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Why Companies Hire Consultants

Read more below to find out a few of the many reasons companies engage consultants rather than solve problems themselves.

1. Companies Want an Outside Eye
  • Consultants often bring new and innovative ideas or possible challenges to the table that clients probably wouldn’t have been able to see on their own.
  • Engaging a consultant provides a professional perspective/opinion and can offer confirmation to an already proposed solution when making tough decisions. Furthermore, a consultant offers a neutral perspective when a manager is too close to a challenge and may be missing the obvious solution.
  • A consultant’s opinion isn’t just any opinion. Because they have engaged with many different companies and have likely worked through your problem previously with someone else, a consultant can provide a real perspective based on experience of what does, or does not work.
2. Companies Want a Safe Zone
  • An experienced consultant provides an unbiased perspective that is a bit removed from activities involving controversies, politics, emotions, etc. For this reason, a company may opt to engage a consultant to do some of the ‘dirty work’ such as major restructurings, conducting employment terminations or controversial projects.
  • Consultants are also the ideal individuals to initiate new concepts that might not initially be well-received within an organization.
  • By having a consultant do this type of unfavorable work, internal managers can enjoy transformations without risking anyone’s day job or career.
3. Companies Want Specialized Skills
  • Perhaps the most common reason companies hire consultants is to gain access to a specialized skill set that might not exist internally.
  • By engaging a consultant firm, companies gain access to highly specialized skills on demand that would not only be expensive for hire, but may not necessarily be required year round.
4. Companies Need Extra Housepower
  • By adding consultants, companies don’t have to pull employees away from their actual jobs or lose focus from day-to-day operations.
  • Consultants are accustomed to quick onboarding with steep learning curves and serve as temporary, highly-skilled employees. This is especially important for one-off projects when companies may otherwise struggle to develop a team to perform critical work that is only required for a limited time.

Text adapted from article written by A. Nuth