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Twenty years of people propelling success

An important ingredient in our recipe for success? Hiring smart, creative, low-ego, and collaborative team members.

This year, Fathom Consulting celebrates 20 years in business. In addition to happenings planned throughout the year, we’re sharing a series of blog posts celebrating what’s led to our success over the last two decades while looking forward to the years to come.

At the top of my list of things to celebrate? Our consultants—modern-day renaissance professionals who move our clients from complexity to confidence. From our start as Evantage Consulting in 1999, the most important ingredient in our recipe for success has been our smart, creative, low-ego, and collaborative team. Anyone who has spent time with us knows we’re constantly striving to push the bar higher in all that we do—from client projects, to the perfect team building event, to fine-tuning the mechanics of a well-constructed team.

For many years, we hired largely on instinct. While that served us well—our average employee tenure is over 7.5 years—we recognized it was time to mature our process. With nearly half the company weighing in at some point, we dove deep into giving our hiring process an overhaul.

Like we might approach a project for a client, we took a step back, clarified our objectives, and collaborated to arrive at the specifics of what we needed to do on the hiring front. While it wasn’t necessary for us to develop a fancy tool or a magical test that puts Myers-Briggs to shame, we worked to formalize a process that candidates now follow, including a:

  • Personal capabilities presentation
  • Case study review
  • Hypothetical project approach
  • Conversation with a team of potential peers

As we started to use the new process, we found it to do just what we hoped for: enable our team and candidates alike to have a realistic mutual understanding of one another before taking the next step. With a small, high-performing team like ours, we know this deeper level of knowledge from both parties is essential to ultimate success.

As part of this effort, we also articulated the traits of the consultants who are successful at Fathom, to help guide our efforts to seek out future hires. We look for people who are:

Leaders—At Fathom, leadership means having at least 10 years of experience. It means consultants feel at home in a self-directed environment. It means team members thrive on solving problems creatively with actionable solutions that really work. And it means people leading the charge without ego getting in the way.

Hybrids—By definition, “hybrid” refers to combining two different elements in a mixture. Bringing a mix of experiences to the table enables consultants at Fathom to appreciate the variety of perspectives that often arise in client work. For example, team members have backgrounds that might include roles inside an organization and at an agency, or experience in marketing and information technology.

Curious, analytical, and continuous learners—Changing things for the better—for our team, our clients, or our community—requires consultants to have a desire for absorbing and producing new ideas. To foster meaningful and lasting change, all team members are encouraged to investigate new things, and share these passions and interests with the rest of the group.

Naturals at WOO (Winning Others Over)—Understanding how to connect with people is critical for team members. “Nerds with solid social skills” is something we consistently joke about, yet it’s really true. Consultants aren’t afraid to go deep and get geeky, and are able to communicate these passions effectively.Once we identify the desired traits are a match, we consider fit with not only current clients and projects, but also with where we see market and client trends heading. Finding the next great addition to our team takes time and it shouldn’t be rushed. Our updated hiring process makes it a priority to set expectations (for ourselves and candidates) that determining mutual fit takes some time—and that’s OK.

For me, one of the joys of working with a team with this collection of traits is that we are always evolving and pushing upward—as individuals and as a team. We always encourage one another to evolve and improve. During my time at Fathom, I’ve been shaped and inspired by my respected colleagues. As consultants, people are the tools of our trade, and I know that finding talented humans that are the right match for our team is essential for success as I look toward the next 20 years.