About CIL Management Consultants

CIL have a comprehensive internal training programme that aims to support people on their career journey from Analyst through to Partner. Everyone starts with a thorough two-week induction fortnight, which focuses on the core skills that one will need as a consultant and how they apply them on CIL projects. The fortnight finishes with a mini-team project to simulate the kind of work people would do on a typical project. After induction fortnight they have c.40 training modules that support people with their journey to Consultant. During this time there is also a lot of emphasis placed on self-teaching and using the people around you to help coach. CIL encourage new joiners to be curious and ask questions of those around them. For Consultants and above they have a series of lunch sessions with guest speakers from friends amongst their client base. These sessions are intended to introduce Consultants to themes outside of the core day job but also to help them get a good feel for what CIL clients really look for in their work. To help people progress to Partner, CIL have an excellent sales training programme that focuses both on presentation techniques but also sales habits and processes. These are delivered by specialist external training companies.

At CIL employees work in small project teams, typically made up of 3-5 people, and encourage project managers to hold regular group catch ups every two days. During these catch ups, managers are encouraged to let each member of the team speak uninterrupted for two minutes. This allows different viewpoints from all members of the team to be aired without any risk or fear of being challenged. This was also partly driven by the idea that often the best ideas come from within the team, rather than just the manager! There is also real benefit to sharing hypotheses across different work streams so that everyone has a full appreciation of how the project is progressing overall and what the key commercial issues are. CIL also work with external contractors and make sure that they are fully involved in these processes.

Every employee is included in CIL’s generous company bonus scheme. A bonus is paid three times per year, in September, March, and a smaller Christmas bonus in December. The amount received is a function of company performance, the individual's grade and the individual's own performance. People are told about their bonuses personally by one of the Partners, and everyone receives a personalised letter summing up the key projects and achievements from the last six months. Through the bonus scheme, employees receive an uplift on their salary ranging from 20% of base (at Analyst level) to 100% (senior managers).