Management consultants are as famed for their work ethic as for their innovative ideas. But the strain of working long hours and spending long periods away from home at clients’ offices takes its toll. Consulting firms lose anything between 15% and 40% of their consultants every year.
What can a company do to address such high staff turnover rates? Bain, one of the most prestigious consultancy firms, has come up with an innovative solution. Give your consultants free booze. Lots of it.
Bain spends 0.1% of its revenues on parties for its consultants after the completion of each project. As a private company, it does not publish results, but rivals estimate annual revenue of about $800 million a year. This means about $800,000 a year is spent on post-project parties alone – the office Christmas party is on top of this.
That’s not all. Bain employees, in London at least, also enjoy free wine and beer after work every Friday. An internal source at Bain estimates that staff can take free alcohol on 40% of working days.
So it’s small wonder the company’s London office has recently applied for a licence to serve alcohol.