To be able to run a profitable mini
ng project in today’s unforgiving markets, companies need to be lean and efficient. They simply do not have the luxury of being able to employ a limitless amount of workers. This is where consultants come in. There are many benefits of maintaining a low headcount in a company and assigning new unprecedented challenges to a consulting company. In this way, employees can continue to focus on their core roles within the company and allow the consultants to tackle new challenges. Consultants typically deliver faster results, as well, since being faced with new complex problems on a regular basis allows them to develop a fast learning curve. Moreover, as consultants work all over the globe, they develop strong sense of multiculturalism and allows them to adapt to any conditions.
Companies need to provide benefits to their full time employees, i.e health & pension plan, life insurance, paid vacations, holidays and sick leave. These benefits do add up to extra costs and it is more costly to hire a full time employee in the long run. Whereas, if a consultant is hired to do a temporary job he is not entitled to any of these benefits and due to his past experiences he can deliver the solution in a timely manner. Having a smaller workforce is also easier to manage and allows each employee to express their opinion freely without going through the hierarchical system. This improves the overall team dynamics and results in better productivity.
A full time employee hired to do a specialized task may not have enough work for him throughout the year to keep him busy. Whereas, if a consultant or anyone new is not hired to tackle a special problem or a project, the responsibilities fall on the regular employees of a firm. Hence, this will not only overburden the individual but also make them inefficient in performing their regular duties. Moreover, the permanent employees will usually require more time working on the same problem as they will have to step out of their regular regime to find a solution to the newly assigned task. As a result, the employee may have to work overtime and the company will end up consuming a similar amount of resources as it would with hiring a consultant. Thus, the overall productivity of the staff will be negatively affected.
Hiring a consultant saves a company significant resources as often the price for the consulting services is pre-determined. In this way, the consultants try their best to solve the problem in least amount of time and of course to the highest quality as their work and reputation determines their likelihood of being hired again.
– Nikhil Agarwal