Increase Efficiency—Hire a Contractor
Posted on 18. Feb, 2009 by Jeremy in Burning or Building, Business Efficiency, Documentation & Training
Who’s not for improving efficiency—especially in these challenging times? What you may not realize is that one of the best ways to do this is to hire contractors.
If your company is like most, it’s currently running staff at maximum utility. In the course of reviewing your operations, you may notice that there are issues that need to be addressed, such as:
- Pursuing a lean approach to documentation.
- Installing a new production line.
- Validating a new software or process system.
- Revamping your documentation system.
So, should you increase headcount to get the work done—and pay new employees a salary as well as all the associated benefits? Well, how long term is the process—several years? Maybe that would warrant hiring, but in general, the above projects are the perfect reasons to outsource the work. Some advantages of hiring contractors include:
- Expertise—Hire the experts you don’t have on your staff.
- Short-term focus—“Short-term” may be difficult to define, but generally the idea is that when the project is finished, so is the need for the resources to implement it. At that point a hand-off to your permanent staff should occur.
- An independent view—Yes, an outsider may not know how it’s always been done—and that can be a good thing!
Let’s face it, documentation and communication are the very tasks your trained professionals hate to perform. Having worked with and around engineers for much of my professional life, I have a pretty good feeling for what makes them tick—they like to do and create, not write and document. I know of one brilliant engineer who was always behind in his project reports—he explained to his boss that he was too busy creating the future to write about the past! He didn’t exactly endear himself to his boss, but I would wager he speaks for most engineers—they want to solve the next riddle.
It is the same with your operations folks as well as other staff members. Their focus is on what they do best—getting the product out the door, running the office, tracking costs, etc. Ask any of them to put together a procedure or report, and it immediately goes to the bottom of their to-do list and is worked on only when they have exhausted all their other duties and in fact are exhausted themselves. Not ideal conditions for creating effective communications tools. Plus, as good as they may be at their professional tasks, they may be very bad at documenting those same tasks.
One final consideration: is it better to use a communications company or a freelancer? There are some excellent freelance writers, but if you are looking to build a system for the long term, a company will be able not only to provide you with folks dedicated to your project, but additional resources that can be drawn on as needed.
