 |
||
|
|
||
| |||||||||||
The Tower of HR Towers Perrin, a firm especially known for its human resources consulting services, has been in the business for more than 60 years. Today, the firm runs 78 offices in 24 countries and employs approximately 8,300 employees. With $1.2 billion in annual revenue, the firm offers services through three operating units: Towers Perrin, the management consulting unit; Tillinghast-Towers Perrin, which offers actuarial and risk management services, primarily to the insurance industry; and Towers Perrin Reinsurance, a large reinsurance intermediary. The firm serves clients throughout the world, including governments, the private sector, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations. These clients include a majority of the world's 500 largest companies and nearly 700 of the Fortune 1000. Towers Perrin has repeatedly reaffirmed its commitment to remaining a privately-held company. Instead of offering stock to the public, the firm's stock in held by 638 partners. In April 2000, the firm announced that chairman and CEO Jack Lynch would step down at the end of his second five-year term in December 2000. Lynch, who has occupied the position for ten years, will be replaced by Mark Mactas on January 1, 2001. A long history Towers Perrin traces its roots back to 1871 and a Philadelphia firm called Henry W. Brown and Company. In 1934 four of that firm's partners formed Towers, Perrin, Forster & Crosby, which specialized in reinsurance and employee benefits consulting. By the 1960s, the firm had branched out throughout North America, and by the 1970s, it had an international presence. At that point, it began acquiring other consulting firms, thereby expanding its offerings. In 1987 the firm changed its name to Towers Perrin. Throughout the 1990s, the company has continued to grow. The firm acquired some small specialty consulting firms to add specific areas of expertise to its existing services. In 1998 the firm bought the North American Risk & Insurance Services arm of Watson Wyatt, a Maryland-based consulting firm. The unit was absorbed by the Tillinghast-Towers Perrin division. In May 1998, Towers Perrin purchased Miller Howard Consulting Group, an Atlanta-based change-management specialist. The experts on what you want Towers Perrin has responded to the rising demand for expert assistance by narrowing the range of expertise of individual consultants, while broadening the firm's general scope. Within Towers Perrin (the firm's management consulting unit), there are three major divisions: human resource and general management consulting; employee benefit services; and health industry consulting. The human resource and general management consulting division, which is the unit that offers services most like traditional management consulting in the mold of McKinsey or BCG, has four broad categories: business strategy, organization strategy, people strategy, and change management. Because of the rest of the firm's expertise with human resource policies, "people strategy" is perhaps Towers Perrin's best-known offering. The firm stresses "alignment," making sure that all HR activities - from staffing to pay and performance management - support their clients' business strategies. Streamlining its business Recently, Towers Perrin has been streamlining and consolidating its business in an effort to become more profitable. In early 1998, the firm dropped several of its smaller clients (after completing assignments for them) and assisted them in finding other consulting resources for their needs. It cited the prohibitive cost of making all of its customized software Y2K compliant. According to executives, the firm only dropped clients in cases where the cost of repairing the individually customized software outweighed the value of its relationship with the client. Also in 1998, Towers decided to grow its asset consulting practice (like asset management for retirement and pension funds). At the same time, the firm chose to limit these clients to those who are likely to bring in other work - like actuarial or benefit design jobs. In addition, the firm launched the Strategic Benefits Financing program in May 2000 to help companies make their benefits plans more efficient. The program will help reduce the cost of meeting benefit obligations for international employees and will help companies devise ways in which to use their pension surpluses. Fit to print Towers Perrin shares its wide range of knowledge with clients through a variety of industry-related publications. The Towers Perrin Monitor is a monthly newsletter that covers key developments and trends in employee benefits, compensation, and HR management in the U.S. Other newsletters cover life insurance, risk management, pension funds, executive compensation, financial services, and health care, among others, in countries where Towers Perrin has a presence.
Towers Perrin explains its extensive employment opportunities and recruitment schedule on its web site at http://careers.towers.com/crweb. Job seekers can search openings by category, country, or area of interest. Towers Perrin recruits from over 80 colleges and universities, and lists its schedule of recruiting presentations on its web site as well. Candidates are invited to submit their resumes online. Insiders caution applicants "to ask about turnover in your interview. Some offices and units are more turbulent than others, and you should be cautious." At the undergraduate analyst level, says one informant, "the company looks for people with degrees in communications, math, economics, or another business-related field." As for MBA grads, the firm prefers people with at least two or three years of work experience. The firm feels work experience gives candidates "a better understanding of what business is all about." Towers Perrin reportedly hires people "with common sense and a good attitude." Employees are not necessarily "summa cum laude Harvard graduates," although "a hot GPA never hurts." Insiders report a three-round hiring process. The first round usually consists of "two half-hour case interviews." In the second round, sources say, "you get two 45-minute case interviews." For the third round, candidates "are given a case and 45 minutes to develop a presentation, which you give in front of the interviewer." Our contacts say this type of case interview "is nerve-wracking in the beginning, but easier than the traditional case questions because you have time to organize and prepare." Understanding the industry is key, as "candidates need to anticipate what the case questions will be about." New MBAs join as "unaffiliated associates." Guided by officers and/or principals, consultants work with clients early on, and perform duties such as fact finding, analysis, survey planning, report preparation, and presentations. MBAs allegedly "develop a specialty and preferred area of concentration on their own." They also have the flexibility to determine their degree of specialization.
Not just HR Insiders give the firm high marks: "Towers Perrin is a great home away from home," where "business keeps booming and the company takes care of you." Though most people know it as "the HR consulting firm," insiders are quick to point out that Towers has a "significant and growing general management consulting division." Several contacts say that "most people in general management consulting want nothing to do with the human resources side." "People are supersensitive about proving that they are not HR," says one put-off insider. The irony is, "a lot of the work has an HR bent ? the management consulting side tends to take the 'people' aspect into account." Below-average pay and a bit skimpy on the perks However, consultants complain about the "rigid promotion schedule" and confide that "Towers does not pay particularly well." The pay "does not quite match up," says one. "Starting consultants get the going rate, but as you go up the scale, the increases are less," says one insider. Consultants get some of the typical industry perks: "frequent flyer miles," and "good, comfortable travel." Back at the office, "if you are working on a client account, you can bill meals and a ride home after 8 p.m." If they're on a long business trip, Towers pays for consultants to fly home on weekends. However, insiders say, "we don't have the option of flying to another city if it's cheaper ? like in most other firms." Contacts also report that vacation "isn't great" ? "two weeks a year for the first five years, and then it goes up to three weeks." But good work/life balance But employees say they are drawn to the firm because "it's good at balancing work and life. You can easily have a decent career and not be working every weekend." As one recent summer associate recounts, "there was one female partner had to leave early every day to relieve her nanny, and a male consultant who had a long commute. As long as you get your work done, they allow for things like that." Insiders say the firm is "seriously committed to allowing consultants to achieve a balance between work and life outside of it." "Towers Perrin officially has a 7.5-hour workday," says one insider, "but everyone generally puts in eight hours or more." "There's no face time," says another source, "you don't have to be there until 9 at night if you're done with your work." Consultants "might have to work a weekend or two," but "hours are still less than at other consulting firms, and travel is not so bad." We have agency Sources say one of the best things about working for Towers Perrin is "the level of responsibility they give you once you proved you can handle the work." Summer associates and recent hires also appreciate "the opportunity to deal with senior management both at Towers Perrin and the client organization." Another plus ? "you can ask to be staffed on projects ? you basically keep your ear to the ground and find out what projects are coming up, and you ask if you can work on them." The firm recently "improved its training programs, so now undergrads are guaranteed two or three weeks of training every year in addition to the initial orientation program." New hires "start working right away for a few months, and after they begin to understand what the business is all about, they go to consultant training ? where they learn things like supply chain analysis, how to run a focus group, how to do better presentations, and other skills." The firm also offers the Towers Perrin Institute, where consultants are trained in areas where their skills are weak. One insider from the general management consulting side, however complains that "the Towers Institute focuses more on the HR side." The Towers Perrin consultant cadre Towers Perrin culture "really varies by office," but sources from different outposts say they enjoy a "small company culture within a more secure big corporate structure." The firm now "has a business casual dress code" which "saves a lot on dry cleaning bills," though some consultants are still "rarely seen out of sharp suits." Some insiders describe the office atmosphere at Towers as "loose" and "relaxed," even to the point that it is sometimes "disorganized." Consultants enjoy working with "razor-sharp" colleagues in a "rigorously professional" environment where the level of competition is "healthy" but "definitely not negative." "The people are terrific to work with and are, for the most part, in their mid-20s to mid-30s," reports one insider. When it comes to the diversity of the consultants, most insiders say Towers is doing well. "Women are well represented on every level in both HR and management consulting," reports one source. In many offices, report consultants, "there are more women than men." The numbers aren't so good for other minorities, however. Says one insider: "They treat minorities and gay people well, though there are very few here." Another Towers consultant offers an explanation. "We have difficulty recruiting women and minorities," reports that contact. "The qualified candidates tend to go to more prestigious firms."
Human Resources
Andersen Consulting;Buck Consultants;Ernst & Young;Hewitt Associates;PricewaterhouseCoopers;Watson Wyatt Worldwide;William M. Mercer More Company Profiles For more career information, go to Vault.com ©2000, Vault.com Inc
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
