Beach, Bench or Billable?

In consulting parlance, “beach” or “bench” refers to the time that an individual consultant spends when not billing his or her hours to a client. In contrast, billable time refers to the hours that a consultant has billed to a client. Obviously, consulting firms would prefer that their consultants are billable the majority of the time; if not 100 percent the time. Individual consultants would prefer that two too, as yearly bonuses are typically tied to billable time as a percentage of total available time.

A primary, but not absolute, indicator of consultant's competence and ability is the amount of time a consultant has been billable, as opposed to being “on the beach” or “on the bench.” Why? Less qualified or less competent consultants are less likely to be chosen by consulting engagement leaders who are looking to staff a new client engagement.

So where have your new consultants been? When reviewing the resumes of the individuals a consulting firm proposes to send you to staff your project, you should be asking how and where they each spent the last six months.

It won't guarantee that you'll get the best consultants that the firm has to offer, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.

Comments

[RLB]

It is a good thing that you started this post with the disclaimer "A primary, but not absolute, indicator..."

Anyone who has ever worked for a consulting company knows that consultants whose performance is substandard are soon dismissed, not benched or beached. That is, unless they have protectors in management.

More often than your post seems to recognize, competent consultants find themselves benched because (a) the sales forces on whom they depend for billable engagements can't sell, (b) the engagement managers responsible for staffing and delivery don't know how to staff or deliver, or (c) both.

[RLB]

Competent consultants with high-value skills often spend a lot time on the bench. When I ran a consulting practice, I made sure that my bench resources spent their time on training, professional development and sales support.

No matter how competent the consultant, if he or she is not willing to spend bench time adding value, that is important, negative information that a new employer should try to find out.

But many consulting FIRMS ignore their bench resources, refusing to involve them in sales support or other activities that build the organization.

When that happens, it indicates that it's the firm, not the ready, willing, able - and ignored - bench consultant, that is incompetent.

[Bob Brown]

Two great comments, RLB. It's easy to see how some clients could be confused when dealing with consultants, isn't it?

How bench/beach time is handled varies greately by consulting firm. At IBM -- at least when I was there -- company sponsored training was billable internally, so it showed up in utilization reports and counted toward some bonuses. There was no negative financial impact for individual consultants from taking time for training.

I also worked on a number of consulting projects for IBM itself; many which permitted me to work from home. Those were also billable and counted towards utilization.

In any event, we are in total agreement that any firm that would ignore its bench/beach resources has a serious problem; if not being, as you said, totally incompetent.