HR consulting has been one of the chief casualties of the recession within the consulting industry. In the 2002-03 downturn, strategy and IT consulting suffered most. This time around, people-related consulting, irrespective of the exact hue, has been hardest hit.

However, growth in using consultants to facilitate restructuring was not enough to offset falling demand elsewhere. Our survey of HR directors showed that spending on HR consulting has fallen by more than 20% in around half the organisations questioned and by around 10% in a further third of organisations. Only 16% of organisations said that their expenditure had stayed the same.

For more information on our new report on HR consulting, please email Fiona Czerniawska.