Successful people solutions to support your business growth

THE ACADEMY PROPOSITION
FOR ASSOCIATES

Academy HR solutions are delivered both by our own staff and via our extensive associate network. We are invited to provide resources and to bid for projects by a wide range of private and public sector organisations and believe that our delivery models can form a blueprint for working in the new economy.

The Academy service offering may appeal to:

• Existing Independent consultants seeking to develop their business;
• Corporate employees in HRM and HRD wanting to move out of corporate life and set up on their own.

The Challenge of Independent Consultancy

There are a number of common issues or concerns for independent consultants. Our model provides a flexible approach to help address some of these.

Most independent consultants, at some stage, suffer from a lack of work. Sometimes even those with the highest skill levels can lack the necessary marketing and business skills to ensure an acceptable flow of fee paying assignments. Conversely, freelance consultants who have the ability to sell their services effectively can easily create a situation whereby they are over-committed, resulting in either the need to turn down a hard won assignment or to deliver work to the client later than promised. Sometimes clients' real needs often fall outside the scope of the freelance consultant. This means lost revenue opportunities, lower client service and reduced credibility.

Working Alone

The advantages of independence are well known. It is often forgotten that working for yourself usually means by yourself; with no reliable source of advice and support; no consistent forum to share ideas; no sense of working in association with like-minded people.

Personal Development

Working on your own often means you build a reputation in one area and five years down the track you could still be doing the same type of work with the same clients at the same level of income. How do you find time to retrain? How do you persuade your clients you can add significant value in other areas?

Scale of Operation

Being seen as a freelance consultant immediately raises several issues in the clients' mind.

Credibility

• Consistent quality of work across disciplines
• Access to other skills with proven ability and back-up in case of illness (vital under IR35 rules)
• Existing clients expect personal service and attendance on all aspects of their project to meet the full range of their needs

In addition, independent consultants often find:

• Fee rates are considerably lower than is appropriate for the expertise provided
• The terms of business are often uncommercial
• Collecting money can be time consuming and sometimes ineffective.

Growing your business

Where a freelance consultant has built a successful 'personal' client base they often find it difficult to recruit additional people into the practice. Apart from the recruitment costs, very few independent consultants can afford to subsidise the new recruit and provide the necessary training. Increased accommodation costs, salaries and other overheads are all additional burdens which result in a negative cash flow and can undermine confidence.

Opportunities for assignments outside the freelance consultant's own areas of expertise are often seen, but can rarely be exploited fully due to the absence of a contract with another consultancy practice. Experience shows that informal arrangements rarely work effectively. Though most consultants do, in time, establish relationships with consultants in other disciplines very little extra work flows from these relationships.

Academy HR Solution

We are a different kind of consultancy and we offer our associates a unique and flexible model of working, which we believe is a future model for the new economy. Our associates have chosen to work with us to deliver a wide range of services of the highest quality. By working together in this way, we enhance the fee earning potential of everyone involved.

We provide the back-up expected of an efficient company, and a highly personalised development programme that builds effective and marketable skills. We endeavour to:

• Nurture and support the professional and personal development of our associates
• Provide the structure and quality systems that enable our associates to command fees commensurate with larger specialist consultancies.
• Deliver multi-disciplinary solutions to a wide range of client problems.
• Enhance the practical experience and professionalism of senior managers and mature associates and create a vehicle for them to fully exploit their talents in a consultancy environment.
• Create a high achieving and supportive environment where associates work together to mutual benefit and enjoyment.
• Ensure the only limit to achievement and earnings are set by each associate themselves.
• Ensure our associates are truly empowered to win, develop and deliver quality work to clients through working in partnership.

Commission Model

One of the unique benefits from our model is the reward structure. We recognise the importance of sales and growth and provide a unique range of incentives to our associates to encourage our philosophy of growing together. There are no pressures of sales targets but simply a commission model that rewards effort and loyalty. For more information on this important part of our proposition please contact us.

Benefits for our Associates

• A wider variety of Opportunities
• Potential to considerably increase your fee earning capability through our Commission Model
• High class support network
• Personal development support
• On-going personal coaching and mentoring
• Co-ordination of cross selling opportunities
• Big company credibility

For more information on how we can help you to achieve your goals as an independent consultant ,please call us on 01179 147707 or email info@academyhr.co.uk