How to hire an organizational development consultant

How to hire an organizational development consultant, step by step

Here's a step-by-step organizational development consultant hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write an organizational development consultant job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new organizational development consultant
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does an organizational development consultant do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the organizational development consultant you need to hire. Certain organizational development consultant roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them an organizational development consultant to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire an organizational development consultant that fits the bill.

   This list shows salaries for various types of organizational development consultants.

   Type of Organizational Development Consultant	Description	Hourly rate
   Organizational Development Consultant	Training and development managers plan, direct, and coordinate programs to enhance the knowledge and skills of an organization’s employees. They also oversee a staff of training and development specialists.	$25-53
   Team Trainer	A team trainer is responsible for developing the skills of employees by implementing new strategies and techniques to increase operational efficiency and maximize productivity. Team trainers conduct skill-up training sessions, adhering to the business' and clients' needs, and provide engaging and interactive discussions for the participants, evaluating their progress through a series of activities and practical applications... Show more	$11-20
   Trainer	A trainer is responsible for instilling knowledge and process techniques for a specific business role. Duties of a trainer include facilitating engaging classes, identifying areas of improvement and opportunities for the learner, evaluating skills and attending to the learner's challenges, organizing training materials and scheduling training sessions, and submitting timely reports to the management on progress... Show more	$14-35

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Human Resources
   • Project Management
   • Professional Development
   • Instructional Design
   • Organization Design
   • Development Solutions
   • Career Development
   • Employee Engagement
   • Organizational Effectiveness
   • Succession Planning
   • Management
   • Process Improvement
   • Business Strategy
   • Training Programs

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Lead experiential learning in supervisory skills, conflict management, leadership, team building and organization process effectiveness.
   • Establish course conventions, program management best practices and instructional strategies for eLearning and mobile learning content development.
   • Develop an in-depth diversity train-the-trainer program for facilitators that provide legally-based fundamentals, facilitation skills, facilitator assessment, and testing.
   • Implement a behavioral interviewing training program for to increase ROI with recruiting.
   • Develop several forms and trackers to improve the OJT experience for agents and allow coaches to be more efficient and effective.
   • Develop and facilitate performance management initiatives including defining accountability and measuring results.

   More organizational development consultant duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your organizational development consultant job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. An organizational development consultant salary can vary based on several factors:

   • Location. For example, organizational development consultants' average salary in nebraska is 38% less than in oregon.
   • Seniority. Entry-level organizational development consultants earn 54% less than senior-level organizational development consultants.
   • Certifications. An organizational development consultant with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in an organizational development consultant's salary.

   Average organizational development consultant salary

   $76,706yearly

   $36.88 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level organizational development consultant salary

   $52,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 28, 2025

   Average organizational development consultant salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$101,915	$49
   2	Oregon	$95,715	$46
   3	Washington	$87,619	$42
   4	Virginia	$83,333	$40
   5	North Carolina	$81,594	$39
   6	Maryland	$81,333	$39
   7	Pennsylvania	$79,262	$38
   8	New Jersey	$78,288	$38
   9	Nevada	$77,978	$37
   10	Texas	$77,656	$37
   11	Massachusetts	$77,320	$37
   12	New York	$77,181	$37
   13	Arizona	$76,571	$37
   14	District of Columbia	$75,783	$36
   15	New Hampshire	$74,456	$36
   16	Ohio	$74,062	$36
   17	Wisconsin	$72,509	$35
   18	Florida	$71,668	$34
   19	Georgia	$71,085	$34
   20	Louisiana	$65,941	$32

   Average organizational development consultant salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Citrix	$132,548	$63.73
   2	University of Maryland Medical System	$132,127	$63.52	1
   3	The Washington Post	$114,028	$54.82
   4	Portland General Electric	$107,055	$51.47
   5	Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation Inc.	$106,054	$50.99
   6	CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield	$104,762	$50.37	1
   7	Memorial Healthcare System	$100,431	$48.28
   8	NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital	$99,610	$47.89
   9	Concord Hospital	$96,898	$46.59
   10	BD	$94,422	$45.40	1
   11	Dana-Farber Cancer Institute	$93,865	$45.13	4
   12	University of California-Berkeley	$92,797	$44.61
   13	Federal Reserve Bank of New York	$91,723	$44.10
   14	Omaha Public Power District	$91,426	$43.95
   15	PeaceHealth	$90,697	$43.60
   16	LCMC Health	$90,575	$43.55	2
   17	Novant Health	$89,868	$43.21	3
   18	Seattle Children's Healthcare System	$88,683	$42.64
   19	Duke Energy	$87,701	$42.16
   20	St Luke's Hospital & Health Network Inc	$87,159	$41.90

4. Writing an organizational development consultant job description

   A job description for an organizational development consultant role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's an organizational development consultant job description:

   Organizational development consultant job description example

   Job Purpose
   
   The Senior Organizational Development Consultant plays a key role in ensuring the development and advancement of an empowered, inclusive, values-driven workplace culture, and actively plans for, addresses, and forecasts future talent and culture needs. The consultant reinforces strategy and initiatives that enable all associates to engage and align to the business mission, vision and strategy. In this role the consultant is responsible for managing and supporting organizational processes and leading change management activities that are designed to create our associate value proposition; using assessments, coaching and communications; reviewing data and analytics; and developing and recommending action and change management plans with leaders.
   
   Essential Responsibilities
   
   Continues to evolve and integrate Jackson's Values into human capital activities and processes in order to foster new behaviors and ways of working that are required to deliver the business priorities.Identifies core cultural attributes and monitors the impact of culture on business and human capital outcomes, identifying areas for further development.Drives the business ownership of the culture transformation and associate engagement through influencing, educating and managing key stakeholders.Identifies and recommends opportunities to improve and align supporting systems; creates and implements an integrated approach to talent and culture management.Works with leaders and managers to engage with multiple sources of feedback and to develop actionable plans to drive engagement, development, and cultural capabilities.Works with leaders and SMEs to identify organizational goals, plans, and human capital needs in order to accomplish business objectives.Designs and implements integrated leadership development solutions including, executive coaching, development planning, succession management, 360 feedback, and leadership programs. Equips and supports all levels of associates to successfully adopt change in order to implement strategy and initiatives that enable all associates to engage and align to the business mission, vision, values and strategy.Develops strategic business relationships in support of change initiatives across the organization.Leads and facilitates meetings, focus groups, and other working sessions to help solve difficult problems, align disparate viewpoints, gather data and build capabilities.Collaborates with stakeholders to ensure all are working toward common goals, establishing agreement around intended outcomes/results, and assessing and adjusting the organization's direction in response to a changing environment.Works with leaders and associates at all levels, as appropriate, with the goal of driving appropriate human capital development solutions.Researches and recommends the use of vendor-based solutions for organizational, talent development and performance improvement programs and initiatives.Provides regular reporting on assessments, change initiatives, development evaluations, effectiveness, and impact on business goals and objectives.Provides coaching and consultation with high potential leaders, focused on effective development planning and execution.Manages sensitive and/or confidential data appropriately.
   
   Other Duties
   
   Performs other duties and/or projects as assigned.
   
   Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
   
   Experience working with leadership to facilitate cultural transformation for large initiatives.Proven ability to work in a dynamic and fast-paced work environment and manage multiple tasks and projects simultaneously.Strong leadership skills and outstanding written and oral communication and collaboration skills.Exceptional interpersonal and influence skills.Proven ability to conduct needs analysis, ensuring that solutions address the correct root cause, and that the impact to the business is measurable.Strong knowledge and understanding of talent and performance management, culture, organizational development, and HR practices.Proven ability to work with leaders at all levels, as a consultant, resource, coach and mentor.Strong understanding of succession and change management, and a demonstrated ability to develop and deliver programs for individuals at all levels of the organization.Strong coaching and facilitation skills, ability to leverage facilitator skill and experience, participant knowledge, and participation to maximize impact.Ability to manage multiple projects and processes, organize deliverables and resources, and prioritize details to meet deadlines.Ability to operate independently with limited oversight.Ability to travel 10-20%.
   
   Qualifications
   Bachelor's Degree in HR, Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Business Administration or related field, or equivalent experience required.Master's Degree preferred.5+ years Related professional experience in an organizational or change management capacity, and talent or leadership development experience with experience in the assessment, development, delivery and measurement of succession and development programs required.8+ years Human Resources Experience preferred.
   
   We don't just accept difference - we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our products and our community. Jackson is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. The Company subscribes to and endorses federal and state laws and regulations relating to equal employment opportunity for all persons without regard to race, color, religion, gender, age, national origin, legally-recognized disability, marital status, legally-protected medical condition, citizenship, ancestry, height, weight, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other factor not related to the needs of the job. The Company is committed to a policy of equal opportunity. Company facilities and campuses are tobacco-free environments.

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5. Post your job

   To find organizational development consultants for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any organizational development consultants they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level organizational development consultants with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your organizational development consultant job on Zippia to find and recruit organizational development consultant candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Your first interview with organizational development consultant candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new organizational development consultant

   Once you have selected a candidate for the organizational development consultant position, it is time to create an offer letter. In addition to salary, the offer letter should include details about benefits and perks that are available to the employee. Ensuring your offer is competitive is vital, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and it is important to be open to discussion and reach a mutually beneficial agreement. After the offer has been accepted, it is a good idea to formalize the agreement with a contract.

   It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

   To prepare for the new organizational development consultant first day, you should share an onboarding schedule with them that covers their first period on the job. You should also quickly complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Finally, Human Resources must ensure a new employee file is created for internal record keeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire an organizational development consultant?