The US business employs about 45,000 people in 65 countries, a workforce which has ballooned 60pc from 28,000 people in 2018.
Recent efforts to trim its headcount include a voluntary notice period scheme targeting consultants across McKinsey’s UK and US offices.
Under the terms of the scheme, UK employees can spend nine months looking for new jobs while receiving full pay.
It follows sweeping job losses under one of the largest restructurings in McKinsey’s 98-year history, dubbed Project Magnolia.
The overhaul announced last year eliminated 1,400 jobs in back-office and support functions, including human resources, communications and IT.
The layoffs reportedly attracted criticism from among the company’s 750 senior partners who accused Bob Sternfels, global managing partner of the firm, of mishandling the process.
McKinsey, which recorded $16bn (£13bn) of revenue last year, is often called on by companies and governments needing help cracking their toughest problems.
However, the business has since warned 3,000 consultants that their performance is unsatisfactory and needs to improve.
Underperforming employees typically have three months to improve before being counselled to leave the business altogether.
The slowdown has also forced McKinsey to cut the number of new people promoted to its partnership and to defer partner bonuses.
After five weeks of working 20-hour days, one McKinsey consultant decided enough was enough.
He was overworked thanks to managers overpromising to clients in an effort to keep them happy during the downturn, meaning projects were under-resourced and delivered on the cheap – if for any fees at all.
Months after quitting in search of greener pastures, the former McKinsey analyst now wishes he’d hung on for just a little longer.
Hundreds of senior employees at the consulting giant’s UK offices have been offered the chance to step back from client projects and spend nine months searching for new jobs – all while being paid in full.
McKinsey departees will get access to career coaching and administrative support during this time, such as help with updating their CV. If they still haven’t found a new employer after nine months, they’re on their own, The Sunday Times first reported.
It’s in stark contrast to McKinsey’s well-established practice of pushing out underperforming employees in client-facing roles after being “counselled to leave”.
The exit route may appeal to the large swathes of consultants who have been languishing on what McKinsey insiders call “the beach”, where days are spent working on internal business development rather than billable client work.
Although initially giving employees the chance to relax from their usual 80-hour weeks, these metaphorical holidays can see consultants go for months without gaining any real experience.
“A lot of people were promised they would get development that they wanted and ended up on the beach,” says the former McKinsey analyst.
There’s a certain irony given McKinsey’s reputation as corporate merchants of death hired by companies to help slash headcounts and cut costs.
However, the scheme ultimately raises questions about whether the doyen of the consulting world has simply become too big.
McKinsey, which recorded $16bn (£13bn) of revenue last year, has long been the go-to fixer for companies and governments needing help cracking their toughest problems.
The mystique surrounding the enigmatic business has helped justify the firm’s premium fees, which are much higher than those charged by consultants in the Big Four.
“It’s like buying a suit from Next off the rack or going to Savile Row,” says James O’Dowd, founder and managing partner of professional services recruiter Patrick Morgan.
After years of rapid expansion amid fierce competition from rivals Bain and BCG, McKinsey now finds itself with an enormous workforce of 45,000 employees in 65 countries, up 60pc from the 28,000 people in 2018.
House prices fell in all but six of London’s 33 local authority areas last year as the capital’s property was hit harder than any other region of the UK by soaring interest rates, new analysis reveals today.
The average London house price dropped by 5.2% in 2023, from £535,711 to £508,037, knocking £27,674 off the value of a typical home in the capital, according to latest Land Registry figures.
That compares with just 1% for the UK as a whole. But within that overall figure, the performance of individual boroughs varied enormously, according to data today compiled by agents Benham and Reeves. Prices fell in 26 boroughs and the City of London with the biggest declines seen in the most expensive neighbourhoods.
The biggest single fall was in Westminster, where the average cost of a home plummeted almost 21%to £877,733.
The loss in value in a single year, £232,015, is close to the average price of a home in many parts of the UK.
In Kensington and Chelsea, the average price fell by 17.4%, or £236,346, while the City of London saw reductions averaging 16.6%, equivalent to £160,221. In Hammersmith and Fulham house prices fell by 13.2%, or £101,522.
However, six boroughs did buck the overall trend to record small increases in prices over the course of a year marked by severe pressure on homeowners as they were forced to remortgage at far higher rates when fixed rate deals expired. Londoners have by far the biggest mortgages of any UK region with the average first time buyer home loan in the capital standing at £335,000.
Richmond upon Thames recorded the biggest rise in property prices with the average up 2% to £15,093.
It was followed by Camden on 1.6%, Newham with 1.1%, Islington (0.8%) and Hackney and Lewisham (both on 0.7%)
Benham and Reeves director, Marc von Grundherr, said: “With house prices cooling during the later stages of last year, it’s the London market that has naturally been hit the hardest given the far higher cost of homeownership, with all but a handful of boroughs experiencing a decline.
Largely speaking, this decline has been marginal in the grand scheme of things and the vast majority of boroughs have only seen slight corrections… However, the damage done across the prime market, in particular, has been far more pronounced, although the silver lining is, of course, that there’s never been a better time to buy at the very high-end of the London housing market.”
The figures came as latest data from property portal Rightmove showed prices starting to recover in the first few weeks of the year after mortgage rates fell sharply at the end of 2023 on hopes that the Bank of England will soon start lowering the cost of borrowing.
According to Rightmove, asking prices jumped 2.8% in London in February.