Whether or not it’s desirable, an employee is to some degree “owned” by their employer.  They usually have an agreement that includes not working for competitors (often even covering some period after termination) while consultants enjoy freedom as they aren’t legally owned by their client companies as former are.

Employees are expected to work a set minimum schedule of hours as determined by their employer, and they’re often expected to work overtime with no additional compensation. A consultant, on the other hand, may only be required for brief, intermittent periods to ensure that the company is making the right choices at the right times.

Most companies have some form of management hierarchy that sets goals and measures performance for employees. Contractors are generally expected to be more self-directed, since the company is their customer rather than their employer.  Focusing on customer satisfaction (rather than on the next performance review) means that consultants should think beyond their assigned duties, beyond the questions asked by the customer, to try to solve the real problems at hand.

So, in this battle of whether consultants are better or your own employees, our opinion that both employees and consultants should be valued equally. Yes, consultants have valuable experience gained from exposure to many businesses and will have seen best practice in both your industry and other industries too. But the people that really know your business are the people that work for it. So while running your next project make sure you get the right balance on your implementation team.

A professional conversation has its origins from social science methodologies like discourse analysis and behavioural analysis. A professional conversation essentially centers around what the candidate wants to say about his/her learning experiences in the previous job roles. The candidate also tries to explain how his/her past experiences meets some or all of the assessment requirements for the job that he/she is applying for.

Apart from this, it also provides a leeway to the hiring manager to discuss about the company’s strengths & needs. A professional conversation is a two way street that allows both the employee and the hiring manager to both sell and assess each others view points. This helps to build a very relaxed and comfortable atmosphere instead of the usual tensed environment in a normal interview. This helps the candidate to talk and answer all the questions in a much more confident manner.

To be able to have a good professional conversation, it is extremely important that you are well- read and well-informed. Do your homework, find out what kind of attributes the company you are interviewing for is looking for. Courtesy, genuine interest, and a little preparation will give you an advantage in your ability to converse. And above all a friendly smile, a firm handshake, and a confident attitude are among the key factors that will quickly get you up the corporate ladder.

And last but not the least, professional conversations are the key to hiring managers to find employees for hard to hire job profiles. Though professional conversations have been happening for years, HR managers have not really adopted the process. So its high time they buckle up and smell the socks.

The type of telephone interviewing used depends both on the nature of the vacancy and on the organization. They can also be used as a way to minimize the expenses involved in interviewing out-of-town candidates. The main objective of this interview is to get invited to an in-person interview.This interview is usually to determine the person’s personality and team work. They are especially undertaken for job profiles  where it is important for the staff to be able to deal well with difficult customers over the telephone (e.g. customer service in call centres or selling technique in a sales department).

While you’re actively job searching, it’s important to be prepared for a phone interview on a moment’s notice. You never know when a recruiter or a networking contact might call and ask if you have a few minutes to talk.

Your most important asset in the telephonic interview is the tone of your voice. During the telephone interview, the person you’re talking to can’t see your body language, and they can’t watch the expression on your face. It is also not possible for them to see how you are dressed. Because of this, it would seem logical that the tone of your voice places an important role in telephone interview etiquette. So its extremely important to pay attention to the tone of your voice when you speak.

A telephonic interview is definitely the preferred choice for candidates as they tend to feel less nervous over the phone rather than when someone sitting right in front of them staring into their eyes.

During the Interview

Stop Interviewing!
Why? You ask! Going to an interview is a daunting task. Often it is viewed by candidates as being equivalent to “going to the dentist”, so it’s not surprising that many firms experience high “no show” rate for their interviews.  HR needs to lead the way in increasing the emphasis on the often under-emphasized goal of selling the candidate.  In order to do this, they need to make the interview into more of a Professional Conversation between two equals. Traditional Interviews are horrible sales Tools. You need to re-think your interview process.  You must begin to treat them in a more “user friendly” way if you expect them to leave their current job.  One of the best ways is to shift away from unexciting formal interviews, and instead hold “Professional Conversations” with the passive candidates!

Why Shift to a Professional Conversation?
Most interviews are inherently confrontational and occasionally dull.  During the interview, managers often try to find faults with the person and grill them to see “what they are made of.”  This style of interviewing makes the candidates nervous, which in turn alters their behaviour during the interview.

What Else is wrong with Interviews as Sales Tools?
Interviewees may also be current or potential customers.  By grilling them and, you might tarnish your company’s reputation, hurt sales, and cause you to lose some good candidates.

Many interviews are designed solely to assess the candidate and not to sell the job.  Few hiring managers are trained in how to sell the job and many don’t even know that it should comprise a major part of the interview.

Firms “lay out” the interview process in advance, most candidates don’t know what to expect or even what skills you are assessing during the interview.  As a result of being “left in the dark”, they often come to the interview unprepared for what you really need.

Focus on what the candidate is really good at; make them excited about your firm and your team.  People like to talk about their strengths, their ideas, and their successes.

Make Them Comfortable
Almost everyone enjoys a Professional Conversation about his or her best work.  Such conversations are held all the time at lunches, conferences, on the phone, and in email exchanges. HR needs to formally encourage managers to substitute Professional Conversations for formal interviews.

There is no law that requires that you hold formal interviews.  If you tell managers that it is okay to substitute a Professional Conversation for an interview, you will find those managers will prefer them.  During the Professional Conversation, focus on sharing ideas as well as on selling the job and the company, but do not grill the person.  Look for positive things and point out where you have common ground.  Use PC’s as a sales tool to inform and sell the applicant on the company and the job.  Be aware that interviews are artificial situations that, in addition to making candidates uncomfortable, are rarely accurate predictors of future job success!

Asking the wrong questions
Usually managers ask common questions like ‘Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” or “What are your strengths and weaknesses?”. These questions are listed as the most likely questions asked at an interview. Interviewees anticipating such questions come prepared with rote learned answers. This won’t allow you to gauge the real potential of a consultant.

Assessing ‘personal charisma’ instead of job capabilities
A common misconception is that only personality factors are critical to success in management, sales and/or other types of jobs. But job-based evaluations have always proven better than prioritizing personality traits. Hence, only exploring a consultant’s self-confidence is not enough as there are more things like skills in retaining and developing existing customers.

Avoiding statistical valuation of common failure points
Often managers, make a grave mistake of not shedding light upon the common areas where a consultant didn’t qualify for a job. That can make the hiring process easier in the sense that one has the vision to clear the points of failure first before getting to the core skills.

Boasting about the job
sometimes after finding the right person, managers tend to go overboard into selling mode, ultimately exaggerating the job opportunities. Lack of transparency in the early stage may eventually result in the loss of trust from the newly hired consultant’s end. It is vital to clearly mention the less captivating aspects of the job.

Not introducing the consultant to the staff
Lack of communication might not sound like a complete hiring process! Before the consultant starts feeling out of place before your employees, it is essential for you to introduce him to them. It helps initiate contact and also builds mutual respect for him. This may seem trivial, but in the future he may need to gather information in order to successfully conduct his job and he can only do so with the co-operation of your staff.

 With a career span of 36 years in global IT industry gained from industry stalwarts like HCL India, HP, and Groupe Bull Middle East Vijay Kumar is a practising Consultant who helps his client companies expand their horizons, literally. Consult Genie gleans some first hand experiences from him to see what it is like to be a consultant:

CG: Why did you give up a regular job and life as an entrepreneur to set out on your own as a consultant? What was the trigger? 

Vijay Kumar: I consider myself most fortunate to have worked in companies as an ‘Intrapreneur’ and it helped tremendously when I set up Business Systems Inc for H.E. Sheikh Faisal bin Khaled bin Sultan Al Qasimi in Dubai and managed it for him for 10-years before returning to India in 1996.

 Indian IT landscape in the ‘90s was very hectic. While I was heading IDS, a mid-sized IT product company my KRA was to grow the company’s foot-print across Asia and ME. I realized that many similar IT companies wanted to go global but did not know how. So I decided to set up a practice and emerged as an “Alliance Architect”. My last employer became my first client when IDS entrusted me with an assignment to expand their operations into the USA.

 CG: You have had a wonderful time as a trainer in retail, hospitality and IT. What exactly do you do and can you briefly tell us the high point in your life as a consultant?

 Vijay Kumar: Mr. Rakesh Jhunjunwala, a principal investor in IDS who is on several BoD of IT companies was amazed that I was able to deliver a very prestigious alliance between IDS and HVSI the US based Hospitality major in less than 5-months. I consider this appreciation of my deliver-ability as a high-point in my life as a Consultant.

 IDS retained my services to target an entry into Australia and I was able to build an association with E. Horner & Associates, a Sydney based Consulting outfit whose operations cover Australasia. During such assignments and many that followed later with other eminent IT companies, I realized that Indian companies needed to skill their managers rapidly to ensure the success of their alliances abroad. To address this need I started training middle & Senior Execs and now I deliver live virtual classrooms (LVCs) on the internet as a tribute to the industry that enriched me so much. In effect apart from know-how I also provide ‘do-how’.

 CG: Your were the first non-engineer and non-MBA recruit at HCL and have easy access to top brass like Shiv Nadar. How important is a business network for a consultant? Or is qualification coupled with experience good enough to start out on your own?

 Vijay Kumar: In many ways I was very fortunate to have mentors like SS Nadar & Ajai Chowdhry who is the present CMD of HCL Infosystems Ltd and Arjun Malhotra who is the Chairman of Headstrong, USA also a co-founder of HCL. Ajai taught me managerial competence and encouraged me to ‘own’ a branch in Coimbatore when I was just 27! Shiv inspired me to be strong mentally while Arjun coached me on style & finesse in networking. In many ways HCL was my MBA school. Thereafter, it was not difficult to go abroad and build a rich address book of valuable contacts based such a solid foundation. Beyond education, network of contacts and experience, I believe that self confidence is very essential to succeed.

 CG: Your last employer – IDS – became your first client and the success you saw in the US, Australia and Europe with IDS ensured you got consulting assignments with others in doing work related to partners in the Middle East. Clearly, your vast spread of geographies that you are familiar with give you an extra edge. What, in your opinion, should be the qualities that a consultant needs to build in order to ensure they have that extra “edge”?

 Vijay Kumar: As a manager everybody gets several opportunities to build a variety of experience and gain horizontal knowledge. But to succeed as a Consultant one must develop intense focus and very deep knowledge in whatever you have chosen to specialize in. For as long as such specialty is practically applicable it is not a challenge to gain the recognition of one’s peers. Visibility and business referrals are logical consequence that will surely follow. I think result-orientation is the singular edge that will help Consultants differentiate their performance.

 CG: What kind of discipline should a consultant bring to building client relationship in order to ensure that there is a constant pipeline of work, without the bother of becoming an employee? In our mind, the single-biggest issue that consultants face is that their clients ultimately offer them a job, they succumb and an independent life is lost. How do you ensure that the client-consultant relationship is maintained in a healthy state all the time, despite the pressures a client may go through?

 Vijay Kumar: Your question touches upon 3 points; first, the discipline to build (stronger) client relationships to sustain continuous work. A Consultant must possess the ability to think as an investor, manager and an employee of the company that he works for towards developing business intimacy. Only this 360º vision will enable a Consultant to deliver unbiased and an objective advice that can be actually put to practice.

 Second point you make is, the fact occasionally Consultants do end up as employees of their clients. In my opinion, this is not a bad thing. If the passion to deliver results is the singular compulsion beyond money, then why not? I think Consulting is akin to teaching. You will enjoy it best if you are not entirely dependent on the money you make! As in any other form of entrepreneurial way of life incoming assignments may not be steady and regular being a Consultant. So I shall recommend that if one wishes to be an independent Consultant then ensure your economic well being first or join a company of Consultants as an employee or eventually be employed. A desire to be ‘independent’ as in not-having-someone-to-report should not be the only reason why you wish to be a Consultant.

 Finally, strong client-empathy is the key to maintain a good relationship with your client. Clients are people like us with real emotions. It is also much like a doctor-patient relationship. Clients need Consultants to resolve business problems and the results motivate them to refer us to more clients.

Some organizations face resistance within their teams in trusting an outsider to do a job that they couldn’t do themselves. This is largely a mindset issue and needs to be addressed with conviction from the higher management that sees the value in bringing in a specialist. This is one of the reasons that lead to the consultant not receiving inputs adequately. However effectively scheduling interactions with stakeholders in the assignment should address the issue. Defining project variables such as scope, deliverables, timelines fall under the same umbrella as well.

Understanding what a consultant does is frequently a challenge especially if it is related to a domain that falls outside the core area of the organization’s competence. How do you measure something you do not understand? This is when setting rational milestones and targets become challenging. Though it is fair to say that the consultants themselves need to take the lead in setting up the project deliverables and how to measure them, organizations need to take the time and put in the effort to be on the same page as the consultant in these scenarios.

While monitoring a consultant’s deliverables and execution can be a hurdle, sometimes the stage following that poses an even larger problem: measuring the consultant’s impact on company bottom-lines. Not all the results of an assignment can be immediately seen, as some actions may begin to bear fruit in the medium to long term. To address this, both consultants and organizations need to keep in view both the short term and longer term goals in terms of numbers that the project will achieve, before the start of the project so that there are no broken dreams of promises at the end of the engagement.

Milestones and checkpoints need to be setup before the assignment begins. This means investing enough time with the consultant and the client team to chart out the roadmap that the assignment will follow. In the eagerness to get the project on the road, this task is often treated with less importance than it deserves resulting in needless heartache. A process-orientation in a consulting project’s approach ensures that issues are flagged off well in advance, before they become flame mail trails.
 

One common complaint many consultants have is that some sections of the client’s team is not able to provide enough time or resources that are critical to the success of the assignment. This happens for a number of reasons, the more serious ones stemming from resistance to an outsider’s involvement in a company’s affairs and absence of the ‘brownie point’ system of work (as the consultant neither appraises or is appraised by anyone in the organization he or she is dissociated from one of the company’s main workforce dynamics). While there could be genuine reasons for delays, it is important that there be enough top-management conviction in the purpose of the consultant’s involvement that ensures minimum hitches in his or her work. Clearly laying down responsibilities and relationships that the consultant will share with the client’s team should take care of this.
 

Organizations often find themselves second-guessing the consultant on various counts. While healthy debate of a consultant’s approach or solutions is essential it takes on a different hue when companies find the consultant deviating from what is considered the ‘organizational belief’. Change being something we are all resistant to, at least initially, client teams may feel discomfort at radical changes, which could actually be beneficial to the company. The client team needs to recognize that toeing the organizational line is not why the consultant has been hired. A good consultant will base solutions on experience, knowledge and skill that are specific to the task at hand and independent thinking of this nature needs to be encouraged. Such instances prompt organizations to revisit their decision on whether they took the right step in hiring the consultant in the first place. This is sheer waste of time, as the same rigour should have gone into it before hiring the consultant. Once on board, the consultant is an integral part of the team and needs to be treated as such for him or her to deliver the best results.
 

Last but not least is the critical issue of assignment scope. When project variables are not properly defined, (a failure both on part of the consultant and the client) it leads to a lack of clarity on where the responsibilities of the consultant end. Often the scope of a project is like a slowly expanding balloon as more deliverables get added without either party realizing the risks associated with it. Scope creep that is often a result of ambiguity leads clients to believe that the consultant was incapable, whereas the truth may be far from it. It is important to know exactly what to expect from the consultant and measure his or her efficacy in a project purely on what was promised would be delivered.