Paris Office - Head of staffing and allocations (m/f/d)

Paris

Who we are 

L.E.K. Consulting is a global strategy consulting firm that addresses the most critical commercial issues for the leaders of some of the world's most successful businesses. With over 2000 professionals located across five continents, L.E.K. specializes in Strategy and Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) support with clients across the full range of corporates and private equity.  

Our European People team support 700 people across five countries. As a regional team, we work together to deliver specialist insight and support and across five pillars: Staffing and Allocations, Recruitment and Onboarding, People and Operations, Learning and Development and People Strategy and Analytics.   

Staffing and Allocations at LEK 

Our People are our best asset. We hire great people to work on some of the most challenging and strategically important issues for our clients. Ensuring we match the right people to the right projects is a critical to delivering the best employee and client experience.  

Job Description 

As part of the European People team and reporting directly to the CPO, the Head of Staffing and Allocations will be a key member of the People Leadership function and will work closely with the London and Munich Head of Staffing and global staffing teams to further develop and lead the function. 

Within this role, the individual will be part of a growing and evolving staffing team across Europe, responsible for allocating our people to client projects and development work. The role requires strong leadership and stakeholder management to ensure we achieve the best staffing outcome for our clients’ projects whist also managing and developing the team, identifying process improvements, and developing tools and MI our reporting and supporting our Partners.  

The Head of Staffing and Allocations will have primary responsibility for leading the staffing and allocations processes and teams in Paris and Madrid but will also work in close collaboration with the Head of Staffing for London, Munich and Wroclaw. 

Key Objectives 

  • Enhance firm productivity by optimising workforce planning, reporting, and people allocations. 
  • Drive strategic change projects and agile process improvements related to staffing/allocations. 
  • Ensure the smooth running of the allocation and staffing processes in the assigned business areas. 
  • Develop and maintain relationships with Partners to best understand their current and future staffing requirements. 
  • Collaborate across teams to deliver a coherent and consistent staffing experience. 
  • Contribute to the career development and engagement of the consulting team through talent management and skills mapping. 
  • Manage and develop the team of staffing co-ordinators and advisors. 

 

Responsibilities 

  • Maximise utilisation and understand the commercial drivers, business objectives and individual career objectives, prioritising effectively between competing needs. 
  • Collaborate with other team members to deliver an integrated function across different geographies and sectors within the firm. 
  • Review staffing outputs produced by the junior staffing team for cases 
  • Responsible for staffing senior consulting team members (Managers and Principals) 
  • Drive a culture of continuous improvement; improve existing resourcing tools and processes, providing advice and guidance to the wider business. 
  • Develop materials to guide local Partners to plan capacity and allocations required sales pipeline / sector allocation meetings to provide resourcing updates and flag any potential conflicts or challenges. 
  • Prepare regular commercially focused management reporting, including utilisation, availability, headcount, and demand/supply gap. 
  • Provide guidance and management to staffing co-ordinators and advisors. 
  • Understand current and future resource requirements, ensuring requests are dealt with in a timely manner. 
  • Build impactful relationships with stakeholders at all levels, including Partners, consulting staff and core services staff, to ensure that: 
  • Partners understand and accept allocation decisions. 
  • Staffing is consistent with a balanced workload and supports staff career development objectives. 
  • On-board all new joiners on the resourcing process 
  • Oversee the allocation staffing tool, ensuring the accuracy of staffing information. 
  • Provide cover and support to Staffing and Allocations Managers to ensure the delivery of the following tasks: 
  • Allocation of consulting staff to case work, considering: 
  • Case skills and headcount requirements 
  • Availability of staff 
  • Staff capabilities, previous mix of experience & roles performed and competence (as determined through the review process) 
  • Expected working hours. 
  • Recovery objectives (project profitability) 
  • Allocation consulting staff to internal work to ensure staff are productively employed when not on casework. 

 

Essential requirements

  • Fluent French and English (C2) 
  • Experience of managing or leading a staffing function within a professional services environment 
  • Strong influencing skills with the ability to communicate comfortably with senior stakeholders.  
  • Professional gravitas to gain credibility and handle conflict resolution. 
  • Hands-on attitude, able to juggle and manage multiple competing priorities. 
  • Attention to detail but also able see the wider picture. 
  • Ability to work both independently and collaboratively, and thrive in a fast-paced environment. 
  • Excellent excel skills, comfortable with data interrogation and reporting.  
  • Flexibility with working hours; on occasions you may be required to work outside of standard hours 
  • Excellent communication skills and stakeholder management; able to adapt to different audiences/styles 
  • Ability to present ideas to senior stakeholders using visual tools such as PowerPoint 
  • Ability to travel to other offices (at least once per Quarter) 

Desirable

  • Professional services experience 
  • Some exposure to analytical reporting tools would be beneficial Coaching certification 
  • Experience with People/HR systems  
  • Additional language: German, or Spanish Language (C1/2) 

 

Don’t meet every single requirement here? 

Don’t worry!!! If you are excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every requirement in the job description, we encourage you to either reach out to our recruiters or apply. There could be an even better role for you once you talk to us!

Diversity and inclusion at L.E.K.

Here at L.E.K., we appreciate the value of a diverse and inclusive workforce and are committed to a culture that is inclusive and accepting of all people. Above all, we are committed to ensuring that all employees are treated with respect and dignity. L.E.K. Consulting is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

We have several affinity groups to support and enrich our employees and in addition, our Diversity and Inclusion committee celebrate events throughout the year with a focus on awareness and education.

For further information on the L.E.K. career journey: 

https://www.lek.com/join-lek/the-lek-career

 

This opportunity is closed to applications.