At Freshminds, we have always been curious to talk to our consulting partners about the problems they are facing.
For 25 years, we’ve been the contractor partner to a multitude of consulting firms – we’re trusted to augment the brilliant teams they put forward to their clients, with the skill sets they might be missing in-house. It’s where our extensive network of interim and freelance consultants really come into their own – and are trusted to deliver.
But a shift is occurring. Speaking with some of our partners and network, it’s evident that our consulting clients are beginning to revisit their workforce strategy as a whole. The current market, with its shifting currents, is bringing new challenges to their businesses for the longer term.
The less flexible model of hiring en masse, permanently, is no longer fit for purpose – and is costing businesses hundreds of thousands of pounds a year in hiring and restructuring costs just to meet the continuously fluctuating demand cycles.
This highly changeable market – not just in demand, but in the specialised new skill sets being requested – is forcing consultancies to review their strategy. And working in parallel with the needs of our clients, Freshminds has adapted too.
Why are consulting firms reviewing their workforce strategy?
Digging deeper into what’s happening on the ground, we asked our customers why they are changing their workforce structures, and importantly, how. Comments from our consulting partners paint a fairly consistent picture.
“We typically didn’t use many contractors. But the market is shifting – our price point is high, and the market’s cost pressures mean we need to review how we hire permanently. We lose bids based on our price and sometimes gaps in expertise that are required, and we need to find a way to make those price points more adaptable.”
Director, top 10 UK consultancy
“We went into a consulting downturn [in 2023], and that's made it pretty excruciating for employees to have any intellectually stimulating work. A little bit worse than that too, some people have gone - where we had to make redundancies, or they left as they were bored. If we'd had more contingent workers, it would have enabled us to weather the storm a little more. We wouldn't have overhired. It helps us to be more resilient. A higher percentage [of contingent] is required in a growing business.”
Chief Operating Officer, SME management consultancy
Which elements of contingent hiring don’t work for you right now?
Contingent hiring throws up its own challenges and can be difficult to manage, especially in terms of planning ahead and being able to react quickly:
“It’s all about timing. You need really good people, but you need the work to correlate. The best people aren’t usually available, but the permanent requirement isn’t really there, either… And you get such variable quality. Everyone seems to be £500 a day now.”
Chief Commercial Officer, Public Sector Consultancy
“Bringing in contingent is painfully admin-heavy. We like one master services agreement with suppliers, where if we say to them “this is a Moira job”, we get a Moira.”
Partner, leading Management Consulting firm
How will future workforce strategies differ to today?
Looking forward, the sense seems to be that the contingent workforce will gain in importance for consulting firms. When asked for a prediction for a future workforce structure, the Commercial Director of an SME-focused management consultancy said: “It’s quite simple. 50% contingent, 50% permanent.”
A Partner at a leading management consultancy added:
“Where the skill or experience shortages are, we’ll be focusing our contingent hiring there. For example, that middle-management consultant layer. We struggle to sell those consultants in today’s market. It would be good to have a more concrete and time effective contingent option.”
Introducing Freshminds OPTA – your partner for open talent
Enter Freshminds OPTA – your open talent partner, built for the future of consulting.
We’ve listened to the challenges. As more firms shift towards a contingent workforce model, the reality is that managing multiple suppliers, freelancer pools, alumni, and ad-hoc contractors quickly becomes time-consuming, inconsistent, and admin-heavy. It shouldn’t be.
That’s where OPTA comes in. Freshminds OPTA is the all-in-one service designed to bring clarity, control and ease to your extended workforce.
Freshminds will have a dedicated account manager managing this for you, ensuring you get the right talent at the right time:
1. Centralise your agency partners. OPTA brings consistency and standardisation to how you manage and engage suppliers, removing complexity and streamlining processes.
2. Take control of your freelance pool. Build, nurture, and deploy your own trusted network of freelancers. You find them - we'll manage the rest, from onboarding to payroll, compliance, and insurance.
3. Seamlessly tap into Freshminds’ freelance talent. Access a fully curated bench of vetted talent tailored to your pipeline and business needs. Get flexible, on-demand support from proven experts when you need extra capacity.
4. Keep track, and work with your alumni. Keep track of former employees and contractors to unlock value from those who already know your business. Reconnect, re-engage, and redeploy trusted talent with ease.
Whether you're looking to scale quickly, fill niche skill gaps, or adapt to shifting client demands, OPTA ensures you have the right people, ready when you need them. And whilst we work mainly with consultancies, we offer this to corporates, too.
If you’d like to hear more about how OPTA works – contact the Freshminds team.
