Vault's 2020 Rankings of the Best Consulting Firms to Work For in Europe!

Published: Sep 24, 2019

Topics: Consulting Interviewing Job Search Networking Salary & Benefits Workplace Issues

I'm thrilled to announce that we've released our annual Consulting 25 Europe: a ranking of the best consulting firms to work for in the European region. McKinsey & Company is No. 1 for the ninth year in a row. Bain maintains its No. 2 spot and Roland Berger rounds out the Top 3 (up from last year’s fourth position). Strategy& makes their return to the rankings at No. 5 after last year’s hiatus.

New to this year’s ranking are Blue Matter Consulting, which debuts at No. 12, and Teneo (Management Consulting) (No. 13). Other noteworthy changes include an impressive seven-spot leap for HTS Consulting, which moves to No. 15 from No. 22, and four-spot jumps for both Charles River Associates (No. 16 from No. 20) and Mercer Limited (No. 20 from No. 24).

The Top 10 Consulting Firms in Europe for 2020 are:

This year’s Most Prestigious Consulting Firms in Europe sees the Top 5 maintain their same positions as last year: McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Oliver Wyman, and A.T. Kearney. EY-Parthenon jumps nine spots in prestige, ranking No. 15 (up from last year’s 24^th position).

Please visit The Best Consulting Firms for all of our 2020 consulting rankings—including those for North America and Asia-Pacific, as well as the European rankings for the Top Consulting Firms, Most Prestigious Consulting Firms, the Best Firms by Practice Area, and the Best Firms to Work For in key quality of life factors.

Shifts in Consulting 25 Reflected in Quality of Life Rankings

Several of the consultancies that debuted strongly or experienced significant increases in the Consulting 25 also performed well in various quality of life rankings. Teneo (Management Consulting) is No. 1 for Compensation and Work/Life Balance and No. 3 for Hours in the Office, Informal Training, and Promotion Policies. Strategy& takes the No. 2 spot for Compensation.

Blue Matter Consulting ranks in 19 of 21 different quality of life categories. It is No. 1 for Overall Business Outlook and No. 2 for Diversity, Firm Leadership, Hours in the Office, and Work/Life Balance. It also places at No. 3 for Innovation.

HTS Consulting, which experienced the largest jump in the Consulting 25, ranks in the Top 5 in 13 quality of life factors, including No. 1 for Hours in the Office and No. 2 for both Innovation and Satisfaction. It is also No. 4 for Benefits.

McKinsey, BCG, and Accenture Dominate TMT Rankings in Europe

McKinsey, BCG, and Accenture comprise the Top 3 consultancies for our brand-new Technology, Media, and Telecommunications (TMT) Consulting ranking. This is consistent with the TMT Consulting rankings for North America and Asia-Pacific, which seems to indicate a level of renown and leadership in this vertical on a global scale.

TMT is an ever-evolving sector that encompasses the intersection between emerging technologies and disruptive media channels. Companies in the TMT space are spearheading a digital revolution, which positions the consultancies that advise them as powerful agents of change.

Vault’s Top 5 Consulting Firms for TMT Consulting in Europe are:

McKinsey & Company
Boston Consulting Group
Accenture
Bain & Company
IBM Global Services

“McKinsey’s been heavily investing in new growth areas such as Digital & Analytics and Big Data that prove to be important growth levers,” says one McKinsey employee. “Those fields are growing and a huge effort for recruiting is [being] made in these practices.”

About the Vault Consulting Survey

The 2020 Vault Consulting rankings are based on responses from more than 17,000 consulting firm employees surveyed earlier this year, who were asked to rate their own firms on a scale of 1 to 10 based on firm culture, compensation, work/life balance, the outlook for the firm, overall satisfaction, and other key quality of life factors. We also asked consultants to rate the prestige of peer firms and to select the strongest firms in more than a dozen specific practice areas; for the prestige and practice area rankings, consultants were unable to rate or vote for their own firms.

The Vault Top Consulting Firms in Europe ranking is based on a combination internal and external scores: the scores consultants gave their own firms on a variety of quality of life factors and the prestige scores from consultants at peer firms. We used a weighted formula to compile the ranking: 30% prestige; 15% satisfaction; 15% firm culture; 10% compensation; 10% work-life balance; 10% level of challenge; 5% business outlook; 5% promotion policies.

From this data, we also produced rankings of the Best Firms to Work For in Europe based on 21 separate quality of life factors—including Compensation, Culture, Promotion Policies, and Training. Consultants’ scores of peer firms informed the Most Prestigious Consulting Firms in Europe ranking as well as 13 practice area rankings—including Management Consulting, Strategy Consulting, Energy Consulting, and Technology, Media & Telecommunications Consulting.

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