When you are the Director of Global Recruiting for McKinsey & Company, you're faced with a pretty daunting task—finding the absolute best talent in the world and convincing them that McKinsey is the place for them. That's just how Brian Rolfes, Partner and Director of Global Recruiting for McKinsey & Company, spends a lot of time.
"My top priority will be to build personal relationships with the world's most-talented thinkers and emerging leaders," he says. "My focus will be on identifying and attracting the best individuals with distinctive leadership potential, a track record of outstanding problem-solving and a diverse set of experiences and knowledge. Our hiring needs are increasingly varied and diverse, and we continue to expand our reach as we seek to connect with some of the world's brightest individuals."
Fortunately for Rolfes, he has the power and mystique of the McKinsey & Company brand behind him. As one McKinsey consultant added in the open-ended comments portion of our Best Firms to Work For survey: "I simply don't think there's any question about it; I absolutely work for the best management consulting firm. Period." Another added, quite succinctly: "McKinsey is still McKinsey."
And even though the firm has arguably been through one of the roughest PR stretches in its history with the ongoing saga surrounding former Managing Director Rajat Gupta, it doesn't appear to be having a profound impact on morale at McKinsey. Overall, the firm's culture score dipped slightly from last year; however, its firm leadership score ticked up, signaling that the situation probably has been handled well by current Managing Director Dominic Barton.
But what motivates McKinsey's people is the deep impact they can have in the work they do with clients every day, "At McKinsey, they have the opportunity to work on some of the world's most complex business and social issues," Rolfes says.
Rolfes says being one of Consulting's Best Firms to Work For "reflects our strong values and culture, and our overall value proposition for the world's top talent. We are strongly committed to our two-part mission: to help our clients make distinctive, lasting and substantial improvements in their performance, and to build a great firm that attracts, develops, excites and retains exceptional people. Our inclusion in the survey indicates that we are upholding that mission in the eyes of our colleagues."
Meanwhile, Rolfes says McKinsey is "extremely excited about the rapidly expanding opportunities around the world, especially in Asia, Africa and Latin America." He says the firm will continue to focus on growing industry practices, such as Sustainability and Resource Productivity, and Consumer Industries. "We are also continuously expanding our capabilities in proprietary data and analytics. It is a time of extraordinary stimulation and expansion for our firm."
Q&A
On the Best Firms to Work For survey, McKinsey & Company scored highest in the areas of Career Development, Compensation & Benefits and Firm Leadership. Consulting asked Brian Rolfes, Partner, Director of Global Recruiting for McKinsey & Company, why the firm excelled in these areas. His response follows.
Career Development
"Those who come to McKinsey join people bound by a shared set of values and a culture of support, caring, trust, respect and interdependence. We go to extraordinary lengths to support the people we hire and allow them to succeed, whether it's within or outside our firm. We provide them with unrivaled opportunities for growth and global impact; it's heartening to see that this is reflected in the survey results."
Compensation & Benefits
"We also offer generous compensation and benefits to our staff around the globe. As part of our mission to attract and retain exceptional people, we strive to offer
compensation and benefits that are highly competitive in the external talent market. We regularly benchmark our compensation and benefits package against the external environment and make adjustments as appropriate."
Firm Leadership
"Finally, open communications is extremely important, and the firm's leadership works hard to communicate openly and frequently with our staff—for example through office and practice meetings, e-mail and intranet updates, internal blogs from our Managing Director and others, and a host of informal events.
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