Why Hiring a Consultant Can Help Your Business: Benefits of Outsourcing Professional Services

 

Summary

When businesses need assistance with critical tasks, they often turn to outside experts for help. Hiring a consultant can be a cost-effective way to gain access to a specialized skill set. By working with an experienced consultant, organizations can benefit from enhanced knowledge, expertise, and resources, enabling them to focus on core business strategies and operations.

The right consultant can provide unique insights into an organization's direction, offering a new perspective and problem-solving strategies. They can help organizations by providing objective analysis, understanding organizational dynamics, and offering advice on procedures and projects. Their expertise and objectivity can be instrumental in developing and implementing successful business strategies and initiatives.

A consultant can also help to identify potential areas of improvement, flaws in processes, and any current deficiencies. In addition, they can provide additional resources and personnel as needed, offering a comprehensive solution to any issues or problems. Working with consultants is also a great way to obtain fresh ideas and new approaches that may not be available internally.

When choosing a consultant, it is important to consider several factors including their experience, credentials, cost, and the type of services they are offering. It is also important to ensure that the consultant is familiar with the type of work that needs to be done. Researching a few different consultants is often the best way to find the right fit for the job.

The advantages of working with a consultant are numerous and include: access to specialized skill sets, a comprehensive solution to problems, experienced insight, new perspectives and ideas, improved processes, and cost-effectiveness. Organizations benefit from enhanced knowledge, expertise, and resources, allowing them to focus on their core business strategies and operations. Consulting is a valuable asset to any business, and should be considered when extra help is needed.
 

Why Consultants Make Sense

The business world has become increasingly complex. Companies in today's economy need to be agile and maximize their resources. Hiring a consultant can be an excellent way to accomplish this. Consulting services allow businesses to stay ahead of the curve with new technologies and industry trends, as well as access the knowledge and experience of knowledgeable professionals. Consulting can help companies take proactive steps to address problems, capitalize on opportunities and improve profitability.
 

Benefits of Hiring a Consultant

When hiring a consultant, businesses benefit from outside expertise and knowledge. This can have multiple advantages. In addition to helping to solve specific business problems, consultants can provide a fresh perspective, which can be invaluable in helping to identify innovative solutions. Additionally, experienced consultants can help reduce overall costs, as they can often identify areas where improvements can be made, helping to reduce long-term costs.
 

The Value of Consulting Services

Consulting services provide a number of advantages to businesses. For example, consultants can provide research and analysis of a company's products and services, as well as its competitors. They can also provide assistance in developing and executing strategies for growth, market expansion and improved operating efficiency. Additionally, consultants can advise businesses on technological advancements, financial trends and other industry-specific matters.
 

What Types of Services Do Consultants Offer?

The services offered by consultants vary depending on their areas of expertise. For example, consultants may offer services in the areas of strategy and planning, corporate finance, risk management, technology and operations, human resources, sales and marketing and organizational development. Additionally, consultants may provide services in areas such as system design, due diligence, process improvement and change management.
 

Harrison Barnes

In order to work effectively with a legal-recruiting firm, it is important that you understand the benefits a good legal-recruiting firm provides so that you can take advantage of them. These are some of the things a good legal recruiter does on a daily basis:

1. Diligently Researches Available Opportunities
It would be virtually impossible for you to know of all the opportunities available unless you used a good professional search consultant. A good professional search consultant performs at least 75 "research assignments" a day. By performing "research assignments," a good legal recruiter identifies law firms you may never have heard of and brings you to opportunities that match your goals and interests. We maintain the largest full-time staff of individuals who scout the market for opportunities of any legal-search firm we know of. In fact, because our focus is not on cold calling, this comprises the substantial majority of what our firm does.

At BCG Attorney Search, we define a "research assignment" as a call to a legal-hiring organization, research into an area where the organization is growing, or a trip to a legal-hiring organization to learn about open positions and the culture of the organization. Be careful of recruiting firms that do not commit substantial resources to this task: It takes a lot of people and money to do this. The needs of legal markets can change on a weekly basis. We have seen markets where one week there were as few as two or three positions for particular types of attorneys, and the next week there were as many as 10-15. There are certainly several reasons for this; however, knowing that the jobs are out there is the most important component to understand.
 

• See A Comprehensive Guide to Working with a Legal Recruiter for more information.

In a market as small as Los Angeles', for instance, on some days, we may have as many as seven people researching the market for opportunities. Because our research is focused and directed, we are also very efficient in how we approach this work. At present, we have little doubt that our in-house-developed database system is more effective than that of any other United States recruiter-legal or otherwise. Many recruiters who have been at this for decades will tell you things like "I just know the jobs out there" or "It's who you know." To some extent that is true; however, statements like that make it self-evident that the legal recruiter is missing a substantial amount of jobs on a regular basis.

We find numerous law firms per week that emerge for the first time on our radar screen because they are mentioned in a small news story in one of the 10+ legal newspapers we subscribe to, have split off from larger firms, or decide after our extended contact with them that they do have legal positions. We have placed several attorneys in firms like these who otherwise might not have found a position, and we believe our research is well worth the tremendous effort we put into it. This simply gives our candidates more options. In fact, for qualified candidates, we often have in excess of 25 opportunities matching their interests in a given city. We would never counsel a candidate to try all these opportunities, but it's good knowing they're out there. If you become one of our candidates, our goal is to do everything within our power to make sure that you know everything possible about the market you are interested in and have the most options possible.

If you have worked with professional search consultants before, you may be surprised that some have positions that others do not. It is axiomatic that you get better results for the candidates you serve when you have more positions. Being a professional search consultant at its highest level is serious business and requires a lot of work on a daily basis. That work pays off for the candidates we work with. The atmosphere of our firm is intense and is much like a law firm's. We are constantly calling, researching, and meeting with law firms and hiring organizations.

2. Matches You with the Right Job Opportunities
A good professional search consultant will take time to understand exactly what the hiring organization is looking for. Good professional search consultants spend the majority of their time identifying opportunities for candidates and only advise candidates of opportunities that fit the candidate's goals. This is a subjective process, and those who advise candidates of opportunities should be attorneys. In order to make good matches, it is important to understand what the candidate is like and what the hiring organization is like. Culture, value systems, work ethic, practice strengths, and so forth are all parts of the calculus of a good fit. A good professional search consultant will keep people who are not going to get along away from each other.

3. Gets You in the Door
A good professional search consultant has the ability to get you in the door. A good professional search consultant has credibility, which in this business means that (1) he/she only presents candidates to law organizations fitting the law firm's requirements, (2) he/she only presents candidates to law firms that in fact have positions, (3) he/she only presents candidates who are genuinely interested in working in the law organization, and (4) he/she has good reasons for wanting to do so.

More important, it also means that the professional search consultant will never, never, never play "fast and loose" with hiring organizations. Make no mistake about it. We work for the hiring organizations we serve, and we serve them with the highest level of integrity possible.

We make a consistent effort to meet with each of the legal-hiring organizations we serve. Certainly, we have not met everyone in every law firm everywhere; however, we take the time to get to know the people we are serving. We also make every effort to let them know everything they can about us. We treat the organizations we serve with a high level of respect and do everything to strengthen their loyalty so when they see our candidates, they take notice.

Many professional search consultants blanket the market with a recruit's resume, do not take the time to know the people they are serving, and play "fast and loose." In fact, this seems to be the norm for many so-called "professional search consultants." If one has ever called you on the phone, you probably know what we're talking about. This does nothing for the credibility of either the recruit or the "professional search consultant."

When a good professional search consultant presents a resume, the law firm knows the recruit is serious. The most difficult part about getting a legal job, any legal job, is getting in the door. A good professional search consultant will sell your abilities and background to the right people inside the law organization you are contemplating even before the organization sees your resume. This is a combination of salesmanship and instinct. The salesmanship is not the same type of salesmanship that you may be used to. It is helping you understand your strengths and communicating those strengths to the hiring organization in a way that is extremely professional, clear, concise, leaves few questions unanswered, and most important, is memorable. We often hear from hiring organizations that we are better at this than anyone. If you have ever seen another professional search consultant's work and have compared it to ours, you know what we're talking about.

If you have ever sent your resume to a law firm "cold," you know that nine times out of ten, you're going to get rejected. If you are recommended to the law firm by someone who works there or someone who takes the time to explain your exact situation to the law firm in a convincing manner before it even sees your resume, your chances of success are far greater. A good professional search consultant is the hiring organization's friend, and his/her candidates thus have more credibility before they ever get in the door.

4. Prepares Your Resume, if Necessary
That's right. A good professional search consultant will prepare your resume, if necessary, after an in-depth interview with you. In today's legal market, with an increasing degree of specialization in all fields, a resume needs to show that you are a good fit for the particular job you are being hired for. The type of resume you needed to get a job when you were in law school may not be the same type of resume that is needed to get a job after you have commenced practicing law. We are one of the few professional search consulting firms we know of that will take the time to prepare a candidate's resume. By writing a candidate's resume for him/her, we are able to ensure that for each law firm the candidate is submitted to, his/her strengths and interests reflect, as accurately as possible, exactly what the law firm is looking for.

5. Maintains Your Confidentiality
If you send your resume to a law firm blindly, you have no way of ensuring your confidentiality. A good professional search consultant fiercely protects a candidate's confidentiality. Law firms are not stupid; they know that if they disturb a candidate's confidentiality, the search firm is unlikely to recommend people to them in the future. Accordingly, by using a professional search firm, you can ensure that your confidentiality is protected. To View our TRUSTe Approved privacy policy.

6. Moves Your Career Forward
A good professional search consultant will take as much time as possible to understand exactly where you want your career to be. Once the professional search consultant takes the time to do this, he/she will identify the best possible opportunities that will help you satisfy these objectives. There are bad law firms to work for and firms that we simply will not suggest to our recruits. A good professional search consultant will help move your career forward by placing you in an organization that is a good one for you to work for and one that fits your goals for the future.

7. Prepares You for Interviews
Anyone who gets in the door has a good chance of getting the position. We take the time to prepare our candidates for the interviews, anticipating potential questions an employer may have and helping candidates prepare for unanticipated interview questions. We also use career counselors to work with our candidates when we sense they may need substantial work before their interviews. Generally, if you have been out of the interviewing loop for a while, we will recommend this.

8. Assists You in Salary Negotiations
Oftentimes, firms can be persuaded to offer starting bonuses and other incentives to get a good candidate. Additionally, salaries can often be negotiated. Nobody wants to do this on his/her own-it simply does not start things off on the right foot. A good professional search consultant will handle these types of situations with tact, which means not telling the firm that you want this, but that you may have been offered such and such elsewhere. This type of tactic can motivate law firms to offer you more than they would normally.

9. Takes Care of the Details and Does the Work
There is a tremendous amount of work that goes into finding you a job. When you use a professional search consultant, your most time-consuming task will be showing up for the interviews. We take the time to make the most professional presentations possible to the legal-hiring organizations we serve and even use professional attorney writers in making our presentations. Additionally, as experienced attorneys dealing with hiring authorities and candidates, good recruiters find ways to put deals together and iron out differences between you and the hiring organization, of which both you and the hiring organization may not even be aware.

10. Provides Moral Support
A job search can be fun, but as every attorney knows, it can be a draining experience. We're there with you every step of the way and will support you with the type of attention you need in the stressful situation of locating a new position. We speak to you after every interview and do everything we can to ensure that psychologically you are ready for each interview you go into.
 
What separates the best legal recruiters from the rest? Find out in this related article.
 

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See What Other Candidates Are Saying: Testimonials and Reviews

 

BCG Attorney Search is looking for driven recruiters to join our team. BCG Attorney Search covers the entire United States, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. We offer first-rate training and coaching, pay top of market commissions, pay our recruiters as employees and not independent contractors, and offer medical insurance and other benefits. Additionally, BCG is the best known brand in the industry and is part of a 200+ employee legal employment company. We offer a supportive cooperative atmosphere and provide you with everything you need to be the most effective recruiter possible (continually updated internal job database, massive advertising support, incredible back office support, and many other perks designed to ensure you match every possible candidate with every available position).

About Harrison Barnes

Harrison Barnes is a prominent figure in the legal placement industry, known for his expertise in attorney placements and his extensive knowledge of the legal profession.

With over 25 years of experience, he has established himself as a leading voice in the field and has helped thousands of lawyers and law students find their ideal career paths.

Barnes is a former federal law clerk and associate at Quinn Emanuel and a graduate of the University of Chicago College and the University of Virginia Law School. He was a Rhodes Scholar Finalist at the University of Chicago and a member of the University of Virginia Law Review. Early in his legal career, he enrolled in Stanford Business School but dropped out because he missed legal recruiting too much.

Barnes' approach to the legal industry is rooted in his commitment to helping lawyers achieve their full potential. He believes that the key to success in the legal profession is to be proactive, persistent, and disciplined in one's approach to work and life. He encourages lawyers to take ownership of their careers and to focus on developing their skills and expertise in a way that aligns with their passions and interests.

One of how Barnes provides support to lawyers is through his writing. On his blog, HarrisonBarnes.com, and BCGSearch.com, he regularly shares his insights and advice on a range of topics related to the legal profession. Through his writing, he aims to empower lawyers to control their careers and make informed decisions about their professional development.

One of Barnes's fundamental philosophies in his writing is the importance of networking. He believes that networking is a critical component of career success and that it is essential for lawyers to establish relationships with others in their field. He encourages lawyers to attend events, join organizations, and connect with others in the legal community to build their professional networks.

Another central theme in Barnes' writing is the importance of personal and professional development. He believes that lawyers should continuously strive to improve themselves and develop their skills to succeed in their careers. He encourages lawyers to pursue ongoing education and training actively, read widely, and seek new opportunities for growth and development.

In addition to his work in the legal industry, Barnes is also a fitness and lifestyle enthusiast. He sees fitness and wellness as integral to his personal and professional development and encourages others to adopt a similar mindset. He starts his day at 4:00 am and dedicates several daily hours to running, weightlifting, and pursuing spiritual disciplines.

Finally, Barnes is a strong advocate for community service and giving back. He volunteers for the University of Chicago, where he is the former area chair of Los Angeles for the University of Chicago Admissions Office. He also serves as the President of the Young Presidents Organization's Century City Los Angeles Chapter, where he works to support and connect young business leaders.

In conclusion, Harrison Barnes is a visionary legal industry leader committed to helping lawyers achieve their full potential. Through his work at BCG Attorney Search, writing, and community involvement, he empowers lawyers to take control of their careers, develop their skills continuously, and lead fulfilling and successful lives. His philosophy of being proactive, persistent, and disciplined, combined with his focus on personal and professional development, makes him a valuable resource for anyone looking to succeed in the legal profession.

About BCG Attorney Search

BCG Attorney Search matches attorneys and law firms with unparalleled expertise and drive, while achieving results. Known globally for its success in locating and placing attorneys in law firms of all sizes, BCG Attorney Search has placed thousands of attorneys in law firms in thousands of different law firms around the country. Unlike other legal placement firms, BCG Attorney Search brings massive resources of over 150 employees to its placement efforts locating positions and opportunities its competitors simply cannot. Every legal recruiter at BCG Attorney Search is a former successful attorney who attended a top law school, worked in top law firms and brought massive drive and commitment to their work. BCG Attorney Search legal recruiters take your legal career seriously and understand attorneys. For more information, please visit www.BCGSearch.com.