This article is written by Ramanuj Mukherjee, CEO, LawSikho.

What is written below is not only relevant for those who want to practice as POSH consultants alone but all sorts of legal consultants. So read on even if you do not do POSH related work but want to build a law practice or consultancy business of any kind.

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A Prevention of Sexual Harassment Consultant!?

Wait, is that even a career?

A lot of lawyers would have reacted this way when they heard about prevention of sexual harassment at workplace (POSH) consultants, until recently. But things have rapidly changed in 2019. 

“There is an internal complaint committee (ICC) in every workplace, then what would a POSH consultant do?”

You can start a full-fledged consultancy business as a POSH expert. There are small firms doing only POSH work and still, there are not enough experts out there. 

You will get to conduct sensitization events in different locations, such as the factory-floor, with off-site consultants and vendors and employees in the office. You will be guiding and training members of ICCs of different companies, help in investigations and evidence collection efforts, assist in drafting and implementing policies as well as create training programs for vulnerable employees or top executives.

A simple Google search would lead you to a honeycomb maze for information relating to various organizations providing POSH training as well as consultancy services.

There was a time when sensitization and sexual harassment policy were just buzzwords, and everything companies did were only focused on compliances for reducing liability.

But then some industry leaders began to understand that it is critical to create workplaces that are truly conducive to women. When investors began to lose their money invested in promising startups because of toxic work culture where women were exploited, leading to media disasters and business losses, especially in the light of #metoo, the industry changed its collective opinion about how important it is to have a sexual harassment-free workplace.

Stopping sexual harassment is now a top business priority for media companies, startups, finance industry, hospitality businesses, educational institutions, and government bodies. 

And that means they are ready to adequately compensate external experts who can help with making a real difference in terms of implementing their sexual harassment policy.

The workplaces now take deliberate measures to go beyond the basic legal compliances relating to POSH to promote healthier working environments. This, in turn, offers POSH consultants a number of opportunities to provide their services to the workplaces and build a strong career in this arena.

At LawSikho, our team has trained thousands of sexual harassment experts over the years who are now helping the industry to change how sexual harassment laws are implemented, and we have seen how things changed in the last couple of years. 

However, still, the number one concern of many aspiring POSH consultants we speak to every day is this:

How can they get new clients? 

There are a few more questions you should ponder about along with the above question if you are a new or wannabe POSH consultant.

What makes a client decide to go ahead with a particular consultant for POSH implementation? 

How can they convince clients to pay a premium for their services? 

How can you present yourself in a way that a company wants to hire you rather than anyone else? Should you have marketing collaterals like brochures? How do people find out about your track record and previously successful projects?

How do you handle your first meeting? What impression are you creating in the first meeting on your client?

Where do you get your leads from? How do potential clients find out about you and how do they then approach you?

After working with several Fortune 500 companies, technology startups, construction and infrastructure companies, industry bodies and government departments on POSH implementation and training other POSH consultants on obtaining consultancy work, at LawSikho we have identified three major barriers which come up for POSH consultants:

#1 You must provide a Structured Engagement Plan that is easy to start with and aims at building trust

A client, usually a company with 10+ employees that approaches a POSH Consultant has few pointers or necessities with respect to the kind of consultancy in the arena of the prevention of sexual harassment at the workplace which it requires, specifically. 

The number of such POSH Consultancy firms has grown immensely with the change in times and the market need. Now how would an organization be willing to take the expertise of a POSH consultant mostly depends on the value they are going to offer them on the basis of their requirement. 

Does the POSH consultant simply undertake basic POSH compliance or are they able to create value in the process, apply customization to the way POSH is implemented in the organization depending on the different work environments is what would be the tipping point in hiring the services?

Do they even understand the unique requirements of an organization? What are the unique challenges this particular client may face?

So, how does a POSH Consultant demonstrate higher value and better understanding to the organization that seeks his/her expertise in the entire process?

The answer is very simple. 

A structured engagement plan is to be created that would ensure a deeper engagement, instead of a mere surface-level plan that matches the necessities and the working environments of specific organizations.

Components of a structure engagement plan could include a process detailed for engagement. For example, a predetermined list of questions can be sent to the organization to identify the details of the requirements and nuances. This list is to be consciously thought out for each type of client. We call this a ‘requirement analysis form’.  It forms the basis for preparing a watertight proposal as the next step. 

When we work with our corporate clients at LawSikho, for example with a law firm to create a customized training program for them, we start by sending them a Requirement Analysis Form, followed by a detailed call trying to understand what value we can bring them and what is the exact nature of the problem they are trying to solve.

When you send the requirement analysis form, it can be coupled with a profile, but not a specific proposal, until you have the requirements in.  

Next, a process for starting the engagement is necessary. Some consultants have a minimum charge, let’s say of INR 50,000 for a particular kind of work. They refuse to work if they are paid anything less than that. 

This leads to the failure of a lot of prospective deals. When you are starting and do not have credibility or trust, you need to build that first, and you often have to do that by starting and charging small and providing sachet size services. 

You can have a phased engagement plan so that you can commence work for different types of clients in a small way. 

How about a service where employees can reach out to you by phone whenever they have a doubt? Sort of a helpline? And you charge Rs. 500 per call. 

Companies are facing major problems with queries of employees or victims who need initial support. Even if they do not hire you for everything else, you can get a foot in the door by offering such a small service that they may not be planning to buy otherwise.

This format helps in building trust. Once the client experiences your service and is satisfied, he or she may move to the next phase and rope you in for a larger engagement. 

When you have a large practice or business, it may not make sense to do small engagements though. For example, we don’t accept any corporate engagement below 1 lakh no matter how small a project is or what is the margin. In fact, at LawSikho we try to avoid taking any assignments below 5 lakhs and make an exception in very few cases. In months to come, we may stop working on projects below 5 lakhs if any customization is required.

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Ignoring the small deals helps us to focus on the bigger ones more intensely. However, when we got started, we would even take an order for INR 20,000! That was the phase where we built our initial reputation and knowledge base.

The key here is to be able to identify the different aspects of implementation and the challenges which the client will face beforehand and map it into the proposal document, which is why the requirement analysis process is very crucial. 

If you have done a thorough job, the client will realize the difference in value which you provide in comparison to other consultants sooner or later. 

#2 How can you demonstrate the flexibility to cater to unique client needs?

No matter how experienced or successful you are, you will always find situations you have not faced earlier. Clients will come up with the most unique kinds of scenarios. 

New situations and new client demands will arise and you will need to cater to them.

You may need to revamp your entire engagement plan and brochure from time to time. It is literally a continuously evolving document for you. 

You cannot be rigid about how you render your service or how you charge your clients or what you charge for. 

You cannot blindly implement the text of the law. You will need to identify how it applies to specific situations, especially those which are not directly covered under the law. Many lawyers hesitate to risk into this territory, but as a consultant, you need to identify creative ways for the organization to move forward after highlighting the risks.

You also cannot hope to standardize your entire service offering. There is a limit to the amount of standardization possible. 

A product company will want to standardize everything, but as a consultant, if you want to earn more, you will have to be flexible and focus on customization and experience. In fact, you want to work with those organizations that want customized services rather than the ones who want just a commodity. 

A consultant earns a premium because of the customization and the client’s satisfaction and experience.

Let me share another example of being rigid. Some consultants refuse to cooperate with the company’s HR if it organizes software-based training from third-party vendors and does not engage them for training.

They have an all or none approach – either engage them fully or not at all.

These are not win-win scenarios and can damage your prospects.

Instead, why not deliver the greatest experience to a client in whatever they ask you to do so that they come back to you for more?   

If you win their trust, you can do a lot more work for them and even earn referrals. 

Let us take another example of rigidity. 

A few companies will come up with specific requirements for the POSH consultants like holding separate sessions for men and women employees while some would want a joint session. 

In most cases, a POSH consultant, given the sensitive nature of the provisions of the act can try to explain the company for the pros of holding a session together for both male and female employees, but in cases where the workplace doesn’t agree, it is for the POSH consultant to leverage their training session in such a way that the employees are able to accrue maximum value out of it instead of declining the project straightaway. 

Flexibility and adaptability are a sine qua non for POSH consultants.

#3 Do not send vague or weak proposals

Before POSH Consultants can secure a project from companies, the scope of what the organization expects out of the consultant is necessary to be agreed upon and reduced to writing. However, even before you send a proposal, you should have a professionally designed brochure you can share with them.  

Several POSH consultants do not have a brochure they can send a prospective client quickly. Some of them send a one-size-fits-all brochure/ PPT which does not attract the imagination of the client about how they can extract maximum benefit from the service provider.

What does the client want? How can you get them there? That needs to be the highlight of your proposal. 

Usually, money is a minor issue if you understand what the client wants and if you can show them how you can help them to get there.

If a client cannot appreciate the value of the service or its relevance after going through the proposal, that is a dead-end for you. 

Second, any specific modifications that may be needed based on the organization’s nature of work and industry sector must be pre-identified. This is your greatest opportunity to identify new areas of value addition. This is where you can differentiate yourself from competitors and also ensure a higher fee. 

Maybe the client wants a specific module for what are the dos and don’ts for interacting with work-from-home consultants.  Or maybe the client has not thought of the same, and you are going to advise that.

Maybe the client needs specific training for staff which is customer-facing. Probably they would not ask for it, but you should suggest it in your proposal. 

Maybe factory-workers need a different kind of training than employees working from the corporate office and the branch office. Can you point that out in your proposal and accordingly recommend the scope of work? Are you pointing out the challenges the customer will eventually face and suggesting solutions and prices based on that?

Maybe the sensitization program needs some translations.

Maybe the ICC needs a specific standard operating procedure to deal with complaints. 

The ability of a POSH consultant is put to the test here. 

Have you faced any of the situations above? Did you have a good deal fall through because of any of the above scenarios?

Write back and let us know.   

How can you address the barriers above?

You will notice that it requires a high level of exposure and practical skills, along with some practice on how to render services and pitch to a client. 

Apart from what we have written about here, there is a lot more to learn!

At LawSikho, we teach you not only legal skills but also how to succeed as a consultant. You can find more about it in this course.

You can also enroll in the Certificate Course in Prevention of Sexual Harassment at the Workplace. 

There is also a course on Legal Practice Management that could be of your interest.

If you’re an HR personnel, who wants to understand various kinds of labour laws, along with POSH, you can check out Certificate Course in Labour, Employment and Industrial Laws for HR Managers.

We are taking enrolment in the following courses:

DIPLOMA

Diploma in M&A, Institutional Finance and Investment Laws (PE and VC transactions)

Diploma in Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Laws

EXECUTIVE CERTIFICATE COURSES

Certificate Course in Advanced Criminal Litigation & Trial Advocacy

Certificate Course in Real Estate Laws

Certificate Course in Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code

Certificate Course in Media and Entertainment Law: Contracts, Licensing and Regulations

Certificate Course in Legal Practice Development and Management

Students of Lawsikho courses regularly produce writing assignments and work on practical exercises as a part of their coursework and develop themselves in real-life practical skill.