What Do Professional Services Consultants Do?

Your professional services job descriptions set out the duties the professional services person will conduct and the professional services functions. It should also say how the role fits in your team and organisational culture. Your professional services business needs to recruit its staff carefully to ensure it has the best mix of experience and skills. The professional performance of your team will affect crucial business aspects such as legal compliance, project delivery, training, sales, direction, strategy, reputation, and profit.

Depending on the scope and industry of companies, professional services employees may oversee:

• Defining project requirements and overseeing their management
• Providing support to the company’s team, senior executives, and clients
• Delivering high-level education, training, and technical advice
• Providing advice on business development and the strategy of the organisation
• Recommending resources
• Conducting market and industry research
• Marketing development
• The legal actions of the group
• The finances of organisations
• Introducing procedures that improve client relationships and customer satisfaction

Professional Services Role

The duties of consultants and professional services persons are completed by individuals in roles titled as:

• Investment Banker
• Solicitor
• Coordinator
• Consultant
• Contract Manager
• Professional Services Consultant

Professional Services Responsibilities And Duties

Professional services duties are the must-do essential functions and high-priority responsibilities of the role. These are the job aspects that you will likely govern the person’s performance on. As you can imagine, they differ significantly depending on the role’s function and level of seniority.

Professional services responsibilities and job duties might include:

• Creating legal documents and contracts
• General administrative tasks
• Documenting new procedures and policies
• Delivery staff training to meet business requirements
• Performing ID checks
• Updating client records
• Answering senior executive or clients’ questions
• Collecting evidence
• Maintaining up-to-date market and industry knowledge/staying abreast of innovations
• Creating reports, presentations, and spreadsheets
• Troubleshooting problems
• Sourcing vendors
• Negotiating deals
• Implementation services
• Project guidance/management
• Conducting research
• Providing senior executive or client support
• Liaising with other teams such as sales
• Providing high-level technical advice
• Guiding legal compliance
• Recommending resources and technologies
• Guiding business growth, strategy, and direction
• Introducing policies and procedures
• Implementing strategies to reduce costs
• Overseeing mergers and acquisitions

These duties are fairly broad, but you can make the job’s duties more engaging and meaningful by saying how the responsibility should be accomplished. For example, ‘You will oversee project management by assessing risks, coordinating meetings, monitoring budgets, and setting operational frameworks.

Professional Services Skills

To ensure your company leverages best practices, hits its targets, remains legally compliant, and completes its different tasks, you need to recruit professional services consultants with the right skills.

To be successful and complete their role, professional services consultants need hard and soft skills that might include:

• Excellent communication skills that nurture client satisfaction
• Extensive experience in their field and speciality
• Leadership skills and management or consulting experience
• Advanced knowledge of project and strategic planning
• Management, director, and team collaborator
• Research skills
• Active listening
• Numeracy
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Decision making
• Time management
• Ability to handle stress
• Integrity
• Receptiveness
• Coaching and mentorship
• Problem-solving
• Objectivity
• Organisation
• Committed
• Adaptable
• Influential
• Multitasking
• Detail-orientated/attention to detail

Professional Services Qualifications And Education

The formal education and relevant qualifications depend on the role, business sector, and level of seniority but might include:

• A Master’s or Bachelor’s Degree in a related subject such as a Computer Science
• Certifications or Accreditations

Required Professional Services Experience And Professional Services Training

Your enterprise may request stipulate an individual with experience in a similar role. You would expect all candidates to have Microsoft Office software proficiency with project management, strategic planning, or consulting experience.

Professional Services Job Description FAQs

Here we answer your questions on professional services roles, job titles, duties, tasks, and skills.

WHAT DOES A PROFESSIONAL SERVICES PERSON DO?

A professional services person or professional services consultant might provide business advice, act as a management consultant, assist team projects, prepare legal documents, or work within design or banking.

WHAT ARE THE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES ROLES?

Professional services roles may be consultancy roles (professional services consultant) or a position where the skills required are gained through extensive professional education and qualifications (solicitor, lawyer, investment banker, etc.).

SHOULD PROFESSIONAL SERVICES CONSULTING STAFF HAVE A BACHELOR’S DEGREE?

Most consultants hold degrees, however, their track record, accreditations, and certifications are also indicators of their expertise and suitability.

HOW DO I HIRE A PROFESSIONAL SERVICES CONSULTANT?

Job advertising for professional services will differ based on the skills and position. It will help to use a recruitment strategy that encompasses advertising on general and specialist job boards, career-focused social media, and for word of mouth referrals. Your hiring strategy might also include having a presence at leadership or management conferences and online with career and consulting organisations or professional bodies.

Vital elements that will affect your hiring success include writing a practical job description and selecting the proper title. The description should define the professional services or consultant role, and the job advert should state what you expect from the candidate, career development opportunities, the average salary, highlight your company culture and values, and say if you are recruiting for full-time, part-time or consultant jobs.

Flat fee recruitment solutions continue to deliver the best results when recruiting a consultant, management, or a lead.

WHAT IS A PROFESSIONAL SERVICES JOB DESCRIPTION?

A professional services job description is a document that sets out the role’s duties, tasks, and key skills. Putting these in black and white is vital and will help you find the ideal professional services consultant for a position that directly affects your business’s direction, strategy, products, services, or legal compliance.

An effective job description should be transparent and clearly set out who you are, who you want, what they will do, and why professional services consultants might want to work for you. It helps tremendously to use language and jargon that connects with and engages your audience.

When you get all of this right and include the best words to use when writing professional services job descriptions, you will get job applications from qualified candidates with advanced knowledge that closely matches your ideal person profile.

HOW DO I WRITE A PROFESSIONAL SERVICES JOB DESCRIPTION?

When writing a job description, either for advertising a job or an internal job specification, you need to focus on 5 main criteria:

1. What are the key jobs, tasks, and duties required for a professional services position
2. Consider all the job responsibilities required for a professional services role
3. What key skills the person must have for the job
4. What personality traits the person must have to work in the professional services industry
5. Appropriate and relevant education and qualifications

These five criteria should help you build a picture of your ideal candidate. Good questions to consider that will help you write a concise, professional services job description that stands apart from others (essential in the current competitive job market), and attracts candidates of a high calibre, include:

• What value does this role bring to your company, customers, or team?
• How does the role align with your company culture, values, and mission?
• How does this role differ from other positions?
• How is this role similar to other positions?
• What are the minimum professional services skills or transferable skills?
• What are examples of your goals, standards, and targets?

Suppose you are not hands-on in professional services or highly familiar with the specifications for professional services consultant jobs. In that case, it can help to interview one of your professional services consultants or the business manager to gain a greater understanding of the job purpose and role.

A word about jargon: The phrase ‘jargon’ has good and bad connotations, and if it isn’t carefully considered, it may deter suitable candidates from applying. Ask yourself if words and phrases are company or industry exclusive, or recognisable by individuals who may have valuable transferable skills and expertise refined in an alternative business sector.

WHAT PROFESSIONAL SERVICES TASKS SHOULD I INCLUDE IN A JOB DESCRIPTION?

The tasks of professional services consultants and staff are any other activities that they complete occasionally or on a daily basis. These are usually subsidiary tasks such as administrative tasks or the various elements required to complete job duties.

It is tempting to leave some of the more ‘mundane’ tasks out to make your jobs sound more attractive, but this can lead to trouble down the road as you may recruit a consultant or professional that is not a perfect match or willing to carry out certain tasks. If you hire the wrong candidates for your business, its financial performance, strategy, and customers may suffer. The employee might leave your company, and you are back to square one, requiring another investment in recruitment and training.

If you get to the end of the process outlined here and find that your job description is too long and concise has gone out the window, it is time to review your first draft. To bring things back into line, you should delete unnecessary phrases and fluff, remove prepositional phrases, focus on what is role critical, and refrain from putting your entire ‘about us’ page in your content.

HOW DO I ENGAGE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES CANDIDATES?

As a final note for employers and recruiters, it is crucial to remember that while a job description is about what and who you want, describing this alone will not create an inbox full of eager candidates willing to comply. A good job description and job advert must go beyond the duties, skills, education, qualifications, tasks, and traits that you want and communicate the position’s value to job seekers.

Businesses, agencies, and organisations should convey its employee value propositions to engage candidates, highlighting both monetary and other benefits. Benefits that will entice qualified job seekers to apply might include:

• Stating the average salary range rather than saying ‘competitive salary’
• Focusing on work-life balance
• Flexible working – is the role remote, or are hours flexible?
• Further training opportunities
• Career development opportunities
• The quality of facilities, equipment, services, or products
• How the company’s values align with those of employees and customers