Welcome Aboard: 5 Tips to Make Financial Consultants Feel at Home at Your Small Business

There are many reasons your company might turn to small business consulting services. Finance, accounting and business systems consultants can work in specialized project areas and are available to support a key initiative or staff an interim management role. If you want to build a team that effectively dovetails the talents of both full-time staff and financial consultants, you’ll need to know how.

Here are 5 tips to help things run smoothly.

1. Be clear about roles.

Ensure that financial consultants and full-time staff understand their individual roles from the start. Be clear about whom they will be working with and to whom they will report, as well as your expectations and all of the required deliverables.

2. Explain why the consultant is needed.

Perhaps a specific skill set not available internally is needed but for a finite period, an interim executive is sought to navigate a transition for the company or additional support is needed to alleviate the burden on full-time staff. Whatever the reason, in addition to the why, also highlight the benefits working with the project professional will bring to your team.

3. Provide orientation.

To help them maximize their contributions, you want consultants to understand how your company operates. Put simply: The better informed they are about your organization and its culture, the better the outcome will be.

4. Give them a point of contact.

Besides the person financial consultants report to for their primary duties, ask one of your full-time staff members, such as an administrative assistant, to serve as a go-to person for questions about the facility, computer access, cafeteria and other logistical details.

5. Have a post-consultant strategy.

Make sure full-time staff know what’s next and what needs to happen when the consultant leaves. This will prompt them to ask relevant questions and learn skills they’ll need later after the project professional has completed his or her work. Having a strategy in place will also help facilitate the knowledge transfer between the interim professional and your employees before the engagement ends.

How does your organization ensure full-time staff and consultants work together effectively? Share your ideas below.