Your mission and goals are among the most important in the nation because your successes and failures as an education organization affect both children and those who teach them. The extent to which your organization has a positive and meaningful impact on the lives of K-12 students in the United States hinges on how well you meet your goals, complete your projects, and carry out your mission. Independent educational consultants are valuable assets that most successful and effective education organizations rely upon to increase their impact.

When you hire an educational consultant, you get the expertise and help you need to reach your organizational goals, providing you with the opportunity to make a more considerable impact. Some education consultants are former principals, teachers, or administrators that want to utilize their talents outside of the school setting. Since they have a passion for education, they want to remain active in the sector to help create better access to education for K-12 students and improve student outcomes.

Other consultants who serve educational organizations help in other areas such as finance, marketing, fundraising, talent development, coaching, training, project management, and more.

If the idea of hiring a freelance education consultant is new to you, you likely have several questions. This guide provides you with more information about what educational consultants do and how they can benefit your organization. We also want to introduce you to WorkMonger’s new EdOnDemand service, which can match you with an education freelancer that fits your educational organization’s needs.

What Can Educational Consultants Do for Education Organizations?

Whether you choose to hire a freelance education consultant or work with one of several K-12 education consulting firms, the exact tasks they perform at your organization will vary. Typically, an education consultant uses their strong skills and knowledge of best practices in the education sector to help advise and assist with a particular project or goal. For example, education organizations such as book publishers and edtech companies work with education contractors to create and deliver the right products for schools, students, and teachers.

Some consultants specialize in teaching and instructional projects, such as:

• Teaching technology
• Subject expertise, such as math or reading
• Curriculum development
• Testing
• Coaching

Other consultants help with operations and business functions, specializing in areas such as:

• Sales and marketing
• Finance
• Fundraising
• Talent development
• Training
• Project management

A consultant can begin during the earliest phase of a project or may join your team at any time. You might want them on a short-term contract basis, or you might choose to hire them with a set part-time or full-time schedule. Ultimately, educational consultants help you succeed in whatever tasks you need to do to impact the sector.

The Benefits of Hiring an Educational Consultant

Educational consultants provide educational organizations with a wide range of benefits. If you’ve been thinking about hiring an independent education consultant, you should consider the positive aspects of bringing a consultant into your organization. The benefits associated with hiring an educational consultant through WorkMonger’s EdOnDemand service include:

More Time to Focus on Other Things

Your organization likely has more than one project or does various things that benefit schools, students, and teachers. When you hire an education consultant to work on a specific project or dedicate time to specific tasks related to your organization’s mission, you free up time for yourself and other team members. For example, you might hire a consultant to help with curriculum development, pedagogy, or installing learning and teaching technology. This hire allows you to give attention to other crucial aspects of your organization, such as increasing employee retention or building trust within your organization. Ultimately, when you have more time to focus on other projects and tasks, you can significantly impact the students who benefit from your organizational mission and goals.

Increased Capacity

Hiring a consultant for your educational organization also gives you more working capacity. This is especially important for your organization if you are heading into your busy season and you’re short-staffed or if perhaps you’ve had a recent member of the team leave unexpectedly and you need an extra set of hands quickly. Education consultants have specific skills that benefit your organization. Instead of hiring an unspecified worker from a temp agency or overwhelming yourself and your team with extra work, you can bring on a consultant that matches your needs to ensure you meet work-related goals and deadlines immediately. 

Another capacity benefit is that you can hire multiple consultants with expertise in different areas for what one full-time person might cost. This helps you obtain the various specialized skills you require in a more cost-effective manner.

Greater Flexibility

With more free time available from hiring an educational consultant, you also gain more flexibility. When you do not have the staff or the expertise you need to attack a project head-on, you need all hands on deck to complete the project and any related tasks. You have no choice but to focus on the project and force some or all team members to concentrate on specific tasks. The flexibility you gain from enlisting the help of WorkMonger’s EdOnDemand service to hire an educational consultant allows you to delegate and assign tasks to team members more efficiently. When something isn’t working right, you also have the flexibility to move people around and make changes to your plan. EdOnDemand also provides flexibility in the type of consultant you choose and the length of time you want them to be part of your team.

Access to Top-tier Talent

Many educational consultants have strong backgrounds that include extensive experience in teaching and/or school administration roles. This real-world experience translates into the type of talent that can make a difference in your educational organization. At WorkMonger, our team remains focused on finding and recruiting the best educational consultants for our EdOnDemand platform. We have thousands of potential matches for you at our fingertips, all of which fall under the umbrella of top-tier talent. We carefully vet consultants to ensure they have relevant experience and expertise that sets them apart from the crowd, making them immediate assets to a project. The consultants we recruit also demonstrate excellent communication skills, a must for a healthy, productive, and effective consulting relationship.

Complete Tasks and Projects Faster and Better

Independent educational consultants bring vision, knowledge, and competence to educational organizations’ projects, allowing you to complete tasks and projects more quickly. Additionally, you can also achieve better results or outcomes with the help of a consultant. On a general level, consultants work with organizations to develop strategies and help plan and solve problems. This is also true of independent education consultants. With guidance on strategy and planning, your educational organization can scale its impact by taking on more projects faster and feeling confident that they will be completed on time with positive outcomes.

Freelancers Are Ready to Interact 24/7

When you hire regular full-time employees, they usually have a set work schedule for the day and week. Sometimes you need to interact with a team member about a particular task or project, but it has to wait until the next day. Freelancers are ready to interact outside business hours to get the job done. WorkMonger’s network of freelance education consultants is prepared to provide immediate assistance 24/7, which is especially helpful if you have an emergency or run into an obstacle. EdOnDemand is genuinely an on-demand service that allows you to get the help and guidance you need quickly. A consultant can help you keep your project on track during the most challenging times by offering potential solutions to challenges you and your team face.

Cost-Effectiveness

Freelancers are a cost-effective alternative to full-time staffing. Depending on your exact business model and the type and amount of benefits you offer your full-time employees, they may cost you anywhere from 1.25 to 1.4 times the salary you pay them by adding up employment taxes, health insurance, retirement plans, and other benefits. Freelancers are independent contractors who pay their own taxes and provide their own benefits, making them more cost-effective in many situations. Additionally, you may not need to bring on someone as full-time staff to work on a project. Hiring a freelance education consultant allows you to pay for only the time you need the consultant. Maybe you only need a few hours or a few weeks of consulting services. Not only are independent education consultants cost-effective, but you can allocate the money you save to other projects or causes within your education organization.

Specialized Skills and Knowledge

Although hiring an education consultant has many benefits, you and your organization’s ability to connect with a consultant with specialized skills and knowledge is near the top of the list. When you attempt to hire someone full-time, you could search for weeks or months to find the right fit. In some cases, you are forced to take a chance on a new hire, hoping they have enough knowledge to do what you need, and are a quick enough learner to figure out the rest. EdOnDemand’s network of consultants has expertise across multiple non-teaching specialties. 

Examples of specialized skills and knowledge areas where a consultant can help your education organization include:

• Finance
• Operations
• Curriculum Design
• Strategy
• Fundraising and Business Development
• Program management
• Pedagogy
• Human Capital
• Information Technology
• Legal
• Policy and Advocacy
  

One of our talent managers will help you determine your needs and find the consultant with the right skills for your project.

Diversity

We know that you value diversity and strive for a strong and inclusive organizational culture that reflects your education organization’s communities. At WorkMonger, we also prioritize diversity. We are committed to recruiting a diverse pool  of candidates into our educational consultant network. More than 50 percent of our placements to date are people of color.

More Innovation

Freelance education consultants encourage innovation in your education organization. Groupthink is not an uncommon issue in some education organizations. Many leaders, teams, and employees think alike. The value you place on education and your shared organizational goals to impact students can lead to a culture that focuses on group decisions and stifles creativity. A freelance education consultant can offer a fresh perspective on your project, the challenges you face, and the potential solutions you’ve brainstormed. This outside point-of-view promotes individuality, inspires creative thinking, and sharpens problem-solving skills. When your organization leads as a result of innovative solutions to issues in the education sector, you will surely make an impact.

EdOnDemand Reduces Risk

Hiring an educational consultant through WorkMonger’s EdOnDemand service mitigates your risk in two ways. First, engaging a traditional employee requires costly onboarding and training. Even after hiring a candidate who you think is a perfect fit, you may find you’ve made a mistake after a few weeks or a few months. You may find yourself having to institute more training for a team member who hasn’t successfully surmounted the learning curve, which costs additional time and resources. Each time you hire an employee, you risk that they might not work out after investing in them. Hiring a freelance consultant allows you to try out an expert and make sure they are the right fit for your project or job, without a long-term commitment or fear of having to go through the termination process.

Second, our consultant’s pricing is transparent, and we have clear contracts. You do not have to pay any recruiting or fees upfront, which is sometimes the case for educational consulting firms. All EdOnDemand educational consultants are available for project-based work that is hourly, part-time, or full-time. You have nothing to lose because we will match you with an expert based on your needs and set up a free 30-minute introduction call. If you aren’t satisfied with the match, you do not have to hire the consultant.

About WorkMonger’s EdOnDemand Service

EdOnDemand is WorkMonger’s network of more than 20,000 non-teaching education experts. We match education organizations looking to hire an independent consultant and provide support throughout the entire hiring process.

With EdOnDemand, our talent professionals custom-match you with an education consultant that meets your organizational and/or project needs, saving you the money compared to staffing a position full-time. You can hire a remote education consultant or a freelance education consultant for hourly, part-time, or project-based work.

Additionally, our comprehensive network of consultants includes both instructional and non-instructional experts, so our consultants have the skills and knowledge necessary whatever your organization’s needs.

Learn more today and tell us more about your consulting needs. One of our talent managers can find the right match for your education organization in as little as 96 hours and set up a 30-minute introductory call with your match. We know your education organization wants to make a large impact, and we are here to help.