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The 2026 KPI Handbook for Consulting Firms
Track and optimise performance across business operations, talent management and project delivery.
Improve Your Performance
Are you still relying on outdated metrics while high-performing consulting firms pull ahead? The most successful consulting practices aren't just tracking more KPIs; they're tracking the right ones, with precision that drives real business outcomes. The 2026 KPI Handbook for Consulting provides a comprehensive resource for tracking and optimising performance. It offers insights into relevant and useful key performance indicators (KPIs) for your business, along with practical guidance on setting, measuring and improving those KPIs.
Profitability KPIs
The Consulting firms we surveyed confirmed that business growth and profitability are a focus for them, and they are considering several different strategies to help them meet their objectives:
- 30% of firms believed that the automation of their month-end process would significantly increase their profitability.
- Firms planned to focus on controlling the ever-increasing cost of running their business to protect their profit margins:
- Reducing expenses (28%)
- Balancing employee/cost ratio (28%)
- Increasing control of costs - purchases and approvals (25%)
To meet growth and profitability objectives and goals it’s important to know what success looks like, and if you are making the right level of progress to succeed. We’ve identified several KPIs you can monitor to track progress in this area.
Project Delivery KPIs
According to the 2025 SPI Professional Services Maturity Benchmark Report, on-time project delivery decreased from 75.7% in 2023 to 73.4% in 2024. In a similar pattern, employee billable utilisation decreased from 69.3% in 2023 to 68.9% in 2024. At first glance, this doesn't seem too drastic, although it could be the beginning of a potential trend that consultancies need to manage before it starts to have a real impact on their profitability, reputation, client retention and project win rates.
When it comes to day-to-day project management best practice, the expectations of what constitutes a successful project haven’t changed. Projects need to be delivered on time, and within budget and scope, to ensure a healthy cash flow, customer satisfaction, repeat business and an excellent reputation in your industry.
There are some essential project KPIs your firm should be measuring that specifically focus on the success of your project delivery, such as project overrun, projects on schedule and effective billing rate.
Employee Retention KPIs
Talent management is a hot topic for consulting firms. In fact, 32% of consulting firms surveyed for the 6th Annual Deltek Clarity UK Industry Study confirmed that attracting and retaining talent is one of their top priorities challenges.
In 2024, 69% of consulting firms were planning to grow their team. This year, that has increased to 73% of firms. To do this, they need to have a robust strategy in place to attract and retain talent across the business and be able to monitor progress towards their goals.
There were several talent management challenges identified by the consulting firms we surveyed that need to be considered when identifying and tracking relevant KPIs:
- Lack of investment in training/upskilling staff (48%)
- Lack of employee engagement (34%)
- Lack of work/life balance (32%)
- Resignations/employee churn (28%)
If you have plans in place to improve how your firm attracts and retains talent, there are some priority KPIs that you can measure to ensure that you are on track to meet your staffing and resourcing goals.
