危 wēi  danger

In its 2009 report, the UK CIPD’s Employment Survey claims that the average cost of filling a job vacancy is between £4333 and £7750.  This is the average across all sectors and doesn’t even include legal or training costs.  For Management Consultancies this number must be far larger – the firms visit universities in the recruitment drive and often give signing on bonuses.  With this in mind surely McKinsey’s average employee stay of about 3 years is a fundamental floor to the business model?

机 jī opportunity

Far from it, McKinsey cleverly keeps its leavers close to the Firm, recognizing their potential value.  It delivers this through its alumni services – both formal events and informal networking. This dynamic network is widely understood to be a lasting benefit of a career with McKinsey, thereby improving its appeal as a recruiter. The backbone of the McKinsey network is the firm’s alumni directory which lists the details of 3,500 ex-McKinseyites and is more up-to-date than the alumni rosters at Princeton or Harvard.  The strategy of setting up its alumni to be potential future clients must be working – McKinsey has produced more CEOs than any other company and is referred to by Fortune magazine as “the best CEO launch pad”. And you can’t blame the Firm for not publicizing the fact that Enron’s Jeff Skilling was among those high-flying CEO alumni.

How About…

• Keeping departing employees close: supporting them where possible and viewing them as potential ambassadors for your company?

—