Use consultants wisely and watch out for consultant addiction. Sometimes hiring an external consultant is the best fit for your design. Doing so can get you precisely the amount of specialized expertise you need to tackle a problem. When you can outsource you don’t have to worry about managing, and that’s a real advantage. If a position is part-time and requires highly specialized knowledge, I would prefer to have it done by consultants or outsiders. At the same time, you need to beware of the chronic use of consultants to do work that should be done by employees. This will cost you in the long run and erode your culture. Also make sure you are careful not to ask consultants to do things that they don’t normally do. They will almost certainly revert to doing things in their usual way; their own employers will demand that. When evaluating whether to use a consultant, consider the following factors: 1. Quality Control. When someone doing work for you is an employee, you are responsible for the quality of their work. But when the person working for you works for another company, you’re operating by their standards, so it’s important to know whether their standards are as high or higher than yours. 2. Economics. If a full-time person is required, it is almost certainly more cost-effective to create a position. Consultants’ daily rates add up to considerably more than the annualized cost of a full-time person. 3. Institutionalization of Knowledge. Someone who is around your environment on an ongoing basis will gain knowledge and an appreciation of your culture that no outsider can. 4. Security. Having outsiders do the job substantially increases your security risks, especially if you can’t see them at work (and monitor whether they follow proper precautions, like not leaving sensitive documents on their desks). You have to consider whether you should be outsourcing or developing capabilities in-house. Though temps and consultants are good for a quick fix, they won’t aug
