Zero Hours’ Contract Interview

by Sofie Lyeklint | Feb 19, 2015 | Employment, Guest blogs

Introduction

There has been much ado recently about zero hours’ contracts.  So much so that a zero hours’ contract bill is currently passing through parliament.

The purpose of the bill is to limit the use of zero hours’ contracts and it had its first reading on 2^nd July 2014 and the second reading has been postponed until 27^th February 2015.  This bill is an attempt to remedy the current mischiefs. Employers that offer zero hours’ contracts have to treat workers the same as employees with fixed regular working hours. They are also required to give reasonable notice on when they are needed as well as notice in writing of the minimum hours their workers are required.

Other current practices that are to be stamped out include:

• Considering zero hours’ contract workers for regular working hours every 12 weeks
• If they have worked continuously for that period of time the employer should have a duty to offer the worker fixed and regular working hours
• It will also be unlawful to subject zero hours’contract workers to detriment
• The dismissal of a zero hours’ contract worker who refuses to work at the employer’s request will constitute an unfair dismissal
• A zero hours’ contract worker is also regarded as being employed when he or she works or does not work for that employer

So what is the current landscape? 

The term ‘zero hours’ is not currently defined in legislation.  However it’s generally understood to be a contract between an employer and an individual worker under the terms of which:

• The employer is not obliged to provide the worker with any work at all, nor any minimum working hours and
• (usually) the worker is not obliged to accept any of the hours offered.

This absence of mutuality of obligation is a key aspect of zero hours’ contracts; the lack of mutuality of obligation means that in most cases the individual would have a status of worker for employment protection purposes and will not be an employee.

It’s worth noting that zero hours’ contracts may not actually be called a zero hours’ contract but could be offered as “casual work” contracts or “as required or needed” or “flexible work”.  The importance of employment status is discussed in a previous article (read Employment Status: Briefing and Are you a Worker or a Self-Employed person?). In short there are certain rights that are only conferred on employees and not on workers or self-employed individuals. This means that individuals working on zero hours’ contracts do not have the same protection under employment legislation as employees have.  Calling an arrangement a zero hours’ arrangement and issuing a contract labelling it as such is not conclusive. An Employment Tribunal will ascertain all the terms of the contract as well as what actually happened in practice between the parties to analyse whether the individual is an employee. It is the substance not the form of the agreement.

Zero hour contracts and your rights

Zero hours’ contracts usually fall within the definition of workers, which means that they do have some employment rights. These include, for instance, the right to be paid the national minimum wage, working hours and rest breaks, entitlement to paid holiday, part-time working and pension auto-enrolment.  However it is not certain that an individual on a zero hours’ contract will fall within this definition. It will ultimately depend on the facts of the case and how the relationship operates. This will determine where they fall on the scale between genuinely self-employed and employee status.

With regard to continuity of service, for individuals that are working on back-to-back fixed term contracts or zero hours’ contracts, there may be grounds to establish the existence of a continuing contract. This overarching or “umbrella contract” must still have some level of mutual obligation between the employer and the individual during the period when no work is being performed. There will not be sufficient mutual obligation if the conduct of the parties is wholly explained by mutual convenience and goodwill, and it is not necessary to infer contracts when there is no justification for inferring one.  However the expectation between the parties may give rise to sufficient mutuality of obligation to establish a continuing contract.

Why have zero hours’ contracts?

The purpose of zero hours’ contracts is to allow a flexible workforce, which is necessary for employers who frequently need a change of staff as the workload fluctuates. The employer’s benefit in this case would be a pool of staff on demand, no ongoing requirement to provide guaranteed levels of staff and a cheaper alternative to agency fees. The employee’s benefits would be flexible working hours, no ongoing requirement to accept offers to work, no consequences for not working requested hours and gaining employment experience and skills whilst actually working.

So how does this work in practice? I had the opportunity to speak to a student who works on a zero hours’ contract in a retail store. In order to protect her identity this interview has therefore been anonymised.  Any likeness to real events, persons or companies is coincidental.

Zero Hours’ Contract Interview

Press the arrow to the right hand side of each question to reveal the answer.

Thank you very much for your time.

New Changes to Holiday Pay and Commission – Euromillions, anyone?

by Sofie Lyeklint | Oct 9, 2014 | Employment, Guest blogs

I think most of us have already had our summer holidays and are lamenting the fact that we are now firmly back in our work routines.  If your job involves a pay structure where you are paid a basic salary and a commission and/or bonus you may be coming into some extra cash in the not too distant future.

More holiday and more money, you say? Will I win the Euromillions?

New Changes to Holiday Pay and Commission – Euromillions, anyone?

You may not be far off. A European Court of Justice (‘ECJ’) Judgment earlierthis summer redefined holiday pay as we know it. According to this judgment, the holiday pay under the Working Time Directive (‘WTD’) is to include an allowance for commission, regardless of the fact that commission or bonus is technically paid on sales made when you are not actually at work.  At the moment, under the Working Time Regulations 1998 (‘WTR’), a week’s pay is based on basic salary and excludes payments such as allowances, expenses, overtime, commission and bonus payments.  These are all elements of salary, the general definition of which is any sums payable to the worker in connection with his/her employment,  even if it refers to specific work done by someone while performing their duty.

So, how can you actually accrue commission when you are not actually at work?  Interestingly enough, the WTD states that all workers must be entitled to paid annual leave, but the manner in which a worker is paid is calculated is left to national legislation or practice.

Following the ECJ ruling in Lock V British Gas Tradings Limited, employers should now calculate holiday pay based on average weekly remuneration (including commission and similar payments) over the previous 12 complete weeks if:

• A worker does not have normal working hours or;
• A worker has normal working hours but their pay varies according to the amount of work done or the time of work.

This case also states that in order to comply with the WTD, if a worker has normal working hours, employers should, when calculating holiday pay, in summary:

• Include overtime which is guaranteed and that the worker is required to perform under his contract of employment (one can see how this could lead to disputes and ET decisions are in the pipeline).
• Include bonuses, which are intrinsically linked to performance of the task that the worker is required to carry out under his contract of employment.
• Include commission, which is intrinsically linked to the performance of the tasks that the worker is required to carry out under his contract of employment.
• Include payments, which relate to a workers personal or professional status (for instance, the cost of my practising certificate).
• Exclude payments, which are intended exclusively to cover occasional or ancillary costs arising at the time of performance of the task which the worker is required to carry out under his contract of employment.

It should be noted at this point that the principles set out above will only apply in respect of the four weeks’ required by the WTD as implemented by Regulation 13 of the WTR. They do not apply in respect of the additional 1.6 weeks additional holiday provided by Regulation 13a of the WTR which is over and above the WTD requirement.  Therefore, if a worker is considering going after his/her employer for holiday pay including commission etc, it would only be in relation to the four weeks of holiday pay that would fall within the WTD requirements.

Rather unhelpfully, there is no authorative decision as yet on how the four weeks are selected but in a recent case, Woods v Hershall, the Employment Tribunal decided that in the absence of any agreement, it was up to the worker to choose.

So what does this all mean for UK businesses? 

Not only would employers need to change their holiday pay calculations going forward, they may also be faced with claims from workers on payments for holiday already taken which should have, but did not, include commission etc.

What does this all mean for UK businesses?

As an alternative to an ET claim for unlawful deductions, which must be brought within three months of the most recent deduction  At the moment, it seems likely that such claims could go back as far as 1^st October 1998 which was the date when the WTR came into force.   Unlike claims for contractual holiday pay, claims for statutory holiday pay cannot be brought in the Civil Courts because they are to enforce a statutory right for which the Employment Tribunals are the appropriate jurisdiction. As an alternative, workers can also bring a breach of contract claim in the civil courts which may only go back as far as 6 years (5 years in Scotland) and case law suggest that it may not be successful.

In any event, this could have serious ramifications for business. John Lewis recently paid out £40 million to their staff as they had not accounted for commission and overtime in their holiday pay.  In my view it will depend on the size of the claim. If it is a low value claim it may well be that workers would be deterred by employment tribunal fees where it would simply not be cost effective to pursue the claim. If for instance, the claim goes back as far as 1998 and/or the worker is a high earner it is unlikely that tribunal fees would make much difference.

So what about contractual holiday pay? The right to holiday pay under the WTR does not affect any contractual entitlement to holiday pay.  However, any holiday paid to a worker under his contract of employment will go towards discharging his employer’s liability to pay him holiday pay under the WTR and vice versa.  Any contractual entitlement to holiday must be included in an employers written Statement of Particulars.  The particulars must also be sufficient pellucid to calculate precisely what the entitlement to accrued holiday pay would be on termination of his employment.  In the absence of an express agreement, a term entitling an employee to pay in lieu of accrued unused contractual holiday on termination of employment would not generally be implied however it can in some circumstances become an implied term through custom and practice or business efficacy.  I would like to remind everyone that after two months continuous employment, an employer must give their employees a written Statement of Minimum Particulars of Employment (see my previous article on this here).

So what’s next?

I am sure we are all curious to see how the UK Courts will interpret the ECJ decision in Lock. There have already been some prominent ECJ cases preceding Lock and in my view the main principle to take away from the ECJ is that it should never be a disincentive for a worker to take holiday. That is, you should never loose money if you chose to take holiday. With this in mind, for those of you who are going away for an autumn or winter break, do make sure that you are getting paid what you are supposed to. If you are working on a commission basis and think you are owed holiday pay, bring this up with your employer and seek to clarify the payments that may be due to you. It may also be advisable for employer to go through your workers’ payment structures and consider the potential liability. Employers should also ensure that they do follow the correct holiday pay calculations going forward. Needless to say that this can become rather costly and should be budgeted for.

As with all these matters, taking skilled professional advice is highly desirable before things get out of hand.

Work/Life Balance – Flexible Working

by Sofie Lyeklint | Jul 8, 2014 | Employment, Guest blogs

NOTE: When introducing the new right of employees to request flexible working (from 30 June 2014), the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills explained that there are many forms of flexible working. It can include homeworking, or part time working, flexi-time, job-sharing and shift work. At the end of this article there are some resources you can download. 

The change on 30 June 2014

The law seems to be catching up with the elusive work/life balance of employees. The latest law revision widens the statutory framework to request flexible working available to most employees with at least 26 weeks’ service. It took effect on 30 June 2014.

The new regulations replace the existing legislation with a very similar set of provisions except that the applicant no longer is required to have responsibility for the upbringing of a child or be a carer.

My own situation explains it quite well: My husband and I have lived apart in two countries for three and a half years. This means that we spend a significant amount of time travelling to see each other as much as we can. Therefore, we are at the mercy of Lufthansa’s flying times between London and Frankfurt. As it happens, the last flight out of London is at a time where I would not be able to get there on time on a Friday after work. This means that often, I am unable to keep up my end of the weekend commute without having to request holiday days. My husband, on the other hand, has an arrangement where he can work from home and also work flexible hours so that he can make the flight times.

We do not have any children and we are not carers. So, the changes that came into effect at the end of June are something that could potentially have an impact on my own work/life balance. At least, that is so in theory.

From the 30 June, I could make a request to change:

• the hours that I am required to work;
• the times when I am required to work;
• where I am required to work.

Once a valid application has been submitted to my employer, my employer:

• is obliged to deal with it in a “reasonable manner”;
• is obliged to notify me of its decision on the application within a period called “decision period”;
• is only entitled to refuse the application if it considers that one or more certain defined grounds for refusal apply.

The changes explained

Did you all get this? Let’s recap shall we?

Essentially the main changes to the statutory scheme are:

• flexible working requests would no longer need to be made in order to care for certain children and can be made by all employees (but not agency workers) with at least 26 weeks’ continuous employment;
• the procedure to be followed is meant to be less prescriptive than the procedure previously in force but the employer needs to deal with the application in a reasonable manner. What a reasonable manner is we shall return to later in this article.

There is now also a statutory ACAS Code of Practice on handling requests in a reasonable manner. This means that any Employment Tribunal has to take this code of practice into account in determining whether or not the flexible working application has been dealt with in a reasonable manner.

The employer will have a three-month decision period that can be extended by agreement to consider the request and discuss the request with the employee and notify of the outcome.

If my employer fails in those obligations in dealing with the request I may bring a claim to the Employment Tribunal. It would be possible to bring a complaint to the employment tribunal on the following grounds:

• an employer’s failure to deal with the application in a reasonable manner;
• failure to notify the employee of the decision of the application within the decision period;
• failure to rely on the statutory grounds for refusing the application (see below);
• the employer bases his decision on incorrect facts or treats the application as withdrawn when the grounds entitling the employer to do so do not apply.

Grounds for refusal of an employee’s request

So, what are the grounds on which an employer can refuse a request for flexible working?

The grounds on which an employer can refuse a flexible working request remain the same under the new legislation, as applied previously. These are as follows:

• burden of additional costs;
• detrimental effect on the ability to meet customer demands;
• inability to re-organise work among existing staff;
• inability to recruit staff;
• detrimental impact on quality;
• detrimental impact on performance;
• insufficiency of work during the period the employee proposes to work;
• planned structural changes.

It is important to note that an employer can offer a compromise or a trial period if this is appropriate. An employer must also ensure that its dealing with the flexible working request is not discriminatory in any way. (Please see my previous blog article on discrimination in the workplace)

What are the benefits?

There many are benefits of properly managed flexible working arrangements.

It could lead to increased productivity and a better working relationship between the employer and the employee.

The key issue here is that any decisions regarding a request for flexible working has to be handled objectively and fairly and that employees will not be treated badly because they have asked for a flexible working arrangement. As with most issues in the workplace, it is important that you update your policies so that you have a flexible working policy that will ensure that all requests are dealt with in a fair and objective manner.

The penalty for getting it wrong

As with all legislative changes, there will be a time before you will see some significant change in how this is handled. It would be surprising if there were some significant impact on the number and/or types of flexible working requests based on these changes.

However, I think that it is important that you do inform your employees that they have this right and that you have policies and procedures to deal with any requests. If an employee succeeds in bringing such a claim on one or more of the grounds, an employment tribunal may make either or both of the following:

• an order for consideration of the request;
• an award of compensation which is considered just unequitable by an employment tribunal up to the statutory maximum which is eight weeks’ pay at a statutory cap.

Flexible working requests can also give rise to other statutory claims including constructive dismissal and/or discrimination claims. The compensatory award for constructive dismissal claims on its own will be capped at the statutory maximum, which is the lesser of 52 weeks’ actual gross pay or £76,574. However if the employee is successful in bringing a discrimination claim, the damages awarded are uncapped and in most cases, award injury to feelings, which can also be made under the top compensatory band as established by case law. For the most serious cases this is currently £19,800 to £33,000. Depending on the nature of the employer’s conduct, awards of aggravated or exemplary damages can also be made.

Action Plan

Whether you are thinking about making a flexible working request or just want to be prepared if you receive such a request, the Acas Code of Practice and the accompanying Acas Guidance is a very good starting point.  It is clear that the main principle of considering the request is that an employer should consider the request carefully looking at

a)    the benefits of the requested changes in working conditions for the employee and their business; and

b)    weighing these against any adverse business impact of implementing the changes.

As for myself, bringing a flexible working request in relation to my travel arrangements, given what I do, I think the main ground for rejecting a flexible working request in my situation could possibly be that the employer considers the change would have a detrimental effect on the business’s ability to meet customer demand. Given that I am here to serve my clients during the firm’s opening hours, it might be that they might not like the fact of me going off early on a Friday afternoon if matters needed to be handled urgently.

For example, if I were to work four longer days and freeing up Fridays to travel to Germany, my employer would no doubt be concerned that I would not be available to deal with pressing time-dependent issues concerning my cases on a Friday. The company or the firm would most likely fear losing billable hours and attracting complaints from clients because of my absence and would be inclined be to refuse the request on the grounds of an adverse impact on the customer demand. A compromise in this case could possibly be for my employer to consider a request under the “right to request” to trial the arrangement for a period of time to see whether or not the clients would in fact be negatively affected. Perhaps some clients would be happy that I would be able to deal with their matters after normal office hours four days a week. The office secretary could also perhaps handle routine matters in my absence… in any event, it is interesting and good to know that as an employee I now have the right to request flexible working which in the future may be something worth considering.

Downloads

– Code of Practice on handling in a reasonable manner requests to work flexibly
– The right to request flexible working: an Acas guide (from 30 June 2014)
– Making a statutory application
– Information about taking an employer to an employment tribunal

Disability – rights and obligations in the workplace

by Sofie Lyeklint | Jun 18, 2014 | Employment, Guest blogs

You may be familiar with the rather eccentric and accidentally hilarious crime detective Saga Noren in the Scandinavian crime drama The Bridge.  As I grew up in the area where this gritty drama takes place, I recognise some of the cultural features of her behaviour. The actors themselves have admitted that Saga is actually a stereotype of what Danish people think about Swedish people and her sidekick Martin Rohde is conversely a stereotype of what Swedish people think about Danish people.

Sounds complicated?

The truth about Saga Noren

There’s been a lot of talk about Saga’s personality (or lack thereof) in the media.  It’s clear that the creators of this show were intending to show that Saga functions in a different way from that which one expects of neurotypical people, or “NT” (which I now know is jargon used to distinguish people on the autistic spectrum from “normal” people).  In a recent interview, the actress who plays Saga Noren, Sofia Helin describes her character as showing “another way of being intelligent”.  Her EQ (emotional intelligence) is very low but her IQ is very high.  While the media and the audience may have interpreted Saga Noren as having Asperger’s Syndrome (a form of autism) condition, the show’s creator says that they’ve actually never diagnosed her on the show. However, it is clear that Saga struggles to navigate the social rules of the workplace and according to one British psychiatrist, Eva Loth of the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, she appears to fit somewhere on the autistic spectrum disorder scale.

In a recent BBC Health article, Robyn Steward, the National Autistic Society’s Ambassador, who actually has Asperger’s Syndrome herself, speaks sympathetically about Saga Noren’s character. According to Ms Steward, Saga is a good role model for women who are different and for women who are on the autistic spectrum.

The media’s flirtation with autistic spectrum disorder

The media’s flirtation with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) does not end with Saga Noren.  Very recently, hidden disabilities of Asperger’s Syndrome and Bipolar Disorder have become a defining attribute of the main characters in some of our most popular series such as Sherlock, Homeland and as I’ve mentioned, The Bridge. The (anti-) heroes and heroines of these contemporary tales are all highly functional individuals in full-time employment with conditions that are classified as a disability under the Equality Act 2010 (EqA) and therefore enjoy protection under the same act.

Sherlock is self-employed but given that he performs his serviced personally he is likely to be protected by discrimination legislation. Saga, as an employee of the Swedish police, would have the same rights under the domestic legislation. Again, I digress, but these fictional characters are still good examples of working with a disability. If anything, it hopefully increases the general awareness of autism and other disabilities which may not be obvious to most people.

Recent developments

There have been quite a few recent developments as to what actually is classified as a disability.  One of the most noteworthy in the recent press is whether or not obesity is the new disability.  A test case is currently before the European Court of Justice which will determine whether EU law bans discrimination or grounds of obesity. Karsten Kaltoft was a child minder weighing more than 25 stone. He was employed by the local authority in Billund for 15 years. Eventually, he was sacked because his employer felt that he could no longer fulfil his duties. One of the examples of this was that he needed a colleague’s help to tie a child’s shoelace. Now, the EU court will have to consider whether obesity would fall within the legal definition of disability and whether the local authority was guilty of discrimination when they dismissed Karsten.

As the UK has the highest percentage of obesity in Europe (The National Obesity Forum has estimated that by 2050 half of the UK’s population will be obese) this could be quite a significant decision for both employees and employers. Given the rapid development in medical advances it is also clear that attempting to compose an exhaustive list of things that would be classified as a disability for the purposes of discrimination legislation is futile, but where do you draw the line?

Who is disabled in the eyes of the law?

The Equality Act 2010 defines disability as: any physical and/or mental impairment which has a substantial and long term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day to day activities.  This involves some sort of limitation outside the normal range of differences in the ability among people.  People who used to have a disability will also be protected.

The Office for Disability Issues has published useful guidance on matters to be taken into account in determining questions relating to the definition of disability. (www.odi.gov.uk/equalityact) A disability can involve a wide range of impairments which can include:

• Sensory impairments, such as those affecting sight or hearing
• Fluctuating or recurring effects such as rheumatoid arthritis, myalgic encephalitis/chronic fatigue
• Progressive, such as motor neurone disease, forms of dementia or lupus
• Organ-specific, including respiratory conditions such as asthma and cardiovascular diseases
• Developmental, such as autistic spectrum disorders, dyslexia, learning difficulties,
• Mental health conditions and mental illnesses, such as depression, schizophrenia, eating disorders, bipolar affective disorders
• Injury to the brain

The exclusions apply where the items listed above are an impairment in themselves. The exclusions also apply where these tendencies arise as a consequence of, or a manifestation of, an impairment that constitutes a disability for the purposes of the EqA.

A person with an excluded condition may nevertheless be protected as a disabled person if he or she has an accompanying impairment that meets the requirements of the definition. It is clear that it’s not necessary to consider how an impairment is caused, even if the cause is a consequence of a condition which is excluded.  For example, liver disease as a result of alcohol dependency may still count as an impairment although an addiction to alcohol in itself is excluded from the scope of the definition of the EqA.  What is important to consider is the effect of an impairment, provided it is not an excluded condition.

People with HIV, cancer and multiple sclerosis are disabled for the purposes of the EqA. That means that the person is protected by the EqA effectively from the point of diagnosis. Similarly, people are deemed to be disabled, without having to show that they have an impairment that has (or is likely to have) a substantial, adverse, long-term effect on the ability to carry out normal day to day activities if they have, for example, been certified as blind, severely sight impaired and partially sight impaired. That means that the person is protected by the EqA effectively from the point of diagnosis.

There are some exclusions and certain conditions are not to be regarded as an impairment for the purposes of the EqA Act.  These are:

• Addictions to dependency of alcohol or nicotine or any substance (other than in consequence of the substance being medically prescribed)
• The condition commonly known as hay fever except where it aggravates the effect of another condition
• Pyromania (the tendency to set things alight)
• Tendencies to steal
• Tendencies to physical or sexual abuse of other people
• Exhibitionism
• Voyeurism

Disfigurements which consist of tattoos (which have not been removed) or non-medical body piercings or something attached to such piercings, are to be treated as not having a substantial adverse effect on that person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

The exclusions also apply where these tendencies arise as a consequence of, or a manifestation of, an impairment that constitutes a disability for the purposes of the EqA.  They would also apply where these acts constitute an impairment in themselves.  A person with an excluded condition may nevertheless be protected as a disabled person if he or she has an accompanying impairment which meets the requirement of the definitions.

As you can see, the legal test of disability is quite complicated. However, it should be noted that in the vast majority of cases there is unlikely to be any doubt whether or not a person has or has had a disability.

What if you or one of your employees are classified as disabled under the EqA?

The EqA provides disabled people with protection from discrimination in the work place. (See previous blog article Discrimination in the Workplace).

In addition, employers must make reasonable adjustments to accommodate a worker with a disability.

It is unlawful to discriminate against workers because of a physical or mental disability or fail to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate a worker with a disability.

• This means that employers must not directly discriminate against a person because of their actual or perceived disability, or because they associate with a disabled person.
• An employer must not treat a disabled person less favourably for a reason related to his or her impairment, unless that treatment can be justified.
• The employer must not have procedures, policies or practices which, although applicable to all workers, disproportionately disadvantage those who share a particular disability, unless these can be justified.
• An employer must make reasonable adjustments in the recruitment and employment of disabled people.
• An employer must also not treat an employee unfairly who has made or supported a complaint about discrimination because of disability.
• Disabled employees are also protected from bullying and harassment. (see previous blog article – Bullying and Harassment at Work)
• If an employee has a disability that is making it difficult to work, employers should consider what reasonable adjustments they can make in the workplace to help.

Best advice if there’s a problem

If you think you may be disabled yourself, you should bring the matter to your employer’s attention and consult with your physician or appropriate advisor as to your individual requirements regarding adjustments that are needed.

If one of your employees approaches you with a disability you should hold a meeting to discuss any reasonable adjustments that could be made to ensure that your employee is receiving the appropriate support and that you are complying with the discrimination legislation in force.

Equally, if you think you have been discriminated against, or harassed or victimised because of your disability or because you associate with a disabled person you should raise a grievance.  If you receive a grievance from one of your employees you must take this seriously and address it in accordance with your Grievance Procedure and/or the Acas Code of Practice. (www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx/index.aspx).

How to Ace the Consulting Case and Land the Job

by Daniel Stefanac | Feb 20, 2014 | Employment, Guest blogs

The management consulting recruitment process is known for being highly competitive in nature. Applicants prepare months in advance, especially for the case interview.

A recent article released by CNN suggests that management consulting firms are prioritising recruitment in 2014. To be more specific, Deloitte stated in the article that they are looking to fill roughly 12,000 vacant positions, whilst PricewaterhouseCoopers are also on the lookout for new hires (4,449).

These figures indicate that the consulting industry is still rapidly expanding and shows no signs of slowing down. Despite the need for new consultants, top consulting firms are making it clear that their standards for new recruits are not being compromised.

One of the ways that consulting recruiters ensure that they are hiring the best from each batch of applicants is through something called “the case interview” – a job interview in which the applicant is given a question, situation, problem or challenge and asked to resolve the issues.

Covering the Basics

Before reaching the case interview, a candidate has to be shortlisted. This takes years of preparation, obtaining the right credentials, joining the right clubs, and building a solid consulting network. Assuming all those are covered, the focus can rest entirely on the consulting case interview.

The most common scenarios that applicants encounter during the case interview are the following: organisation, start-ups and the release of a new product (risk and strategy). Applicants are recommended to familiarise themselves with these basic issues. Should you pass the interview process, it is highly unlikely that you will be immediately assigned high profile, complex projects.

Where to Find Sample Cases

One of the most asked questions that we receive from prospective consulting applicants is where to find relevant sample cases that they can practice on. There are a number of reliable sources that one can learn from. The first is your target firm’s website. McKinsey, Bain & Company and BCG have a set of samples on their respective website that are made up of real cases that they have encountered. Each website has their own way of guiding the applicant in going through the sample cases. McKinsey uses guide questions throughout the sample to provide hints for the reviewer, while Bain & Company includes a range of tools such as videos and multiple-choice questions.

Another great source for consulting cases is books. Case In Point, by Marc P. Cosentino, provides a selection of consulting sample cases, as well as informative tips on how to overcome and breakdown complex questions. This book is regarded as one of the best books for case interview preparation. Top MBA programs are known to purchase and recommend the latest editions of Case In Point for their students, members and staff.

Case Interview Frameworks

Once you have a set of sample cases, it’s time to apply the right case interview frameworks. It is nearly impossible to solve a case in the manner that the recruiter wants without using a consulting framework. Remember, what the recruiter is looking for is more than the right solution. He or she is more interested in how you came up with the correct set of options, including your thought process.

Case interview frameworks are designed to organise your method in solving the case through the use of categories and revealing questions. Each consulting firm has their own preferred frameworks that they find to be useful and superior. It is best to take note of your target firm’s set of frameworks that they rely on. This can give you insight on the type of cases that you might encounter.

Basic consulting frameworks such as SWOT Analysis and Seven S are a great way to start the case, as it can help identify problem areas. It is important to understand that it is not recommended to forcefully apply a framework to a case. This can be extremely misleading. Instead, adapt and use only part of the framework that is relevant to the type of case being presented.

Case Interview Skills

Apart from testing your analytic skills, case interviews test one’s ability to compute figures and data under pressure. Some interviewers even go off topic and ask more direct math questions such as, how many golf balls can fit in a standard freight container? Lastly, don’t forget to sharpen your communication skills. Confident message delivery can show the recruiter that you deserve the consulting position that you’re in the running for. Good luck!

About the author:
ConsultingFact is a website that provides an online course and a selection of guides for consulting applicants. The online hub is owned by Daniel Stefanac, a former McKinsey consultant.

Through his shared knowledge and expertise in the consulting industry, numerous applicants have successfully landed their dream job. The consulting guides offered on the website covers key concerns of today’s prospective candidates such as writing a cover letter and resume, and case interview frameworks.