Boutique consulting firm cuts dozens of staff to face a ‘slow’ 2024
Boutique management consulting firm Nous has cut two dozen staff, or about 4 per cent if its 650-strong workforce, in another sign of a downturn in the advisory market where the big four firms have shed hundreds of professionals.
Expecting a slow recovery: Tim Orton, the CEO of Nous Group.
Nous chief executive Tim Orton said the cuts had been a difficult decision and “challenging market conditions” were unlikely to improve until next year.
“We anticipate a slow recovery in 2024,” Mr Orton said.
Nous provides services to public sector organisations such as governments and universities, and to private sector clients in energy, financial services and health.
It has entered into Commonwealth contracts worth more than $26 million this calendar year.
A Nous spokeswoman said staff made redundant “were supported with outplacement and wellbeing services, and generous and respectful termination arrangements”.
Forced Christmas leave
Slowing client demand has also led to the big four consulting firms – Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC – cutting staff this year. The firms have reduced their headcount by almost 1000, or about 2 per cent of their collective workforce of 42,700.
The big four are cutting back in a number of other areas to reduce costs, such as reducing travel and delaying the start dates of graduates.
On Monday, KPMG ordered staff to take an extra three days of leave in January as a pre-emptive measure to “[protect] the job security of our people in this current environment”.
KPMG staff will now have to take 11 days of leave over the Christmas break, up from the previous eight days.
EY earlier announced that staff would have to take three of their four weeks of leave at Christmas. Deloitte and PwC will shut down as usual between Christmas and New Year’s Day, with Deloitte asking staff to take seven days and PwC eight days between these dates.
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