Currently, organizations are going through a constant state of instability. Many of them grow and others will tend to stay level but they experience turnover as employees of the organization leave for different reasons, including personal reasons, finding a better role elsewhere, etc.
So, your HR department might have an opening for many different reasons. Now, the main challenge that arises in this aspect is that you are having an open role to fill, but the overall hiring procedure takes a huge amount of time.
It is specifically because, it involves several steps such as developing a job posting, putting out job listings, evaluating your candidate pool, scheduling and conducting interviews, etc. So, all these processes can take around weeks or months to get completed.
Sometimes, it can even take some more time for a high-level position that needs to be filled with only the most suited candidate. If you need any help in hiring, then you can opt for the assistance of top HR agencies in Dubai.
Now, as you know that the hiring process takes time and so, what to do meanwhile? Well, three options are left behind for you to choose from. It includes the following:
- You can choose to not fill that position. It is not at all a great option to choose.
- You can rush to hire someone. In that case, too, the process will take time and also there are high chances for your business to make an inappropriate hire. This option can even prove to be costly for you in the long run.
- The final option left behind you is to hire an interim HR consultant which is indeed the best option for you to choose. So, you can choose an interim HR consultant up until you manage to recruit a more permanent candidate.
If you do not have a clear idea about what an interim HR consultant is, what role they play, their responsibilities, alternatives, and benefits they offer, then don’t worry! We will discuss all of these in detail in the forthcoming section. So, let’s dig into the detailed discussion without wasting any further time:
Who Is Referred To As An Interim HR Consultant?
The term interim means temporary or provisional. So, the interim HR consultants focus on working with your organization as long as you require them. It might be days, weeks, months, or even years in some cases. But they remain on a temporary contract. They focus on working for a consulting company that you contract for filling your interim role.
These professionals again have several years of experience and HR training. Due to this reason, no human resources projects are too complex or large for these professionals. Now, let’s talk about the duties of an interim HR consultant in the following section:
Key Duties Of An Interim HR Consultant
The duties of an interim HR consultant usually depend on the level of the role you are hiring them to perform. It again depends on the size of your company.
A small business might consider hiring an interim HR consultant for doing a thorough analysis of their business. Not only that, but they also help businesses to formulate an overall HR strategy that they can focus on implementing in the upcoming years. These professionals essentially step in to be a temporary C-level or Director of HR.
So, they are involved in creating an inclusive strategy in conjunction with the CEO and any other executives that the organization has. Again, after releasing the contract, the company follows the normal process until it experienced a significant amount of growth. At this point, they may either go for hiring a staff HR director or consider hiring a new interim HR consultant for repeating the entire process.
Again, the larger businesses hire these professionals for filling the position of an executive, director, or manager who has left the organization for some reason. Until you find a replacement for the position through the conventional hiring processes, these professionals can fill the role. And so, you do not have to be concerned about anything.
Instead of carrying out the basic HR tasks, they are involved in performing high level and mid-level duties which might include the following:
- Training And Development: Interim HR consultants offer training and guidance to already existing managers and directors. They inform them of both the applicable laws and the best practices in HR.
- Executive Search: Interim HR consultants have the ability to evaluate a business from both inside and outside perspectives. Then, they can define the scale, scope, and requirements of the role. Often, these consultants have large networks of connections all through the sector. And so, they can search for an ideal replacement for the permanent filling of the position.
- Audits And Improvements: These professionals can step in from outside and explain the benefits of a change in software or policy of an organization. As a result, teams get less affected by the change.
- Restructuring And Transitioning: Nowadays, companies may need restructuring with the rapid change in the company outline. In such a situation, on-staff HR management may not be enough. Here, comes the role of an interim HR consultant who can help guide the restructuring. So, they can help with hiring, downsizing, and overall restructuring.
- Supplemental Coverage: Sometimes, the reason for which an HR manager leaves an organization is considered to be temporary. The reasons can be different such as maternity leave, medical leave, or other temporary leaves of absence which do not require a total replacement but need anyone who can keep the department running while they are on a leave.
In such a situation, an interim HR consultant tends to play a crucial role and they can effectively carry out the operation until the original employee returns.
Major Benefits Of Hiring An Interim HR Consultant
The benefits that you can get from hiring an interim HR consultant are many. We have enlisted some of the key benefits in the following section:
- These Professionals Bring Their Expertise And Talent To The Table
An interim HR consultant possesses a lot of experience and skill and so, there are a lot of benefits that your organization can reap by hiring these professionals. You can hire them temporarily and gain access to their experience. And for all these, you do not have to pay any hefty charges.
So, if you are a small company, then it can be the right option for you to choose. And, the best part is that your business can compete with large companies by getting access to a higher degree of skill offered by interim HR consultants.
- By Hiring Interim HR Consultants, Smaller Companies Can Pay For Only What They Require
Small companies are low on budget and so, they can only pay for the services they require. And due to this particular reason, they mainly consider hiring interim HR consultants. Through this, the small companies can successfully avoid the cost of hiring lackluster employees.
Interim HR consultants again tend to have specialization in specific areas such as benefits or legal issues. They can function as a legal advisor in case your organization has a lawsuit or an audit related to labor policies.
- They Play A Vital Role In Suggesting Upgrades And Changes To Your Directors And Employees.
Interim HR consultants possess a lot of experience in working with small and large companies across many sectors. They possess the ability to look at a problem from different angles which you might not have even thought of. Also, they always focus on offering you the best-in-class solutions.
Not only that, but they also provide you with the evidence for backing up any recommendations they provide.
- And A Lot More.
Alternatives To Interim HR Consultants
It can be an exceptional idea to hire an interim HR consultant. Still, it can prove to be costly, in case you are low on budget. So, now the main question that arises in this aspect is that, is there any alternatives to this which is worth pursuing. We will talk about some of these in the following section:
- Conventional Hiring: You will find that hiring a new HR employee to take on the duties required can be the best alternative in many circumstances. However, if there is an issue with your interview or hiring process, then it can prove to be even more expensive and can leave you with sub-par outcomes.
- Working With A Temp Agency: Temp agencies can significantly help fill the staffing requirements in HR and other departments. But, the main problem with hiring these agencies is that they help to hire lower-level employees. On the other hand, interim HR consultants have specialization in higher-level roles.
- Hiring A Freelance Consultant: Another option that is left behind you is to hire freelance consultants. However, you will have less recourse in case, they fail to work out as no overhead company directs these consultants.
So, they have both a high reward and a high risk. But, a lot of the companies prefers working with an agency that focuses on providing insurance or guarantees against poor relationship or poor consultants.
So, each of the options which we have discussed above tends to have its advantages and disadvantages. Choosing the one who works best for your situation helps you to offer the best-in-class results. To determine which option suits best for your requirements, you will first need to examine what you need.
Are you in search of a director for guiding your strategy? Do you need someone for auditing your processes and finding improvement areas? Are you in need of examining your present infrastructure and systems with recommendations for upgrades?
Do you need a replacement for an existing employee who is on a leave or filling a position while you find a replacement to hire? So, an interim HR consultant can effectively assist you in any of these situations.
Closing Thoughts
All in all, it can be a challenging task to find the right HR consulting agency to work with your business. Presently, multiple numbers of agencies are inclined towards offering related services that tend to have specialization in different scales of operation or sectors.
Luckily, you will find the availability of many of the top HR agencies in Dubai that will make the process easy for you. All of these are possible because of the nature of these companies and the relationships they focus on sharing with other businesses. So, in case you are having any requirements related to human resources, hiring an interim HR consultant is a good idea.
We hope you have found this comprehensive guide related to interim human resources consultants to be very helpful.
Author Bio:
Sunny Chawla is a Managing Director at Alliance Recruitment Agency. He specializes in helping clients with international recruiting, staffing, HR services and Career advice service for overseas and international businesses. Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn
