Book Review - Leap Into HR Consulting

I am an HR professional in his mid-forties. Am I in my prime, past it, or deluding myself about what I can achieve? Do I hang on and hope to make it to retirement or explore what is out there?

At my age you start to believe you are ready for your seat in the c-suite, regardless of what anyone else thinks. If you become a contractor, either through choice or unemployment, you convince yourself you can demand big pay cheques for your wisdom and expertise while working a few hours from a sunny beach.

Yeah, right! I am experienced enough to know that working overseas for a UK employer can trigger various time-based restrictions depending on the destination country, impacting tax, immigration and employment laws. It doesn’t change the fact I would love to work overseas.

I read the book Leap into HR Consulting by Sarah Hamilton-Gill and discovered if you are an HR business partner (HRBPs), your skills and approach will transfer easily across to consulting. All good HRBPs believe they are consultants but you may question your faith in your beliefs if your relationship with the business does not empower you to operate as a consultant.

Like the author, I am a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and agree it does not make or break your career, but is good to have if you are successful, otherwise you will have to explain why you don’t effing have it.

I liked Sarah sharing her early story, divulging just enough information to allow readers to understand her background and motivation. Sarah shows you the way to becoming a freelance consultant, empowering you to decide if you are a senior HR professional who has the skills and pedigree to swap your corporate career for a simpler, more fulfilling life.

‘There are thousands of businesses that need HR support to survive and grow. And it is true there are hundreds of thousands of HR consultants in the marketplace particularly in the UK. Many HR consultants fall into consulting without much training development or structure.’

I am not sure if the above paragraph is encouraging or not. Although I love working in HR, I want to be a writer and screenwriter too. Just because everyone watches films and television, it doesn’t mean anyone will commission me to write a TV series or feature film. But I am an established HR professional, not an aspirational one like my creative passion. I wonder how many of the 164,000 HR consultants Sarah found in LinkedIn would swap places with me.

Sarah is adamant that now is the right time to go into consulting. There are going to be mergers and acquisitions, redundancies and companies that thrive over the next two years. Bad news for some, good news for HR professionals. As I have always worked in the public sector with internal HR departments, I find it difficult to imagine hundreds of companies in the UK and overseas wanting external HR professionals. However, I know that freelance HR consultants exist and are considered for jobs that I am not.

The conversational tone of the book draws you in as if you were having a conversation with Sarah about your career choices. Sarah’s CIPD poll on being an HR consultant found that at least five years in HR is the minimum before considering consulting, although 10 years is more likely to be the trigger point for stable employment.

‘Another question you may have is whether to focus on the private or public sector. Again, most new consultants need to build up a client base and credibility in the private sector first and be in a sound financial position. The tendering processes for public sector tenders are long, very detailed and involve demonstrating that you have policies and insurance and meet their strict criteria. This involves being a limited company, often having ISO accreditation and demonstrating several years’ profitable trading history. Rarely do you get feedback on your tender and whilst the opportunities can often be larger and longer term you will be competing with much larger organisations.’

So, it’s not as easy as hitting apply or waiting outside the office building until the managing director hires you. The book covers HR franchising which allows individuals to operate under an established brand, or a licence if you want access to systems but more autonomy. Going solo is a higher risk as you have to build your brand, have no support and you are competing against established consultants.

Sarah does not pretend it is easy – ‘…at the end of the day having a successful business is entirely down to your capability as an expert and business owner.’

Finding clients, accounting, networking, market research, setting boundaries, chasing success, preparing for and accepting failure and setbacks. Do you have expertise that in-house HR teams don’t have? If you spend too much time working in internal HR teams, how do you gain the experience to become an HR contractor? You don’t want to be that annoying HR consultant on LinkedIn, you just want a job.

Scary? Yes, but maybe it is right for you. I recommend this book if you want to find out more.