Working with your remote consultant

The economy is set to become even more challenging. Work-from-home is shaping up to be the normal working environment ongoing. We share some best practices on working with your consultant in a WFH environment.

The economy looks set to present a challenge for businesses over the rest of 2020, and possibly 2021. Some analysts shared a downgrade based on Q1 activity. The IMF has warned that recovery might take a few years.

In this environment, businesses are challenging their teams to deliver more with less. It is difficult to see green shoots, resulting in management preparing for survival while grasping for short term opportunities wherever possible.

During such times, it is normal for function leads from strategy, marketing and communications to consider working with outsourced teams and contractors. These arrangements can help keep costs lean, commitments simple and outcomes manageable and within expectations.

Given the pandemic situation, most of the outsourced support will likely be working remotely, and perhaps shared across various teams within a function or across leads.

The team at WBU has worked through previous challenging economic periods such as SARS, both the Asian and Global Financial crises and 9/11. We share some tips for business and function leads to consider when working with a remote consultant.

The brief is the start of a successful outcome or a whole lot of pain

· Work on objectives and provide clear outcomes; in fact, give examples of what a successful outcome is to your business during this period.

· Provide details about how the programme or campaign will be measured. If possible, walk the consultant through the stakeholders and what metrics (or proxies) matter to you and to them

· If the metrics/KPIs aren’t clear, or there aren’t any, admit that to the consultant. Ask for support in putting some together, or analyse the impact it would have in reporting results at the end of the month, campaign or programme

Don’t hire by history; engage by capability when confirming a consultant’s scope and services

· Ask yourself what exactly you are hiring a consultant to deliver. Understand the differences between a one-stop shop and an end-to-end scope, as well as between a generalist and a specialist.

· Be clear about what you are paying for, whether by scope, outcome or time. Take time to explain what you do not want. Given the environment, be clear about the payment schedule whether by time, or milestones.

· As a best practice, be certain that both parties are clear about scope and services. There should be recorded discussions around scenarios such as over-servicing, expectations of workdays and whether the consultant will get access to company assets and resources.

Establish a workflow that provides both parties with space to work and clarity as to the tasks being worked on

· Given the ubiquity and quantity of digital tools for the work environment, pick the top 2 – 3 that best meet your needs for project management and communication. There will be no perfect tool that does not come at high cost. Once you have decided on the combination of tools, ensure that both your team and your consultant use it on a regular basis. Some recommended tools for project management include Trello while many teams rely on Slack and Telegram for communication.

· Set expectations to give and receive updates. Traditionally, consultants provide monthly work-in-progress reports. Is that comfortable? Decide on frequency. Ensure an agenda is always sent out for meetings to be efficient.

· Be understanding of the WFH environment. Perhaps you have young children running around, or your consultant has an elderly person’s schedule to work around. It does not help build a healthy relationship if there is no respect or understanding given both ways.

Look to remove obstacles (vs. being a helicopter manager) once the brief, scope, workflow and outcome are decided

· WFH can make many managers uncomfortable due to the perception that work is not done well or quick enough. This is a traditional way of thinking and sends a message that you do not trust your team – both internal and outsourced.

· As we rely on video and chat to communicate, make it a point to over explain when communicating to minimise misunderstanding and wrong signals.

· Given the nature of work required, it might be good to set checkpoints and let them work towards goals and milestones.

Businesses and consultants work best when all parties work as one team. It’s in everyone’s interest to pull together and help the business (client) achieve their outcomes; and in this way, help the consultant continue to be retained for their work.

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We are Brand Utility is a business consultancy.

We offer strategy and tactics to support growth outcomes - revenue, scale, regional expansion and market entry – for our clients.

Areas of support include:

· Branding: Messaging, positioning, approach to market

· Marketing: Content, social media, email, community amplification

· Lead generation: Digital advertising, social media advertising, social commerce, e-commerce

· Integration of marketing with business operations: Secondment as a marketing or public relations function

Discover more about our services at our website or book a free consultation through this link.

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