What Are You Hiring the Construction and Relocation Consultant to Do?

The value of outside expertise depends on the problem the owner expects it to solve.

Construction and relocation consultants can play very different roles on a capital project.

Some provide specialized technical expertise. Some manage a particular workstream. Some supplement an internal team that does not have enough capacity. Others become the person connecting design, construction, furniture, technology, operations and the move itself.

That makes the first question surprisingly important:

What are we actually hiring this consultant to do?

If the answer is simply, “We need some help,” the assignment probably needs more definition.

Start With the Gap

Before selecting a consultant, I would look at the owner’s existing team.

• Who is already managing the project?
• What expertise exists internally?
• How much time can those people realistically devote to the work?
• Where are the decisions getting stuck?
• What responsibilities currently have no clear owner?

The answers begin to define the consulting assignment.

A company with an experienced internal real estate team may need a specialist for a particular issue. Another organization may have capable facilities and finance people but nobody with the time or experience to coordinate a major construction and relocation program.

Those are very different needs.

Define What Success Looks Like

A consultant can be extremely busy without necessarily solving the problem the owner hired them to solve.

The assignment should establish what the consultant owns, where the consultant advises, who retains decision authority and how the consultant interacts with the rest of the project team.

For a construction and relocation assignment, that might include coordinating the design and construction schedule with furniture, technology, operational readiness and the physical move.

On another project, the consultant may be there primarily to challenge cost, monitor schedule, manage vendors or provide specialized expertise the organization does not maintain internally.

The scope should reflect the actual gap.

Construction and Relocation Have to Connect

One reason these assignments can become complicated is that construction and relocation are closely related but often managed as separate activities.

The construction team may be focused on substantial completion.

The relocation team is thinking about when people, equipment, records, furniture and technology can actually move.

The business is concerned with when operations can begin in the new space.

Those dates may sound similar in a meeting. They are not automatically the same date.

Someone needs to understand how they connect.

A construction and relocation consultant can be particularly valuable when that coordination does not naturally belong to anyone else on the owner’s team.

How Do You Measure the Value?

Consulting value is sometimes easy to quantify.

A consultant may identify a procurement saving, prevent a change order, reduce moving costs, recover schedule or avoid unnecessary work.

Other benefits are harder to put into a spreadsheet.

A problem identified before construction may never become a change order.

A responsibility clarified early may prevent weeks of confusion.

A move sequence tested before move weekend may prevent operational disruption.

A difficult issue raised while alternatives are still available may save considerably more than the consultant’s fee without ever appearing as a line labeled “savings.”

That does not mean the value should be accepted on faith. The owner should still be able to explain what the consultant is responsible for and what the organization expects to gain from the engagement.

Bring the Consultant in Early Enough to Matter

Timing matters too.

If the consultant is expected to influence planning, scope, procurement, sequencing or relocation strategy, bringing that person in after those decisions have already been made limits what they can contribute.

Early involvement also gives the consultant time to understand the business, the project team and the constraints before problems become urgent.

That is particularly important when the consultant is expected to bridge multiple groups inside the organization.

Hire for the Problem You Actually Have

The title on the proposal matters less than the assignment behind it.

Before engaging a construction and relocation consultant, I would want the owner to be able to complete one sentence:

We are hiring this consultant because we need someone to ________.

If that blank cannot be filled in clearly, the scope probably is not ready.

Once it can, selecting the right expertise, establishing responsibilities and evaluating the consultant’s performance become considerably easier.

Leadership Takeaway: Define the gap before defining the consulting scope. A construction and relocation consultant creates the most value when the owner is clear about the responsibility being assigned, the decisions the consultant will support and the outcome the organization expects.