Whether you had a good year or a challenging year, January means a new start with a new budget and new goals. One of the first big decisions every leader must make is evaluating their team to determine if it has the right capacity and capability to meet the needs of the new year. The natural tendency is often to hire a full-time employee to fill any identified gaps, but that isn’t the only option and, in many cases, not the best option.
Evaluate the Challenge Ahead
Before contacting HR to post a job opening, take time to evaluate the year ahead. What role will your team play in achieving the company’s strategic goals? How do the new goals compare to prior years? Will the organization be taking on anything it hasn’t done before? Is it looking to transform its ways of working? How have leadership expectations changed?
Assess the Team’s Skills
Take the time to objectively evaluate your team’s skills. Resist the temptation to skip this step because you “know your team.” Past performance doesn’t guarantee future success, especially when the objectives are new and the bar has been raised. Map your employees’ skills against the needs of the coming year—department operations, department projects, and company strategic initiatives.
Identify the Gaps
Conduct a premortem with your team in a safe environment, imagining that the year has been a failure. Work backwards to identify all the potential reasons for the failure and proactively identify areas of vulnerability and risk. This is a great exercise to uncover overconfidence and hidden biases. It empowers dissent, making it easier for people to voice concerns without being labeled as negative.
Consider All Options: Build – Buy – Borrow
Build (develop internally): This can be the most cost-effective and retention-friendly approach. It is best suited for ongoing needs where the job responsibilities are well known and there is time to invest in training the current staff.
Buy (hire full-time): Full-time hires make sense for long-term, ongoing needs with an indefinite timeframe where deep company-specific knowledge is important. But to be successful, you must define the skills needed and evaluate the qualifications of the candidates. This can be a blind spot for a hiring manager who doesn’t acknowledge that they don’t know what they don’t know.
Borrow (outsource): “Borrowing” talent is ideal when needs are short-term, highly specialized, or rapidly changing. Contractors are best when you need hands-on help to execute well-defined tasks, with maximum flexibility. Consulting firms are the option of choice when the gap is not just about extra hands, but also expert insight, strategy, or complex problem-solving that your team isn’t equipped to handle alone.
Making the Optimal Decision: Avoiding Blind Spots
Don’t rush the decision-making process. Take time to evaluate the situation and objectively consider different options. Below are a few thought starters to help you stay objective.
Is this a one-time expertise gap or a recurring skill need?
Overstaffing adds cost not only in the current year but in future years. It also creates job insecurity if there are cycles of hiring and layoffs.
How critical is speed?
If you needed the gap filled yesterday, leaning on external solutions (contractor or consultant) is usually faster than hiring. You can always hire in parallel for the long run, but external help buys time and accelerates the impact.
Do we know exactly what needs to be done, or do we need guidance?
If you have a clear plan or task (we just need X done by Y date), a contractor is ideal. If you’re unsure about the solution or approach (we need a plan to achieve X), a consultant (strategic insight) is the better option to help formulate the path.
Are you overly fixated on the cost and ignoring the strategic expectation?
Consulting firms come with higher upfront fees, but the right consultant will more than cover their cost through their expert guidance. Saving money by not getting help could mean moving too slowly on a strategic goal.
Do you have the internal knowledge to know what needs to be done and the experience to compare different proposals?
Utilizing an RFP can be a good approach for evaluating proposals from different firms. However, it requires detailed requirements (e.g., engineering drawings, detailed process maps, etc.) that govern the work. Loose requirements lead to schedule delays, cost overruns, and poor outcomes.
The Bottom Line
Use consultants for the “what and why,” contractors for the “how and when,” and employees for the “forever.”
January 5, 2026
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