Due to the uncertainty of today's economy, companies continue to keep headcount at a minimum. As such, most corporations are operating at about 85% of ideal capacity, utilizing overtime and consultants to cover peak times and special projects. The effectiveness of this approach varies by company and project. Below are a few questions the best companies use to identify the need for outside help and to maximize the usage of that help.

The project may be innately clear in initiatives such as a system conversion or SEC reporting. However, in certain instances such as interim assignments or peak time management projects, the situation may require more thought. The rule of thumb is that a client should be able to define specific tasks to complete over various stages of the project and define quantifiable success factors to measure progress. The most successful projects for clients and consultants are those in which time was taken on the front end to define expectations and deliverables.

Due to the trend of maintaining lean corporate staff, it is often impossible for others to have available time to cover extra workloads resulting from employee leaves of absence, turnover, or reallocation of staff on critical projects. The risks of leaving the position open includes gaps in required output, missed deadlines, lower morale from the rest of the 'overworked team,' unreasonable levels of work when an employee returns from leave or overwhelming uncompleted tasks assigned to a new employee as she struggles to learn the ropes of a new company.

In key positions such as CFO, Controller and Director of Tax, the biggest risk of turnover is losing undocumented company knowledge in the transition. While a company may be able to recover from a brief period with these roles vacant, it can take much longer to recover if a new key employee has to spend significant ramp-up time gaining an understanding of processes unique or inherent to a new organization that were not passed from the outgoing executive. Many companies utilize project professionals not only to 'steer the ship' during transitions, but also to provide a seamless transition from the outgoing executive, through the selection process and into the hands and mind of the new manager.

Most of the best companies hire employees that are smart enough to handle any task. However, seldom do these professionals have the time to study a new responsibility and the confidence to implement the new initiative confidently. Therefore, many successful companies will bring in subject matter experts to evaluate the current state of a company, implement the best practices solution, and train the internal staff on the effective use of the new solution to maximize the internal knowledge base. Examples of effective use of subject matter experts include systems implementation, governance initiatives, tax analysis, staff mentoring and SEC reporting.

As companies continue to consolidate and merge, effective acquisition assimilation or consolidations are at risk due to the uncertain performance of transitioning employees. Most companies use a combination of retention bonuses for key employees and committed project resources to facilitate a smooth integration. Project resources provide focused management not affected by the emotions and uncertainty of the changing environment. These employees can focus on core company objectives. Retention bonuses keep key players long enough to transfer critical knowledge to project consultants and corporate management, however these bonuses are rarely effective in keeping the employees motivated or guaranteeing their commitment.

Most organizations require additional resources during peak times such as the year end audit, tax reporting and the budget process. Overtime can be the solution, but if it is not managed effectively it can result in burnout and ineffective results. Instead of using four people for 60 hours per week, it is usually more effective to utilize those four permanent employees 45 hours a week bring in a dedicated resource to fill in these gaps.

In summary, using consultants on a tactical basis can increase productivity, but only if engagements are planned and managed effectively. If you have a situation which you feel requires a consultant, please call one of the professionals at Vaco Resources to discuss your unique situation in more detail.