Managers have a challenge. They need to get the right people on their team. However, they are also extremely busy, working under tight deadlines to deliver their projects, and can't afford the time to sift through dozens of resumes.
Managers need a consulting firm they can trust. They need a firm that understands the market and can offer a few high-quality matches for their openings without flooding them with useless resumes or constantly harassing them with sales calls. Murphy & Associates understands this dilemma.
This "Insider's Guide to Consulting" is a handy way to see how Murphy & Associates stacks up to the competition. Take the following questions to any other contracting firm you're considering – and compare their answers to ours.
Questions
How much is it going to cost me?
We’ll never have the cheapest rates in town, but we consistently deliver great people at a really good price. Murphy & Associates doesn’t have a rate card; instead, we adapt our rates to what the market dictates. Our general philosophy is to set our rates a little bit under market value, but deliver a much higher quality resource.
Murphy & Associates works primarily with a high-end talent pool. Our full disclosure policy and low-markup compensation model allows us to attract the best consultants, pay them well, and price them to be an excellent value.
How long have you been in business? And by "you," I don't mean your company, I mean YOU, the person I work with.
Murphy & Associates has been in business since 1980, as a privately-held, family-run business. We enjoy exceptional continuity of sales and support staff. The average tenure for staff is 8 years; most of our staff began their careers as consultants. They know our business inside and out.
There is no substitute for experience.
Through decades of business in the Seattle area, Murphy & Associates has learned what managers want and need from a staffing firm. We’ve been through the ups and downs. We've seen the hiring frenzies and massive layoffs. We've seen every manner of startup. We've watched our competitors come and go as they become financially insolvent or get absorbed by a national firm headquartered in some far-off city.
Through it all, Murphy & Associates has stayed true to its roots, providing high-quality IT & Business Consultants and treating our clients and consultants fairly and ethically.
Consultants are consultants. What makes your people so special?
The majority of our people come through word of mouth. People like to work with Murphy & Associates and refer their friends and coworkers to us. The reason is simple: we treat our consultants fairly.
Murphy & Associates is a full disclosure firm, which means our consultants always know their billing rate and how the money is apportioned between their salary, our commission, and taxes. Furthermore, we never ask our consultants to sign a non-compete agreement with us. They stay with us because they want to stay with us. Even if one of our consultants wanted to switch agencies mid-contract (something that rarely happens), we would work to ensure a smooth transition. It’s just good business.
Our consultants trust us. That means they’re happier on their assignment. Your assignment.
Our internal staff all possesses a strong IT & Business background. We've worked first-hand as developers and project managers, so we understand the industry. That helps us match the best candidate to the position – a skill Murphy & Associates is famous for. We never send a candidate out for consideration before we’ve met with them face to face, to evaluate technical and consulting skills and to make sure they meet our high quality standards.
Do you pay bounties to your consultants for referrals?
No. Over the years, Murphy & Associates has grown on word of mouth and solid referrals. We've built our reputation on the quality of the consultants we provide to our clients. We like our people to refer other strong consultants over to us, but we don't pay referral fees. There are two reasons:
- We need to protect the integrity of the referral. We want people to refer their friends and co-workers to us because they believe in our company, not to make a little extra cash.
- We want our consultants to stay focused on their assignment, not working as a part-time Murphy & Associates recruiter. That's good for our reputation, and for your project.
Many junior or mid level consultants will use a contract as a stepping stone to hiring on with a company. These are not the consultants that Murphy & Associates targets, nor are they typically attracted to us. Our consultants have chosen consulting as a career and are usually not interested in hiring on as a full time employee. However, if "contract to hire" situation arises, Murphy & Associates will work with you to ensure a smooth transition.
Will you flood me with (lousy) resumes?
No. We know you're busy: you want a few top-notch candidates to consider, and you want them quickly.
When you have an opening, Murphy & Associates staff will contact the most highly-qualified consultants and respond back to you within 24 hours. If we don't have a good fit, we won't send a resume over. Murphy & Associates prides itself on providing high quality candidates or no candidates at all.
If you decide to interview one of our consultants, we help schedule the meeting. We're experts at moving the process along and making sure our company never becomes a bottleneck.
Once you've filled a position, will you bombard me with sales calls?
No. Murphy & Associates doesn't make "follow up" calls that are really sales calls in disguise. We don't up-sell, cross-sell or hard-sell. We keep in contact at a reasonable level.
When issues with a consultant arise, we get involved at whatever level you want. We view it as a partnership. If you ever have any questions or concerns, let us know; we'll get back to you ASAP, always within 24 hours.
We also keep an eye on things in a slightly different way. Since the beginning, Murphy & Associates has hand-delivered our consultant's paychecks every two weeks. It's a great way to make sure all's well without taking time out of your busy day.
Will I have to adapt to your billing & reporting systems, or will you adapt to mine?
We'll adapt to yours.
Murphy & Associates has spent years developing our own custom software to run the company. We've built in enormous flexibility to respond and adapt to the way our clients do business, not the other way around.
We defer to the client's time-reporting policies and procedures. We send invoices on a schedule and format that works with the client's process. We provide ad-hoc reports upon request in a timely manner.
Our mission is to make your job easier.
Microsoft
Are you an MSVP Preferred Vendor at Microsoft?
Yes. We have all the contractual paperwork in place, so the process of bringing someone on board has been streamlined.
There are two required items: a Statement of Work (SOW) and an Electronic Cardkey Agreement (ECA). Microsoft managers typically create the SOW, but we can assist with putting that together. Once the SOW is created and approved by Microsoft management, it is reviewed by LCA and a PO is created.
Once the PO is in place, the consultant can be entered into Headtrax, and a position number is generated. The manager forwards that position number on to the Murphy & Associates account manager who then generates the ECA.
Boeing
Are you a preferred vendor at Boeing?
Managers that have an open position can contact Boeing Contract Labor to create a job requisition. The manager can then contact the Murphy & Associates account manager.
If the manager already has a resource identified for their position, they can contact Boeing Contract Labor and set up a "named request." The named request will identify the resource and will only be sent to Murphy & Associates. Once a manager agrees to bring a resource on board, Contract Labor will send out an offer letter which includes the start date. Murphy & Associates handles all the paperwork to get the resource set up.
Other Companies
My company is not on your list. How do I work with you?
The first step is to establish a Master Service Agreement (MSA). The MSA is a legal contract between Murphy & Associates and your company that outlines the parameters of our relationship – things like confidentiality, insurance coverages, intellectual property ownership and payment terms.
Setting up an MSA is easy – Murphy & Associates has MSAs with many of the largest companies in Washington (including Microsoft, Boeing and the State of Washington) and we can easily adapt to the specific needs a client may have.
Once the MSA is in place, just tell us what you're looking for and we'll get to work.