Staffing or Consultant
What factors to consider when evaluating whether to utilize internal vs. external resources.
Although there are several factors that influence the decision in considering the use of an external consultant, quite often the primary factor is cost.
If you are viewing this page, it is likely that you have made the decision to move forward with an audit or project, but now are faced with the task of getting it done with limited or non-existent organizational resources.
So how to you demonstrate the merit of retaining a consultant vs. the hiring of a permanent employee to your staff? Although there are several variables, three primary factors should be considered. They are cost, existing workloads, and expertise needed.
Cost: The salary paid to an employee amounts to about 60% of the actual cost of that employee. The “hidden” costs of insurance, payroll taxes, retirement contributions, overhead as well as the cost of administrative and supervisory support translate to an employee with a salary of $110,000 cost your organization upwards of $175,000 a year.
Workloads: The capacity of current staff to take on additional projects would be limited by their current workload. With the need for additional resource management, support staff capacity, and additional overhead, a project of limited duration could have long lasting impacts.
Expertise: With Praxis you have access to expertise and additional capacity that may not currently exist in your company without having to hire. Projects involving sensitive issues can be dealt with objectively with no implicit bias.
The cost associated with an audit, training session, or project done by an independent consulting firm, can in the long run save your organization money while also securing the expertise to achieve first in class results.