Support and consultancy for employers

We are widely respected for our knowledge and practical experience in HR and people management issues.

Our clients describe our approach as evidence-based, strategic, challenging and high quality. We value talking sense and avoiding jargon, offering unique, bespoke solutions rather than standard products.

We offer robust, practical solutions to help you deliver improved performance in your HR teams and across your organisation.

As well as directly benefiting our clients, our insights feed into our wider dissemination work to help improve policy and practice for all.

Evidence-driven HR

Using data to make better HR and people management decisions

Through robust diagnostic and analytic approaches, we help you develop a deep understanding of your organisation and employees, assess the business impact of your people management activities, and undertake strategic workforce planning and talent management.

At the core of all our work is the use of data and evidence to drive effective decision-making.

We can use a range of approaches:

Return on investment assessment (beyond just financial return).
Cost-benefit modelling for new initiatives.
Intervention evaluation - training, coaching, Organisation Development (OD).
Linking people activity to organisational performance.
Developing metrics and scorecards.

Contact: Stephen Bevan

Making your organisation more effective

Designing and supporting change

We support organisations to become more effective by facilitating the design of solutions and interventions, and then guiding you through the process.

Whilst we help our clients in many different ways, the main areas are:

Facilitating working sessions for design of strategy, structure, culture and change/OD programmes.
Critical friend sessions: one-to-one challenge and support, to shape your thinking.
Making proposed changes to policy and practice (eg in reward, talent management, performance management, etc).
In-house learning sessions: equipping your team to improve organisational effectiveness.
Coaching: supporting key people in the organisation on a one-to-one basis over a period of time.
Leadership development: developing your people to lead through change.
Undertaking specific tasks in areas such as talent management, learning and development strategy, reward and performance management, organisation and job design etc.

Contact: Alison Carter

Organisational insights and audits

We offer focused analysis and support to enhance understanding of organisational culture, systems and processes.

Find out more

Contact: Duncan Brown

Key areas of expertise

Our consultancy work for employers draws extensively on IES’s wide range of HR research expertise.

What we know about

IES experts


Duncan Brown Head of HR Consultancy	Stephen Bevan Director, Employer Research and Consultancy	Dilys Robinson Principal Associate	Peter Reilly Principal Associate