Why might a company hire an external ISO Consultant?

There are many reasons why companies hire outside consultants rather than have their own in-house employees for ISO.

Missing skill-sets. Often, the existing workforce just don’t have the experience or knowledge required to put the plans in place to achieve compliance.

Depth of knowledge. There’s a lot involved in taking a business thorough the journey to compliance, and each action is as important as the next, requiring a depth of knowledge that’s often best left to the ISO specialists.

More cost-effective: – Sometimes, because of the above reasons, it’s simply more cost effective to hire an outside consultant, especially if a business has a set time-frame in mind. Unfortunately, having to learn new processes and review new procedures can negatively impact the project turnaround time.

Familiarisation with the standards. When you spend your whole time dealing with ISO, like an experienced ISO consultant, then you reduce ambiguity, increase confidence, speed up the process, and significantly improve the chance of success.

Success. Whilst no-one can ever guarantee success, the chances of any non-conformances are greatly reduced due to knowledge and years of experience. Many organisations choose to hire an external consultant just because the thought of failure after having invested time and money in working towards this goal is just too scary.

Benefit of being external. Sometimes it’s just easier to instil change into an organisation using an external person. These consultants also benefit from ‘a fresh pair of eyes on your business’ as well as not being bogged down with any internal politics.