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Consulting

Reviewing This Week on Make HR Happen – Consulting

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If you advised someone on a strategic new course of action today, you were acting as a consultant. The simplest form of the definition of consultant means to give someone advice. The modern connotation of the word has evolved from a medical term where a consultant was a specialist that could step in and advise a physician when the knowledge required was beyond the scope of a general practitioner. In other context it became a… Read More »Reviewing This Week on Make HR Happen – Consulting

Consultants – Part 5: Faux Consulting Alternatives

Many alternatives to getting the job done are performed by professionals that have “borrowed” the term consulting for their business cards or letterhead. Some of these are thinly veiled sales pitches that use the bait of free expert advice along with an expensive product or service. I call these “faux” consultants instead of “fake” because it sounds classier and is less offensive to groups of people I have arbitrarily grouped together. Some in fact are… Read More »Consultants – Part 5: Faux Consulting Alternatives

Consultants – Part 4: When Not To Engage

Hiring external expertise to solve problems means making a major commitment to select and utilize this specialized resource. It is not inexpensive. On the occasions where internal consultancy will work just as well, there is probably a greater need for careful consideration before committing resources. Just because such a decision would be utilizing assets already onboard doesn’t mean that it is a sunk cost.  Any diversion of resources from daily operations requires an expenditure of… Read More »Consultants – Part 4: When Not To Engage

Consultants – Part 3: Do It Yourself

There is no stone tablet etched with instructions that you must only go outside of the company walls to find consulting expertise. If the primary reason for hiring external consultancy is to augment company staff or to buffer their workload, logically there could be times that it is perfectly acceptable to turn to in-house talent for implementing change. In fact, several problematic situations can be avoided by use of internal consultants. Institutional knowledge of past… Read More »Consultants – Part 3: Do It Yourself

Consultants – Part 2: When and How To Engage

There is a time and place for everything. Hiring an external consultancy is no exception. By the very nature of being “external” these consultants bring valuable insight into the company and make solutions happen. They do not perform this function by stepping in and taking charge. They have the expertise to do this, but their value added comes from knowing how to work as a catalyst. They cause results by means of their influence and… Read More »Consultants – Part 2: When and How To Engage

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