Post-USAID survey of consultants finds many questioning the path

  In February, after six years as an independent consultant, Lorenz Wild concluded his assignments and prepared to begin a personal service contract with USAID Ecuador as an economic growth and private sector engagement specialist. Then suddenly, like many others in the sector, he found himself with no work at all. He also soon found that there was little information about the situation of independent consultants and, where there were job opportunities, employers were not cognizant of what this group was experiencing. There was a lot of information sharing and conversations around the USAID job losses, said Wild, but these tended to focus on the agency’s statistics around contracts eliminated, project cuts, and staff layoffs at implementing NGOs. Through conversations among small online groups and personal networks, it was clear to Wild that he was not the only consultant feeling lost, unsure what to do next, and whether to wait out the storm. This prompted him to put his research skills to work and create a survey, originally shared only among a few colleagues, to gain a clearer picture of the situation. Intrigued by these initial results and eager to expand the survey’s reach, he later collaborated with Wayan Vota, founder of Career Pivot, and Alethia Wong, herself an independent consultant, to share it across their extensive networks. Even with a modest sample size of 126 respondents, the findings highlighted some troubling trends. Wild and Wong, who teamed up to analyze the results, found that many independent consultants are now questioning whether this career path remains viable. Significantly lower earnings, relentless networking, and negative mental health impacts were other common themes. Half of these respondents were the main breadwinners in their households. Many had been consulting primarily for USAID for years, so didn’t have a diversified income, explained Wong — for the majority of respondents, more than 60% of their business had come from USAID over the last couple of years. Their comments conveyed high levels of anxiety and pessimism, and, in some cases, desperation, she added. The pair now hopes these results will spark discussions on needed changes to the hiring policies and practices for independent consultants. According to the findings, some independent consultants believe contracting organizations are exploiting the current job market to drive down daily rates — prompting terms such as “predatory” and “underpaid.” “Part of it is that as independent consultants, we just don’t have a voice, we don’t have an advocacy body … there’s a power discrepancy,” Wild said. A call for more transparency More transparent processes and communication, particularly in the publication of tenders, would be a good place to start, according to the pair. “Many tenders [outline] a piece of work [but] don’t provide any idea of a budget, and so you're kind of shooting in the dark,” Wild said. He suggested a phased application process — which would involve a call for an initial expression of interest, a shortlist of applicants, and then the provision of budget information — to save consultants significant time and effort on proposals. While many hiring organizations are also going through a hard time and working with limited resources, said Wild, “there’s ways that these organizations can make life a little bit easier for consultants that could benefit [them as well] and be a win-win.” And, as employers in the space are increasingly recruiting for short-term contracts, rethinking hiring practices for independent consultants is particularly important, Wong said. “When I’m looking at the Devex job boards and other job boards, the majority of positions being posted — by whatever type of employer — are consultant-based, much more so than [long-term] staff positions,” she said. If employers are shifting their hiring this way, “they really do have to reevaluate how they post those positions, how they evaluate the payment.” She referenced a recent request for proposals, or RFP, from a family foundation, which asked only for a two-page letter of interest to start as a positive example. Some organizations, such as foundations, are better positioned to be flexible, Wong said, while large institutions might find it “tough to shift the culture in terms of how they deal with consultants.” But, she urged employers to remember that when “you’re hiring a consultant, there's a human at the end of that transaction.”