Consultant onboarding plan
Consultants are measured on client work, so firms rush them onto projects. Onboarding must still cover methodology, confidentiality and client conduct, or the firm's reputation carries the risk.
What good onboarding achieves
Deliver client work to the firm's quality standards, follow confidentiality rules and manage time and billing correctly.
Week one example
- Day 1: Systems access, confidentiality rules and time-recording process.
- Day 2: Firm methodology and deliverable templates.
- Day 3: Past project examples and quality standards.
- Day 4: Meet the engagement team for the first assignment.
- Day 5: Client background reading and first internal task.
30/60/90 progression
- Day 30: Contributes to a client project under close supervision.
- Day 60: Owns workstreams and client-facing parts of deliverables.
- Day 90: Delivers work to quality standards with lighter review.
People to meet (examples)
- Engagement manager
- Partner or practice lead
- A peer mentor
- Knowledge management contact
Systems to learn (examples)
- Time and billing system
- Document templates
- Knowledge repository
- Client collaboration tools
Manager checkpoints
- Week 1: confidentiality and time rules confirmed
- Week 3: first deliverable review
- Day 60: client feedback
- Day 90: utilisation and quality review
Common mistakes
- Staffing on a client before confidentiality briefing
- No examples of good deliverables
- Time recording explained too late
- No mentor outside the project team
Checklist
- Confidentiality briefing done
- Time recording set up
- Methodology reviewed
- Deliverable templates found
- Past examples reviewed
- Engagement team met
- Client background read
- Mentor assigned