Part 4 in the Getting Started series.

Learning the intricacies of managing your consulting business is the way to make it profitable and successful. In addition to the challenges faced by all business owners, you will need to manage client expectations and deliver high quality services. All of this needs to be done while looking for the next client or project. (Who said this was easy?) These guidelines will ease the pain.

Establish and Manage Project Scope

In simplest terms, establishing scope is achieving agreement with your client on what you are expected to provide in exchange for an agreed upon fee. Ensuring services meet customer expectations, however, is more difficult than verifying a vendor delivered a certain quantity of an item. This is why it is important to establish, in as much detail as possible before the start of the project, what the client is expecting and what level of effort it will take you to provide this. While there are several ways that consultants bill for services, the most common are deliverable-based or time and materials. Each approach to billing has its own challenges in terms of agreeing on scope.

How to Scope Deliverable-Based Projects. Consultants often provide their clients with a deliverable, which can take many forms. It can be an actual product, such as marketing literature or a completed software package. Deliverables can also be a report or plan for future actions. They can be events that you have planned or complete conversions of operations or technology.

To determine pricing, estimate the amount of time and other resources you will have to invest in order to complete the deliverable. This is where your previous experience comes in to play. Based on this estimate and your rate for services, you can compute what to charge your client. Even if you agree on a fair cost for this, you still need to specify what the components and contents of the deliverable that will be included.

Too many consultants spend countless hours reworking a project because they failed to reach agreement on results. When estimating the time and cost of a deliverable, consider client dependencies as well. Often times, certain steps in your project plan cannot be accomplished because they are dependent on someone from the clients’ organization. Inform the client of the level of support or involvement you will need from his or her organization.

How to Scope Time and Materials Projects. In time and materials projects, you are paid your hourly rate for time invested plus any out of pocket expenses you incur on behalf of your client. The key to success in these types of projects is to reach an agreement in advance as to the number of hours you will spend on a particular task.

During the project, ensure that your client is comfortable with the hours you are actually billing. One effective means of communicating this is through status reports. Rather than waiting till tasks are complete and submitting a bill, provide regular periodic reports indicating what you are doing and how many hours you have spent doing it. Include any observations you have or problems that you have noted. Also identify expenses you incurred along the way, being sure to save all receipts. It is important to have some agreement on the expense guidelines you will be using. These expenses represent actual out of pocket cash to you. Failure to get reimbursed can be a real drain on the business.

Manage Your Cash

For both deliverable and time and material projects it is important to establish a billing schedule to get cash into your business. If you are working on an hourly basis perhaps the generation and acceptance of a periodic status report can trigger an invoice to the client. For deliverable-based projects that extend out over more than a two to four week time period you need to establish interim billing milestones. One way to do this is to break down the large deliverable into “manageable chunks” that are integral to the progress and successful completion of the overall project. This needs to be agreed upon at the start of the project.

Manage Multiple Clients

While initially you may only work with one client, the growth of your practice will bring additional clients. While it is less risky to not rely on one client, it does have challenges. You will have additional expectations from multiple clients. Overpromising or underestimating time constraints can cause problems for everyone. No client likes to hear that their needs are secondary to others. It is your responsibility to build a work plan for each client that takes his or her individual needs and timing into consideration. The good news is that with today’s technology it is much easier to multitask and stay in contact with multiple clients. If you are onsite at one client, there is no reason that you cannot email another client about your progress.

Avoid the Porpoise Effect

The porpoise effect is when you are heads down underwater hard at work for so long, that when you surface, there is no work on the horizon. So while you are hard at work putting in the hours and constructing your deliverables, you still need to budget time for finding the next project. This might be in the form of additional work from an existing client or from an entirely new project. Either will take time to market and develop a winning proposal.

Becoming proficient in managing your consulting business will take some time. It requires many skills and a considerable investment of time and effort. Many consultants initially tend to over deliver to clients. This can take away from the time they need to perform other tasks. Learning to exceed your client expectations at the same time you are making money will provide you with great rewards.

What are your tips for business management? Comment below.

Part 3 in The Getting Started Series.

The way you market yourself and the services you provide will establish your personal brand. This brand is the way the marketplace sees you. There are many ways to inform your targeted business community of your services and availability. You will need to invest time and resources into a variety of media and other sources in order to attract potential clients.

Develop A Strategy First

The best way to develop your personal brand is to develop an overall marketing plan or strategy. Although this takes time at the start, a planned marketing strategy is more efficient than a haphazard one. This means you will need to familiarize yourself with the varied marketing tools available to the independent or small business owner, including both online and offline approaches.

Create An Online Presence

Your website. When starting your consulting business today, it is essential to create a presence online. This includes your own website as well as participation in social networking sites. There are two key things to remember in establishing your online marketing materials. They should be professional looking and content rich. Being content rich means having material on the site that can be valuable to potential clients, in addition to the marketing and contact information.

Social networking. Once you have developed your website, you can develop a profile on social networking sites, such as LinkedIn. As your practice grows, try to communicate across other media, such as Twitter. Using Twitter, you can “tweet” 140 characters of unique content to connect with others who have similar interests. The goal is to build relationships and participate in communities by adding value to the ongoing conversation.

Your blog. Your Internet marketing strategy might also include a blog, which is a way to provide unique content and opinions as well as to prove your expertise in an area. Many people combine their company websites with their blog. (See our review of 31 Days To A Better Blog).

Online Directories. Finally, you need to explore online listing services or directories that are specific to either your geography or your area of practice. These can also be a cost effective way of establishing your personal brand on the Internet.

Old School Basics

Although much of your marketing will be conducted through the Internet, there is still a great deal of face-to-face activities that will be required of you. A professionally printed business card is essential. As you begin networking and meeting with prospective clients this is often the second impression they have of you. It is also what you leave behind. If your budget allows it, a simple tri-fold brochure highlighting your expertise and services is also a good idea. This brochure needs to bring attention to your skills and consulting area of expertise, but will point the reader to your website for more information.

Networking in the Consulting Marketplace

There is much written on the art and skill of successful networking. For consultants, some of the best places to network are in professional organizations and trade groups of your target clients. However, membership is just a start. Attending meetings and conferences is certainly helpful in getting to know the people who are the real buyers.

But more important, is to be active in the organization. This includes making presentations or writing articles for the groups’ publications. This is an excellent way to become known as an expert in front of your target market. It is important to remember that these opportunities should not be used as a sales pitch. Instead, present a compelling case study or solution  with which you have been involved.  If the information is valuable, your byline will draw interest from potential clients.

Marketing Through Requests for Proposals (RFPs)

While it is important to identify potential opportunities in your clients organization  and anticipate solutions that may be useful to them, you still need to be ready to respond to their current problems. Many organizations make their needs for services known to the marketplace through requests for proposals. Consultants will compete for this work based on approach, expertise and cost. It is important to make sure that you are “on the list” to receive these. This could be through registering with a purchasing office, signing up for electric notification or monitoring websites.

Not only can responding to RFPs provide a pipeline of potential work, it is another opportunity for you to market yourself. Responding to these requests will vary in complexity and level of effort. Often initial respondents may get pared down to a more manageable group that will lead to an in person or online meeting. While you may not win the engagement, you will get a chance to represent yourself to the buyers. This can lead to future work. If the opportunity exists, take some time to discuss with the client ways you can improve your future proposals. This shows that you are willing to listen and often provides valuable insight.

Staying in Contact

Once you have a set of target clients, you need to stay in contact with them. Your goal is both to learn what opportunities exist in their organization as well as to let them know what new solutions or services you can offer. Regular email correspondence is good, but a periodic phone call is important to maintain that personal relation. It also lets them tell you what is going on in their business. While you can learn a lot from published material, there are many challenges that managers and business owners face, which they are not eager to have published. As you build deeper personal relationships with your clients you can achieve the goal of becoming a trusted business advisor

It’s A Critical Skill

Focusing on creating and marketing your personal brand is critical to finding clients willing to pay you for your services. This effort is especially critical in starting your consulting business and may take a lot of your time and resources. However, nothing beats that message from a client that says we like your proposal and want to get started. That is the payoff for your efforts.

Related Articles:
Is Becoming A Consultant Right For You?
Finding Your Niche

Part 2 in The Getting Started Series.

The first step in becoming a consultant is finding your niche. What type of advice can you provide or what kind of services do you offer that clients are willing to pay for? It is important to look broadly at your experiences and knowledge base to define your space in the consulting marketing place.

Assessing Your Skills

Consultants often have skills in strategy, operations, design and information technology. Your first step should be to take a functional inventory of what you have done in your current and previous employment. Look beyond your job titles and classification. Think of it as creating a resume focused on experiences, not a chronology of where you worked.

You should also consider skills that are specific to your industry. For example, if you work in the technology arena you should consider the “brands” of software and hardware. Or if you are in the Human Resources field, is your experience with organizational development or benefits? Another consideration is what part of the business your skills support. Are you the hands on implementation person, are you best working at the design level or can you help businesses strategize?

The Strategy Focus

Successful strategy consultants need to have been responsible for setting and managing organizational strategy. This does not mean that you need to have actually been an executive officer of your organization. You will, however, need experience interacting at that level.

Understanding the elements of a business strategy and business plan development is essential. Anyone who has been involved in this realizes that there is much more structure to the process that meets the eye.  Consulting in this area requires exceptionally good interpersonal and facilitation skills as well. You will need to lead your client through this process as it is ultimately their strategy.

Your value comes from recognizing the key components of a strategy or business plan and challenging the client to make the necessary assumptions and set goals. Producing a quality written end product is also essential for this type of consulting.

Operations Consulting

When you look at your experiences here, first determine what type of business processes you were involved in. Did you work in the infrastructure processes, such as purchasing or finance, which support the entire organization? Or was your work focused on industry specific processes, such as shop floor optimization or rate setting and pricing? Experiences in both of these types of processes are transferable to the consulting arena.

Although experience in organizational support can be easily applied to any industry, specialized industry experiences may require you to focus on that industry initially. With experience and creativity you can later leverage these skills with other industries.

Design Consulting

Another opportunity exists in the consulting arena for those who have been involved in the creative aspects of their organization or working for a creative agency. This can include media, design and graphic services. Many organizations cannot afford to maintain such a service in-house due to the infrequent demand for these services. They tend to outsource these as the need arises.

While they may have an arrangement with an external group, there is a need to advise management on the strategy and implementation of the external groups’ products.  Depending on your level of skills in this area, you may expand your relationship to developing communications or graphic media yourself, rather than using the external group.

Technology Consulting

Technology consultants have a wide variety of experiences and skills. Assisting your organization in translating business requirements to technology requirements and creating a design is a valuable skill. The person who effectively speaks both “languages” can easily work in designs across industries. There is also much more of a niche specialization in technology as well.

Your level of brand expertise and application experience are important, as well as the entire suite of Internet and e-commerce product experience. In this area there is less of an importance to brand expertise then there is to system functionality. However, you can still leverage your brand expertise. Do you want to take your experiences and continue applying them in the same area but for different organizations? Or do you want to leverage your understanding of technology into a broader role than you have now?

What Does the Marketplace Want?

Once you understand the value you have been providing to your employers, you need to match that to what clients need. Is there some change in legislation or in the regulatory environment to which many other organizations need to react? Have you implemented changes in business processes in your organization that led to being a best practice for your industry or function? Are the technology platforms and applications you have been involved with on the cutting edge of your industry or do they support changing business requirements? One way to get answers to these questions is to talk with peers in your organization.

Another approach is research with industry and professional organizations. This will provide you with insight into the demand for your skills in the marketplace. Additionally, look at job postings. If organizations are hiring for a particular set of skills, they may very well have a need for consulting services in that area.

Your skills inventory is the first step in defining your niche in the consulting world. Don’t be timid in determining the areas in which you are an expert. But be realistic in assessing the marketplace demand for that expertise. The next step will be matching up your expertise with the marketplace and obtaining clients.

Read Part 1 of this series:
Is Becoming A Consultant Right For You?

Part 1 in The Getting Started Series.

Has your job search included becoming a consultant and starting your own business? Do you know what it means to start a consulting business and how to make it profitable?  This is the first of a series of articles about these topics, which can hopefully help you make the right decision and guide you to a successful practice.

What is a Consultant?

In the business environment, there are consultants in almost every field imaginable, from organizational development and human resources to finance and marketing. Two fields that seem to propagate consultants are management and technology. These are individuals whose advice and services are directed toward the strategy, operations and information resources of an organization. A newer addition to the field is green consulting. These people help businesses and individuals modify their internal practices to reduce environmental impact.

You should also not be confused by the media reports of high level executives and government officials who receive large payments for consulting services from their former employers. These are not the norm for the individual consultant and are usually a means of deferred compensation.

Do You Have the Skills?

Unless you are joining a large consultancy right out of business school or a university, it is difficult to start your career as a consultant without previous experience. Our focus here will be on professionals who have worked in the corporate, government or nonprofit environment and have developed some professional expertise. We will talk in more detail about defining your area of expertise in a subsequent article. But you should feel comfortable about one or more areas of operations or technology or have some special set of knowledge. In some cases this expertise is aligned by industry as well, for example process manufacturing, banking or telecommunications. Beyond your area of expertise there are other skills to consider as well. Remember, if you are an independent consultant, you will be responsible for running a small business as well as delivering the work product. Some of the skills of successful consultants include detail orientation, good public speaking and interpersonal skills, written communication abilities and time management.

Getting the Word Out

One of the biggest challenges in starting a consulting business is that your marketing focus is not only on the services you provide. You have to sell yourself as well. Clients (they are not customers in the consulting business) are buying YOU. Your fees will be above what they are paying most of their employees. They need to feel comfortable that YOU can deliver what is promised. You are marketing your personal brand. We will discuss the marketing of your business via the internet, social media and traditional media.

These are important to establishing your space in the marketplace. But you also will have to learn other approaches. One is identifying opportunities for services. That is the ability to find a need for your services in the market, through discussions or research. The other marketing approach is solution development. This is marketing a service that you have developed and previously provided to clients with similar demographics. Think about services you may have provided to your previous employer such as HIPAA compliance, rate setting or e-commerce implementation.

The Work Style of Consulting

Consulting can differ significantly from the corporate world and small business. The work style is different. You may spend the majority of your time away from your office, instead working at the client site. If you have multiple clients you may be in multiple locations in a single week. The good news is that you can keep your infrastructure costs down. What you will need to invest in is modern and reliable technology, as these will most likely be the tools of your trade.

Your work and ultimately your financial rewards are based on the services you have agreed to perform for these clients. Most consultants refer to these as projects or engagements. Managing profitability must be done on the project level in order to ensure a successful business. It is important that you and your client have a clear view of what is expected as the outcome of your project. You will need to ensure that what you deliver meets or exceeds your clients’ expectations, but is within the scope of services you originally agreed upon. There are also insurance and legal considerations in determining the right structure for your business. We will discuss some of the structures in use today to provide you with the right protection.

Becoming a consultant can be a very rewarding career choice. It will provide you with an ever changing working environment. One common phrase is that there is no inbox in consulting. Every day brings new and different challenges and opportunities and rewards. The right planning and preparation will help in landing that first project. We hope that this and our subsequent articles will move you down the path to a successful business.

Related Articles:
So You Want to Become An Independent Consultant?
Consultants—Will You Succeed?

What Is A Sustainable Approach?

A fundamental principle of sustainability is a balanced approach to all stakeholder groups – customers, employees, partners, communities and shareholders.  Align the interests of all in such a way that no stakeholder group gains at the expense of other stakeholder groups.  A sustainable enterprise both creates and operates on the energy of employee engagement.  Because sustainability supports a long term view to shareholder value creation it encourages companies to invest in employees to create greater returns for the Company. Companies that engage their employees in a new and different trust relationship are the ones that will successfully emerge from this economic crisis.

Building Trust With Employees

Sustainable companies draw on four key elements to build trust with employees:

•    respect for individuals
•    transparency
•    empowerment and engagement
•    team building

In sustainable companies each individual employee is viewed as a “whole person” rather than an impersonal “factor of production.”  Management demonstrates respect for individuals by encouraging employees to participate in company decision making, regardless of their rank.  These companies share financial and process information with all employees and cultivate an uncommonly strong sense of team participation.  In sustainable companies employees feel empowered to challenge processes and do what is necessary to please customers.

Diversity and inclusion are a stated value of sustainable companies. Diversity and inclusion efforts contribute to respect, team building and empowerment.  A company’s diversity and inclusion infrastructure can be harnessed to support employee re-engagement. Diversity and inclusion efforts can help achieve three critical components of engagement; creativity, flexibility and inquiry.

Creativity

It has been repeatedly documented that a heterogeneous group generates interaction and output that is more creative than does a homogeneous group. The more opportunities you provide for teams to experience and apply their diversity the more creativity will be achieved.  Creativity is a fundamental catalyst of engagement.

Flexibility

The essence of diversity is difference. Flexibility is fostered by the development of skills to encounter and apply different ideas, approaches, backgrounds, experiences, styles, abilities, and philosophies. The ability to adapt, to change, to flex stimulates engagement.

Inquiry

A critical tool in creating a sustainable culture is to engage in inquiry with all stakeholders, internal and external.  The challenge of managing diversity is also best confronted by a culture of inquiry; asking questions of your managers and employees.  Bias is what inhibits full and effective performance in diverse organizations-perception versus reality.  When you distill diversity and inclusion to its essence it is the management of bias, both individual and institutional, and inquiry is the tool to address it.

All humans operate through a lens of bias.  We are programmed to fill in gaps in information with what we have learned from our personal life experience.  Where we were born, grew up, the people that raised us, how far we have travelled, what schools we attended, our religious values all contribute to filling in those gaps in information.  In most corporate cultures our personal life experience is rarely shared, so we don’t have any context for the ways that our daily decisions are affected by our cultural lens.  So, the organizational challenge is to create an environment that recognizes human bias and offers an opportunity for dialogue and a process to assess the relevance to the work.

Bias also plays a role in institutional choices.  For example, how is recruiting really done by the organization?  Does a bias toward employee referrals adversely impact the organization’s efforts to draw from a more diverse pool of candidates?  This type of inquiry should be routinely exercised by the organization:

•    What policies and practices have a differential impact on different groups in this workforce?
•    What changes can/should be made in these practices?
•    What are the views and opinions of our diverse workforce regarding these policies and the changes?
Asking and answering these and additional questions manifests engagement in thinking, communicating, suggesting, deciding, and revising.

Make Change Happen

Harness the staff, tools, and techniques of an organization’s diversity and inclusion infrastructure to create a culture of sustainability.  A highly engaged workforce, with sustainable employee practices, is better able to address the needs of all of the company’s stakeholders; suppliers, customers, investors, and the community. A balanced view of stakeholder needs is the proven path to a sustainable organization that can create long-term shareholder value and survive even the most brutal economic climate.

Frequently I’m asked by other HR professionals how they can become an independent HR Consultant, as opposed to working for a company.It certainly sounds wonderful to be your own boss, setting your own schedule and managing your own workload. And understandably, you yearn to have a better balance between your work and family lives. But in order to build a successful consulting practice, you have to possess many skills in addition to being an HR expert.

In this first article on this topic, you’ll learn key considerations in setting up your own consulting practice. I’ll cover practical tips for you, based upon my 8+ years of experience in running my own business. In this article you’ll learn what questions to ask yourself to determine whether consulting is the right path for you, and how you can establish yourself as an HR expert in the marketplace.

So how do you even begin to assess whether it’s the right choice for you?

1. First, you’ll need to answer some hard questions

• Can I financially survive if I don’t have consistent cash flow?
• Can I get or do I have medical benefits in place once I’m on my own?
• How will I get my first contract?
• Am I knowledgeable enough in my chosen area of HR expertise to be perceived as a valuable resource by my peers and potential clients?
• Do I have enough presence in my local HR community to be called by companies for consulting assignments?
• Do I have the skills & know how to market my business?
• Am I disciplined enough to work hard to make my business succeed or do I need to report to someone else to consistently generate work?
• Can I work from home or will I need to rent office space?
• What will my “start-up” expenses be?
• Will I be able to assemble a team of independent contractors who can help me grow my business?
• Will I be able to delegate work to others to accomplish my goals?
• Do I have people to support me in this business endeavor (other professionals and your family members)?
• And finally, just how good am I at tech support (Just joking!)

Your assignment: Take out a tablet of paper and spend some quality time reviewing each question. Think about how this major change in your professional life would impact you and your family and whether it makes sense for you to pursue this professional change given your answers to these questions.

2. Develop Your Expert Status

Last August in a presentation that I gave to a group of HR Professionals, I emphasized that one of the ways I was able to grow my career over the years and eventually go into business for myself was to develop a niche. I’ve achieved expert status in compensation by working with many different industries in the field for 20+ years, plus getting my CCP from World at Work, and my M.A. in HR & OD. My niche has been in compensation, with about 70% of the consulting work that I do in this area of expertise.

How can you build your own skills to gain expert status and become self-employed? Evaluate your own skills where you know you excel, the performance reviews you’ve received over the years that identified your strengths, compliments or awards you’ve received from your company’s managers/employees to determine in which technical area of HR you want to become an expert. You already know which technical area of HR you enjoy the most, whether it’s recruiting, total rewards, training, strategic planning, etc.

Then set out to get an advanced degree coupled with a professional certification that demonstrates your knowledge such as certification through SHRM or World at Work. Having a master’s degree gives you more credibility as an external consultant, and coupled with many years of work experience provides the credentials you’ll need to make it as an independent consultant.

And finally, build geographic and professional connections within your community and beyond by networking and volunteering in both related (or personally chosen) non-profit organizations. Become active in your local SHRM chapter, Rotary Club, school and church organizations, and any special interests that you have (SPCA, etc.)

Stay tuned for Part II on “So You Want to Become an Independent HR Consultant,” when I’ll discuss “Key Marketing Tips for Growing Your Consulting Practice.”

Copyright 2008 Regan HR, Inc.

As consultants, we are constantly in engagement mode. Engaging clients and the organization is critical in the line of performing our jobs. Where do we get our experience and training? Most consultants with previous HR experience in an organization will have played a role as an HR business partner, which is an internal consultant to the business operations. Here are some thoughts on employee engagement that you can use in your own work with clients.

What Is Employee Engagement?

Employee engagement is today’s buzzword to yesterday’s employee management participation team and team concept programs. These are approaches that try to get employees to be more involved in management and to participate in the decision processes. In today’s climate of economic instability, employee engagement is critical to the overall success of an organization. Employee engagement is key in talent management and retention programs. It directly affects the motivation towards an employee’s personal commitment to his or her role and the work of people in the organization. This has a direct impact on productivity and operational cost of businesses.

The word engagement involves participation in communication and togetherness and sharing in business activities and decision-making. It plays a great emphasis on doing things together with understanding and co-operation, based on a “united-we-stand” principle. It’s a management concept very much aligned to the Gen Y employees.

Transmitting A New Culture

How can we transmit the fundamentals to new comers?

• Whether an individual works in senior management or the mail room, we need to understand that everyone is a paid employee in the organization. The breakdown of the “status” barrier is the most difficult but most significant aspect of engagement for developing sincerity, trust and togetherness.
• Provide open concept work layouts and arrangements that promote easy, consistent and cross discussions in a soft-social environment to share information and decisions.
• Encourage face-to-face interactions among groups and enable counseling and coaching. Facilitation and leadership are critical aspects of imparting company objectives and combating the cultures that work against it.
• Remember that employees seek and need leadership and coaching more than supervisors and managers.
• Promote consistent social appreciation, small but frequent celebrations, positive reinforcements and peer support to show the organization’s qualities of caring and consideration.
• Allow openness to explore and talk about decisions and events around the organization.

How can we create a positive culture with our previous workforce employees?

One problem with trying to create a new culture is that newcomers end up in the existing culture!

• Promote team building techniques in a social environment. It can be part of a reward and appreciation program.
• Allow for consistent interaction among new and old workers allowing leaders to create an environment to move the older workers forward. Do not expect overnight change and do not expect total change as “old habits die hard.”
• QCC (Quality Control Circles)⎯small group activities and performance teams are effective programs as long as it’s a sincere program with small objectives achievable by the teams.
• Use incentives that produce performance-based rewards and ensure that the performance expectations are realistic. It’s meant to motivate.
• Provide job enrichment that allows employees to feel empowered and supports autonomous work.
• Offer purposeful work to ensure employees and leadership are aligned with project deliverables, directly impacting the overall strategic goals.
• Schedule team-building opportunities that increase collaboration across business units.
• Implement succession planning below the executive level to show employees that they are valued for their contribution. Clearly outline where they are now and what is needed to achieve the next level in their careers. Facilitate those employees to be ready for their next career move now.

By showing consistent and sincere appreciation through approaches that bring employees together regardless of their position and status, you will help create an open environment that employees will welcome.

Human Resources is Large and Varied

Generally, the field of HR Consulting encompasses:

• Talent Management and Acquisition: Defining, planning and recruiting to fill a talent pool that matches the organizational needs of an organization for the present and future. This involves the development of job descriptions, determining the availability of competency and skills in the market and identifying the various processes available for acquiring the required skills, be it mass media, recruitment agencies, referral network or internal development.
• Learning, Development and Succession Planning: Developing a program where skills and competencies are matched to continuous training, development and facilitation. This is part of a positive career transition plan for employees so they will be continually challenged and motivated. It also supports the employee retention program as well as a planned career transition sideways, upwards or outwards.
• Compensation and Benefits: Creating an effective compensation and benefits program to reinforce and reward employees with organizational performance and market benchmarking. This is a way to support talent management and learning and development.

HR Consultants have expertise in understanding the process involved in the development, support and implementation of talent management, learning and development, and compensation and benefits at a micro level. And yet they also have a macro view of the industry within which the client organization exists. In short, HR Consultants provide guidance and assistance to organizations in all Human Resource matters. In many organizations, HR Managers within an organization are internal consultants.

Required Training and Experience

It is my experience that many consultants get into the field of HR consulting through a natural progression of being a successful Human Resources practitioner. They are effective when consulted by friends, vendors, and customers. Then through referrals they are given offers to support development and trouble-shoot HR issues as well as to define processes and methods suitable to support HR practices. The best training is experience. No matter how much material we present to a prospect, potential client’s wants to hear about experiences, case references and actual scenarios to match. The other option for becoming an HR Consultant is through apprenticeship with major consulting firms. These new graduates learn the ropes from other consultants. Nothing beats hands-on practical experience.

Who Hires HR Consultants?

HR Consultants generally seem to be entrepreneurial and even when they are part of larger organizations they are sole proprietors by heart. There is much affiliation and networking among consultants in order to share experience and even work on projects and assignments together, due to expertise and strength. The natural character and personality of HR Consultants, however, are individual professionals with functional expertise and client management roles. Business development is never far from their mind.

All types of companies and organizations hire HR Consultants, even small retail and manufacturing firms, so long as there are employees involved. The issue here is whether a large prestigious consulting group or the independent consultant is consulted. This may be dependent on the client’s budget and the consultant’s fee rate. Don’t forget, the enterprising business owner will always try to get some advice and consultation for free, so save some of your expertise for when you are hired.

An Essential Role

HR Consultants play an essential role in organizations they serve because they have an unbiased third-party view of the organization and its management. Business owners naturally have high expectations of employees and employees have high expectations in terms of fairplay and just remuneration. The HR Consultant, with his or her third-party view, is able to interact with both groups. Having a wide range of experiences and exposure to many organizations, the consultant can often provide alternatives and options suitable to both parties. For example, I have personally provided services to a number of small owner-operated manufacturing companies, and employer/employee issues were the main obstacles to achieving progress. I was able to provide an avenue for both parties to start talking and working towards something positive, since I held the trust of both the employer and employees.

A Word of Advice

In my experience, many consultants profess they are not into sales. Yet the reality is that consultants must sell. So if you go into this field, be ready to sell your skills and services and to convince clients to follow your advice. There are no two ways about it.

TLAC: If someone were starting out as an independent consultant and had his or her first client, what advice would you give this individual?

Christine: I’ll have to start with the standard consultant’s answer “It
 depends.” In this case, it depends on what the client is expecting from you. If you are starting out as an independent consultant with a background as a recognized expert in your field, your client is expecting to receive expert advice, so the most important thing is to ask good questions and listen carefully so that you can be sure your advice is appropriate to the client’s specific situation, rather than what you thought their situation was when
 you accepted the engagement.

If you are starting out as an independent consultant who offers a particular skill and your client is expecting you to produce something immediately (a website or marketing plan, for example), the most important thing is to be productive immediately. Show progress from the first day, and build questions and listening into your process after you’ve demonstrated your
 capabilities.

If you were hired to be part of a team of consultants for a project, your first priority should be to bond with the team, understand your role and responsibilities, and focus your attention on being a valued team member.

Every situation is different, but I think relationships are the most
 important asset in a consultant’s toolbox, and the best time to start
 building effective relationships within a client organization is the first
 day. Ask questions, listen, make a personal connection with as many people
 as you can, and smile a lot.

TLAC: Now let’s look at it from another perspective. In your experience, what would you say are some of the main reasons an independent consulting business will fail?

Christine: Unfortunately, this is an easy one to answer. First, I don’t think independent consultants fail—I think they give up. Many are frustrated by the amount of paperwork associated with contracts, billing, collections, taxes and insurance. They went into business to find freedom and instead feel more chained to their desks than ever. They miss the freedom of being able to do whatever they want on the weekends.

Others fall into the trap of getting too comfortable with one client and fail to maintain their networks. Then, if that client ends the contract they have to rush to find another client because they haven’t been balancing sales activities, networking and billable work during the engagement.

I’ve always been careful to keep selling even when I’m working, but it has not always been easy and there is no foolproof solution. The very few independent consultants that I’ve seen actually fail did so as a result of ethics issues. When you’re working for yourself, you may be
too close to some issues to effectively evaluate the situation and determine the ethical response. I think it’s important to have friends and colleagues in the same field that you can talk with about your business. Too many decisions look like they are “gray area” when you are up close, but in reality are clearly not.

On the other hand, every independent consultant I know has a deep, abiding confidence in themselves and optimism about their business—so these words of warning may provide some guidance, but I don’t think we will discourage anyone.

TLAC: Do you have a few specific tips that could help make the life of a consultant easier? Things you have learned from your own experience and from interacting with so many other consultants?

Christine: The best advice I can offer is also the answer to the question, “How do I get my first client?” Talk to people. Call your last boss and offer to buy her a cup of coffee in exchange for some advice. When you go to the bank to open your business account, sit down with your banker and explain what you have to offer. Bankers network like crazy, and they love to make connections for their customers. When the parent next to you on the bleachers at your kid’s soccer game says, “What do you do?” be ready with an answer. Make sure your profile on LinkedIn.com accurately describes your talents and skills, and then join the conversation in LinkedIn Groups. People will connect with you and someone may send you a referral. Tell everyone you meet what you do and ask if there is anything you can do to help him or her.

As a consultant, your job is much more than just to produce a deliverable. You can influence the opinions, actions and decisions of the people in your network. Build and nurture your connections and your network will support your business.

Oh. One more thing. I strongly urge every consultant to register for a Consulting Skills Workshop with Consulting Stance. If there isn’t a workshop scheduled in your area, contact me and we’ll try to set one up. Good luck!

To succeed as a consultant you need to first look at your own business. Being self-employed, your survival lies in your ability to find work, which involves promoting your skills among your peers and your network.

Centers of Influence

‘Centers of influence’ are also essential to your business. A ‘center of influence’ is someone in authority or someone well respected in his or her field, who recommends you to others. The person’s  influence is such that a recommendation gives you instant credibility.

Others call these ‘referrers’, and they are, but the key is to convert a referrer into a centre of influence. Choose these people wisely and treat them with great respect, as your reputation (and theirs) is on the line. In order to accomplish these tasks, and to be successful as a consultant, there are certain personal qualities that are considered essential.

Objectivity

A consultant is required to establish trust and rapport with people at all levels of an organisation. This involves listening without prejudice, and not judging until you have all the necessary information. Objectivity is crucial to any consultant. It allows you to view the situation from a helicopter point of view, and demands that you listen to both sides of every argument and idea presented to you. If you are to walk into a business and quickly assess where the issues are, then objectivity is essential.

Selling Skills

To be a successful salesperson there are a set of skills that you require. Some of these skills are also required by a consultant, and include; being able to quickly establish rapport, the ability to listen, to empathise, and to quickly develop trust. If you cannot talk to all types of people in an organisation, or if you are uncomfortable meeting new people, or if you talk and do not listen then you will fail as a consultant.

‘People’ Skills

This is the ability to interact with people in a respectful, relaxed manner. The key word here is respect. Many intelligent people lack people skills, and hence do not know when to be tactful, when to just stop talking and listen, when to voice their ideas and when to keep your ideas to yourself.

Put simply, people skills encompass the ability to interact with others in a manner that makes them feel comfortable and secure; where they know their opinions and ideas are important. Without people skills, you cannot be a leader, and as a consultant you need to lead.

Leadership

The qualities of leadership you require as a consultant are:
• Assertiveness
• Knowledge
• Experience
• Empathy

Assertiveness is not being dictatorial. Rather, assertiveness is being able to vocalise your thoughts and ideas in a confident and commanding manner. If you cannot do this, then others are unlikely to believe what you say. Knowledge and experience are intertwined. You first need knowledge to acquire experience, and experience in itself brings knowledge.

Empathy is the ability to ‘put yourself in the other person’s shoes’. To see an issue from all angles and viewpoints is necessary in order to develop and implement key strategies. If you do not exhibit empathy, or fail to take into account the needs, fears and expectations of all staff, then they will not implement the necessary changes you have recommended.

Summary

In essence, the key attributes required by a consultant are objectivity and the ability to be aware of all the issues facing each stakeholder in the business. To be successful in this, a consultant requires sales skills, people skills, leadership qualities and the ability to articulate all of these skills assertively.