It's Best Firms to Work For time and that can only mean one thing: It's the time of year I get intimately involved with Excel Spreadsheets, data and decimal points.
The time of year when the mathematical difference between 4.82 and 4.72 might as well be a chasm. The time of year when tabs marked "Raw Data" are not intended for the faint of heart. Truth be told, Senior Editor Jess Scheer is more tethered to the data day in and day out than I'll ever be. As a former Kennedy analyst, he's the one that spends weeks crunching the numbers and making sense of it all. I don't envy his role, but I'll say this: It just may be the most important task Consulting magazine conducts all year.
In case there's any doubt about it, let me set the record straight—we take The Best Firms to Work For survey pretty seriously around here. That's why we're devoting nearly an entire—34 pages in all—to The Best Firms to Work For. Of course, it makes for great editorial content. It allows us a platform to reward the efforts of the Best Firms. And there's no other way to say it, what Bain & Company has been able to do over the last eight years is nothing short of extraordinary.
But once the dust settles on the 30 winning firms, there's plenty more to discover with deeper data dives. When numbers are compared year-over-year, the survey serves as the ultimate pulse check on the profession.
One of my favorite charts in this issue is the one that appears at the bottom of page 14. It's a year-over-year look at the six categories the survey measures. When all six are combined, the overall number rose .06—from 4.21 in 2009 to 4.27 this year. Think of that number as sort of an Employee Satisfaction Index. While .06 may not seem significant, it's welcomed movement in the right direction. (In 2008, it was 4.23.) The most improvement in any one category was in Culture, followed by Work/Life Balance, Career Development and Compensation & Benefits. Good news indeed. Two categories—Leadership and The Job—dropped from 2009
Meanwhile, there are plenty of other charts and data points to sink your teeth into. Are firms traveling as much as they used to? What's happening with training? Utilization? Compensation? Client satisfaction? It's all there and more. Then there's the issue of what's not there, but could be. The data can be cut in any number of ways, including
by firm type, employee title, practice area, geography… you name it. And, do you want to see your firms' data measured against several of your competitors in aggregate? (Who wouldn't?) Custom data cuts are available, just let us know if you're interested.
Joseph Kornik
Editor-in-Chief
jkornik@consultingmag.com
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