Where are the Performance Consultants?

Carliner, S., Castonguay, C., Sheepy, E., Ribeiro, O., Sabri, H., Saylor, C., & Valle, A. (2015). The job of a performance consultant: a qualitative content analysis of job descriptions. European Journal of Training and Development, 39(6), 458–483. http://doi.org/10.1108/EJTD-01-2015-0006

In 1996, Dana and Jim Robinson published the first edition of the book Performance Consulting, which was subtitled "Moving Beyond Training." For that last couple of years, as I've partnered with Dana Robinson to build performance consulting capability for our clients, we've used the third edition of that same book as the basis for our day-to-day work.

So, when I use the term, "performance consultant," I mean to indicate a person within an organization who performs a defined role. Based on our definition of performance consulting, this is someone responsible for partnering with leaders in the organization to achieve business results by optimizing the performance of people and the system in which they work. But it is infrequent that I encounter people, other than self-titled independent consultants, that actually bear the title of "performance consultant."

Apparently this isn't just my lone perception, since a study by Carliner et al. (2015) found the same phenomenon. This research explored three questions: What competencies are sought in a performance consultant? What is an appropriate job title for the position? and How do these competencies align with competency models published by professional associations? The authors noted that very little empirical evidence exists describing the role of performance consultant in the workforce, though it is well defined in the literature (they couldn't find the performance consultants either).

To answer their three research questions, Carliner et al. worked with a Canadian professional organization to recruit and select job descriptions from large Canadian businesses. Very few job descriptions specifically referred to performance consulting. So the researchers expanded their sample to include related jobs where the description indicated at least some focus on driving business results through optimized performance. Analyzing the job descriptions for this sample, determined that the appropriate job title for what the literature calls performance consulting is “learning consultant.” This is certainly a title our clients with a learning and development focus often use. Our client more on the HR side of the organization often use the title "strategic business partner." Both of these are fine an useful titles, but don't align fully with the definition of performance consulting I shared earlier.

"Learning consultant" implies a focus on a single solution (a means we use), rather than a focus on improving performance (an end we want to achieve). "Strategic business partner" is so general as to loose the relationship between business results and the performance of people. In their study, Carliner et al. found that actual competencies sought out by employers tended to be training focused and tactical - even when the title or job description referred to performance. The study suggested that this limits the value of the role as compared to the more strategically aligned position envisioned in the literature.

In reflecting on this research, I decided to conduct some VERY informal research of my own to see if I could easily locate organizations using the title performance consultant. I conducted a "strict" LinkedIn jobs search for "performance consultant," limited to companies in the United States. If you'd like to replicate this search, "strict" here simply means I put the search term in quotes - otherwise you'll get results that include either the word performance or the work consultant individually. On the day I ran this search it returned 99 results where the phrase "performance consultant" appeared either in the job title or description. Performance consultant is such a general phrase however that only 33 of the titles returned included the phrase and only 10 titles were listed simply "performance consultant." Of those 33, most included some prepended word to better specify the job, include: wealth, application, sales, and building. None of these were related to my definition of performance consultant - but the search returned other titles that were: strategic training consultant, learning and performance consultant, organizational performance specialist.

So, I decided to try a couple of additional, more specific, search terms. "Human performance consultant" returned only one result - though "human performance technology" is often used in the literature as a general term for the field. "Performance improvement consultant" returned 11 results. To see if the title of consultant was limiting my results, I then tried "human performance technology." This returned 39 results - but in reading through the results there were far more references to training, instruction, and development that performance. Similarly, "human performance improvement" returned 43 results.

For me, my quick searches aligned with the study by Carliner et al. It seems there are many professionals out there doing the work of performance consulting. But relatively few of them call themselves performance consultants and, perhaps more importantly, not enough employers know how to recruit, develop, and value people who do this work. So, if I observe you working hard to partner with leaders to achieve business results by optimizing the performance of people and the system in which they work, I'm going to tell people that you're a great performance consultant - no matter what your title is.

Are you a performance consultant? Do you work in a department or function dedicated to performance improvement? If so, I'd love to hear about your experience and continue this conversation.