Question

Provide three positive and three negative aspects of retaining an outside consultant for a project.

Answer 1

Positive aspects

• gets proper help from specialist - The consultant will have experience in the field required and they will even have the similar past project experience. This will help you to keep your mind calm by knowing that the project is being guided by the expert who has been went through the same situation before and it is well handled.
• Expertise and Outside Perspective- Retaining the outside consultant has benefit of introducing new abilities and skills which is not available in the organization. The outsider consultant will provide the outsider's perspective of your current state of the business, that may have clear things up as to how to achieve the overall business growth and improve efficiency
• It costs less than hiring the new employee- Hiring a employee will have pay for benefits, technology and work space which makes them costly. The outsider consultants are hired only to execute the project within the specific time frame. The consultant pay is far less than the new full time employee.

Negative aspects

• The relationship between the organization and the outsider consultant should be professional , friendly an collaborative. Sometimes the piece of advice may seem like criticism. If you find that you can not work collaboratively with the consultant there must be a personal clash.
• Limited company knowledge- Sometimes the consultants will have limited knowledge of in house procedures, which may lead to conflicts.The consults mode of operation may affect the work flow of your organization regular employees. The organization will have limited control over the contractors.They will follow only what is written in the contract. In the multinational companies hiring the consultant from the foreign country may be challenging because of culture and language difference.
• Quality Concerns - the consultants are contracted to fill the critical gap. You may not have any expertise to determine whether the consultant methods will provide the quality deliverable's as expected by the organization.