Whenever possible, managers and departments are expected to use the expertise of college employees before hiring a consultant or anyone on a personal services contract to do specialized work. This policy describes the circumstances under which managers might consider retaining a consultant.
As much as possible, managers and departments shall use the expertise of college employees before hiring a consultant or anyone on a personal services contract to do specialized work.
In general, departments may consider retaining a consultant only under the following conditions:
- There is no college employee who has the necessary expertise; and
- It is not practical to train current employees to do the work because
- the need is one-time or
- the need is urgent and there is not enough time to train employees or
- the cost of training or the time needed to train employees is prohibitive.
If there are employees who have the necessary skill, a consultant may be retained if those skilled employees are already working at capacity and cannot be reassigned to do the work needed.