth $4 billion last year, part of the wider $31 billion HR consulting market, which itself represents around 12% of the global consulting industry.
Twelve HR transformation leaders
The twelve leaders in the digital HR transformation consulting space are: Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG, Bain, McKinsey, Capgemini Consulting, Accenture, BearingPoint, BCG, IBM and CGI. These firms are described by the analyst as firms that understand that helping clients digitally transform their HR functions is not just about cloud computing, even while companies make it their express priority. These firms instead demonstrate an ability to assist clients with taking full advantage of digital technologies in the HR function, not just those which are the trend of the moment.
These industry leaders are able to excel in three key areas. They are able to design tailored solutions to the individual needs of clients, assessing software vendors including SAP, Oracle and Workday, all of whom these firms have close relationships with, in order to match the best fit for a client’s unique requirements. Then, the twelve leaders also provide in-depth functional knowledge – separating them from other providers, who perhaps rely more heavily on general digital transformation know-how – specialising in the nuances of transformations specifically within the HR field. The leaders also know that digital HR transformation needs to be steered by the requirements of an overall business model – meaning they have demonstrated skill in the alignment and management of numerous stakeholders – balancing the interests of separate departments to work towards shared (human capital) goals.
Market leader: Deloitte
Deloitte has been named the most advanced supplier by the report. The Big Four firm’s position as the clear leader in the market reflects on the firm’s success in combining strengths in Human Capital practices, along with the digital prowess of its rapidly expanding Deloitte Digital arm. As is the case with a number of global consulting firms buying up digital and design players, Deloitte is using its digital acquisitions to offer bespoke services and inject new thinking into different sectors – in this case HR. Providing HR transformation consulting through its Human Capital practice, primarily, the team works closely with Deloitte’s Digital division. The firm also often utilises its multiple assets to enhance this service, including its Bersin subsidiary for research and analysis into new HR trends, as well as its Greenhouse collaboration and ideation spaces.
PwC, the globe's largest consulting firm (together with subsidiary Strategy&) ranks second. The firm's secret to success is a strong strategy-through-execution approach, as HR transformation generally requires providers to provide a wide array of capabilities. While PwC boasts deep expertise and top-level partner status with major cloud HR technology systems providers, the firm’s strength also resides in its connections with innovative digital HR start-ups, along with its in-house assets of the same order.
EY and KPMG sit joint third. EY views the process of HR transformation as a holistic issue – thus it approaches the field from the perspective of its client’s broader business objectives, integrating its digital capacities fully into the firm’s global People Advisory Services practices to support this philosophy. KPMG meanwhile coordinate their activities similarly through its People & Change division, along with their Global HR Center of Excellence. KPMG’s end-to-end value proposition in the market includes strategy, operating model design, as well as implementation services.
In fifth, McKinsey & Company has extended prowess beyond high-level digital HR strategy, into more tactical capacities, even though HR consulting is not the firm’s traditional focus. Offering services such as translating clients’ HR and business objectives into hypotheses that can withstand empirical tests via data analysis, McKinsey has obtained a leadership position in this market.
Following close behind, Bain & Company is the sixth and final firm that belongs to the group of absolute industry leaders. Bain has marked itself out from its competitors by maintaining a focus on the human element of HR. While, like McKinsey, Bain is mainly known for its work in corporate strategy and management, it has played to its strengths in the segment well enough to extend its reputation as an industry leader in the delivery of digital HR transformation engagements.
Top challengers
Behind the group of leaders, follow six consulting firms that yet still boast an excellent track record and service portfolio in the field, despite trailing the upper echelons of the sector. BCG, BearingPoint, CGI, Capgemini Consulting, Accenture and IBM are each well positioned to challenge for outright market leadership if they progress quickly in the field. So far, they are in the top twelve, each focusing on the delivery of the three key areas of bespoke solutions, leveraging in-depth knowledge and a wider-view approach toward business-orientated HR transformation consulting.
