How to become a human resources consultant - includes related articles

HR Magazine, August, 1994 by Neville C. Tompkins

Consultants offer organizations the flexibility to attack a multitude of problems with outside expertise.

Business downsizing of the past five years may have put some HR professionals out of jobs, but it has also increased the number of opportunities for HR consultants.

Maria Foffe, president of Global Resources Consulting in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y., spent more than 20 years in both domestic and international human resource work for several companies before opening her own business four years ago. "I felt it was the time in my career to make the move and be on my own," she says.

Foffe helps companies relocate employees overseas and then handles compensation, benefits, tax issues and awareness programs for the transferees. Her niche: International human resource consulting and helping companies in Europe, the Far East and South America develop compensation and benefit packages for the local hires and third-country nationals they employ.

Like other successful consultants, Foffe had many potential business contacts for her starting base-former colleagues, students who attended courses in international HR at New York University, and contacts at international trade organizations.

Bob Adams of Robert E. Adams Services Inc. in Fairfield, Conn., is a human resource generalist who, at age 56, didn't want to start over in the corporate world after his employer sold the company. He now operates a one-person HR consulting business that offers human resource assistance to domestic and international companies at the plant, division and corporate levels. His client list includes companies that have an HR staff and those with no staff.

His business started by doing work for former company colleagues who are now in divested businesses or hold executive positions in other companies. "These were the contacts who know my work and have confidence in that work," he says. His clients now include a European corporation that draws on his background in U.S. human resources for their American operations.

Jered Stifter is a compensation and benefits design consultant in the Houston office of Hewitt Associates. Five years ago, she left a large oil company in Houston as director of executive compensation and employee benefit programs to embark on a consulting career with the 3,500-employee consulting firm.

Now she is both account manager and consultant at Hewitt's Houston area office, saying, "We work more with roles here than titles." Her job involves delivering to the clients what they need and designing compensation and benefit programs to fulfill those needs.

When she entered the consulting business, Stiffer says she had to expand her technical background--previously she had not worked with hospitals or universities, or in unionized settings.

Rob Greenwood is a consultant and trainer with The Atlanta Consulting Group, a small consulting company that specializes in "trust and teamwork" processes for industry. He works with senior management in client companies to help identify opportunities and business threats that affect the client's core business processes.

Greenwood was manager of human resources for a division of an international company and, over eight years, saw it grow from a handful of people to more than 600 employees worldwide. Through involvement in a total quality program in his company, he found that his work and his career were changing.

"Industry is fundamentally changing and professionals cannot rely on large corporations for lifetime careers," he says. For him, the timing was ideal to leave the corporate world and join a small consulting firm where his background in delivering training programs, plus his practical experience in total quality management and technical project management could be quickly put to use.

GETTING STARTED

An easy first step may involve consulting assignments with a former employer. "Don't burn any bridges behind you," says Adams who handles assignments for two divisions sold off by his former employer. Some companies are even giving outplaced persons short-term contracts of six months to a year to help them get established.

And, fear is always natural. "Fear is always with you--you're doing great now, but what business is coming in next month," Foffe says with a lilt in her voice. "After you have been in the business a couple of years, you get accustomed to the ups and downs."

SETTING UP BUSINESS

Printing business cards and hanging out the consultant's shingle is not an automatic entree to success for the new consultant.

"You have to be able to give up the perks of corporate life for the flexibility of being in your own business, have to be tireless, in good health, and "up," because you are selling yourself constantly," Foffe says. In the corporate world, administrative and production people are there to assist, Foffe explains, but self-employed persons fix their own FAX machines and order supplies.

Some consultants start their business at the kitchen table using the home telephone and photocopying machine at the corner store. They soon realize that dedicated office space at home, a facsimile machine, an answering machine that can be accessed from anywhere, a word processor and accompanying software packages, a separate telephone line for business, and a separate checking account are needed to present a positive business image.