We hear from quite a few organizations that they’ve erred when it comes to hiring a consultant. Don’t worry – you’re not alone. It’s hard to find the right consultant who can make a difference in your organization. The best news is that we have outlined seven important factors to consider to hire the right consultant for your organization.
1. Ask Yourself “Why Do I Need a Consultant?’
There are many reasons why an organization might invite a consultant to join their team. Before assessing which consultant is right for your culture, be sure to understand your why.
- Resources: your current team does not have the internal resources
- Skills: your current team does not have the skills needed to complete the task
- Objective or “Best Practices” Perspective: your current team wants the expertise of another individual, as well as an unbiased point-of-view
- Political/Facilitator Reasons: the task at-hand does not fall cleanly into the boundaries of a single organization
2. Develop Goals and an Understanding of Intended Value to Your Organization
Ask yourself “how will my organization benefit from me hiring a consultant?” Defining set goals and intended outcomes of hiring a consultant will help you understand what kind of consultant you want to hire, as well as how you intend for them to fit in your company. When considering these goals, you will want to assess the financial benefits or consequences of hiring this individual as well.
3. Get Approval to Hire a Consultant
Finding a great, qualified consultant is like finding a good doctor or loyal employee: it is time-consuming and hard work! Instead of spending time and resources on hiring the right consultant, only to not get approval to hire someone, be sure you have tentative approval (or complete approval) to bring on a consultant. Along with this, be sure to define the consultant selection process.
4. Define Deliverables, Dates, and Expected Involvement for Both the Consultant and Organization
When bringing a consultant on to your team, it is crucial that you develop shared expectations. In addition, developing a schedule that accounts for both holidays and other demands will help to assure ample time to stay on track with your project. This also helps to keep both your organization, as well as the consultant, focused on time management.
5. Define Billing & Payment Terms
When defining billing and payment terms, there are a few crucial questions to ask:
- Is the project fixed fee or within a range with a “not to exceed” clause?
- If it is time & materials, what budget was set?
- What “materials” are included/excluded from the project?
- Is travel time included/excluded?
- Will there be milestone-based payouts? If so, what is the schedule?
All of these topics need to be discussed, clarified, and agreed upon. Taking the time to have a conversation and determine what is right for both your organization and the consultant will be a ‘win/win’ for both of you!
6. Get a Second (or Third) Opinion if Needed
As you develop a trusting relationship with your consultant, be judicious about when you put projects out for a competitive bid. You need to realize that, for small projects, it takes time to develop a detailed estimate and approach. If developing a detailed proposal is the case for ALL projects – even if the dollar amount is low – be warned that you may be absorbing that cost in higher than normal rates on future projects to cover the increased overhead.
7. Make Sure that YOU and Your Consultant are Aligned
Sometimes I use a metaphor of personal trainer or a financial planner when I talk about how we management, OCM and technology consultants should work. Assume you just set a goal to run a marathon and are seeking a fitness trainer to help you. You ask around and you get referred someone everyone likes – “Big Jake”, who specializes in getting people ready for CrossFit competitions.
Obviously that is different than getting you ready to run your marathon. So even though Big Jake is knowledgeable and likeable, he won’t be a fit for YOUR needs. Consider your organization’s culture and both the knowledge and style that your consultant needs to make to make change stick.
Closing Thoughts
Finding the right consultant is more difficult than it seems. With these seven steps, you can be sure that you are asking the right questions when it comes to who you’re hiring, as well as why you need their talents.
For more information please email Dan Feely, Managing Partner, or call him at 847-705-0960 ext 202.
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