They want specialized skills. Not only would it be expensive to hire these highly specialized people, but the company might not have enough work to keep such employees busy throughout the year. However, thanks to consultants, companies can incorporate that skill set on demand when they need it. A consultant classified as an employee receives payment through a standard payroll system that includes withholding income taxes, Social Security taxes, and Medicare taxes.
If you're expanding to China, for example, through PEO services you can hire in China, recruit and manage your workforce without having to create a legal entity. HR consulting firms can quickly identify what solutions would work best for a startup, considering its size and objectives. Successful professional consultants usually don't graduate from college and immediately go into consulting. There are dozens of reasons why you might prefer to hire a consultant over an employee, especially in broad and important fields such as human resources, marketing and strategy.
For example, if you plan to adopt a new customer relationship management (CRM) tool that combines information for sales and customer service, you could hire a team of consultants to help you transition your current workforce from the old software to the new one. If the consultant does not have a payroll position in any company, he is also solely responsible for obtaining independent health insurance and for planning his retirement. This is because human resource consultants are very familiar with everything related to human resources and can therefore easily diagnose the most common human resource deficiencies and find better alternatives. More and more people are working remotely, and even more people are working as consultants or contractors.
Consultants find it much easier to come up with new ideas that solve persistent problems and breathe new life into an organization. Consulting firms are increasingly emerging, as recent studies show that 34 percent of the workforce, based on 53 million Americans, is now self-employed, as their main source of income or supplementary income. These IT consultants recommend the right processes, tools, and digital technologies based on an analysis of the organization's requirements, available resources, vision for the future, and scalability. Because consultants don't work day in and day out within your company, they can bring a new perspective to the issues that have plagued your employees for a long time.
A company that needs to hire an outside consultant for an extended period may find that the worker is better classified as an employee, especially if their contract is for a certain number of hours or months of work rather than being tied to the completion of a particular task or project. It's not uncommon to first hire the services of a consultant for a limited time or task so that you can test his skills and adapt to your company, and then commit to hiring him as an employee later. Consultants are usually hired (not hired) for a short, limited period to meet a very specific need or task (for example, business strategy, analysis of a specific problem, completion of a one-off project, etc.).
