What our clients say about us

'We have been working with Essence Consulting for a number of years and have found them to be knowledgeable and enthusiastic about local government. We find that they are able to bring their first hand experience to bear in providing insightful advice and support to councils. Due to their professional approach and commitment to meeting clients' needs, we have also been happy to recommend the firm to our client councils. We would recommend them as a reliable and innovative consultancy.

Sam Maher, Regional Employer's Director, Local Government East Midlands 

'Essence Consulting created a core competency framework for use by project and programme management professionals. They also created a range of other tools and communications designed to to build a project and programme management practice. They also started a project for the procurement of a new IT tool. They worked autonomously and competently to create very high quality products and documentation. They are extremely competent and show dedication and commitment to deliver what is required.'

Elysia McCaffrey, Head of the Portfolio Office, Qualifications & Curriculum Authority 

'Essence Consulting were commissioned to review Nottingham City Council's approach to workforce planning and carry out statistical analysis of a large and complex range of workforce planning data. We found them to be extremely supportive and knowledgeable in this subject area. Their previous experience in local government and the Audit Commission provides a very helpful insight and added value to associated recommendations. We were extremely satisfied with the high quality service.'

Vicky Head, Workforce Planning Manager, Nottingham City Council 

'This process has raised the ability of officers to effectively manage their performance within the resources available to them as well as identifying mismatched in targets and resources. There is now a wider understanding of the impact individual areas have on the achievement of the corporate goals. The work that was undertaken has resulted not only in a high quality performance management system, but an ownership of the system by managers and staff, coupled with a more focussed approach to achievement.'

Graham Harris, Managing Director of Dartford Borough Council

'We are using Essence Succeed to ensure that we are developing our people in the right areas. We have found the software is very easy to use and remote access is a particular benefit, as I am able to look at the competency profiles and performance of my staff from any location. We found that is has already paid for itself, as it helped us to recruit the right people the first time around. I am also pleased to say that I can identify the best team to resource projects quickly and easily. The ongoing support provided by Essence Consulting in helping us to get the most from our new system is first class.'

Steve John, Director of Sagari Ltd.

'When we started using Essence Succeed, we were completely new to using competencies. Although we'd liked the idea of using them, we'd been put off after having a look at other competency systems that were IT-based and needed to be integrated with our IT systems. It was important for us to have a system that we could get up and running with quickly and Essence did just this. Now we wish we'd started using the system sooner as it's saved us a significant amount of money in recruitment and development costs and our staff turnover has reduced, so that we're beating our targets on staff retention. We would recommend Essence Succeed to anyone considering using an online competency system.'

Katja Hammon, CEO & Founder of Ideal Venues Ltd.

'As a company that takes staff appraisals very seriously, we used to spend a lot of time preparing and analysing them each quarter and the task became quite laborious, with a lot of paper used in the process. We now have a system that saves us time and money and we couldn't be more pleased with it! One of the great features of the system is that you can email staff with a link to their assessment, which they can complete in their own time and once it's done, you can analyse the results against their peer and manager assessments. All the results are presented in an easy to use format. Although initially taken on with appraisals in mind, we are now using the system in the recruitment process and will shortly start emailing job applicants before they come for interview to ensure that we're only considering the candidates most suitable for the job.'

Alistair Veness, Director of Calico Print Solutions

'Essence Succeed is a valuable tool that enables us to recruit and develop the best people for our organisation. Essence Consulting worked with us to streamline our management processes and to develop the right competencies that suit us. We used it in the first instance to help with a management restructure and are now rolling it out the next tier of staff.'

John Makinson-Sanders, East Lindsey District Council