What Are the Job Responsibilities of a Business Process Consultant?

A business process consultant is someone that designs clients’ business processes to achieve business goals. These consultants work in different fields such as sales and marketing, human resources, IT, etc.

Hiring a consultant can have many positive results for your business but it's best to know what they can help with so you'll utilize them properly. Keep reading for more information about the role and responsibilities of a business process consultant. 

What Are Key Responsibilities of a Business Process Consultant?

Business consultants work in several different fields─ but they have the same general tasks and responsibilities. Below are the 5 key responsibilities of business process consultants. 

1. Analyze Current Processes

One of the major tasks a business process consultant is often hired to fulfill is to analyze and review current business processes. Clients often need to establish the costs and benefits of their current business processes and determine whether there are better ways to achieve their goals. To succeed at this task, the consultant must know how to work with people and elicit support.

After all, they'll need the help of the client’s employees to understand the client’s processes. The employees are also best placed to help the consultant identify root causes for any operational problems and solutions to improve productivity and cut waste. 

2. Design Innovative Business Processes

Another important responsibility consultants have is to come up with innovative business processes to help improve their clients’ profitability. Often, companies that are in a rut and out of improvement ideas are the ones that hire consultants to bring in a fresh way of thinking. As outsiders, consultants must come up with out-of-the-box thinking to shake up the status quo and inject new energy into an organization. 

3. Gather and Analyze Data

To review a client’s processes, a business process consultant must know how to gather and analyze data. They will need to collect and review financial and non-financial client information such as operational costs, sales revenue figures, employee engagement, etc.

They use both qualitative and quantitative methods to gather and analyze company data. So, a successful consultant will have great interviewing and observation skills. They will also have an advantage if they know how to use spreadsheets and statistical software programs like SPSS. 

4. Prepare and Present Reports

Business processes consultants are also responsible for preparing and presenting findings concerning business process investigations. They must know how to write and present recommendations for business process improvements that will increase a client’s productivity and revenue.

The data gathered from a business process investigation will probably be too raw and complicated for the leadership to process. So it's the job of the consultant to analyze and organize the data into a clear and convincing report. 

5. Manage and Follow Up on Business Process Improvements

If a client decides to adopt new business processes, the consultant may need to manage the process change. Employees often find it hard to change how they do things so the consultant will need to change management skills. Note that employees that helped with the process improvements will tend to be less resistant to any process changes.

The consultant will need to create metrics and audit processes to measure the effectiveness of new business processes. They must also schedule regular meetings with key stakeholders. This is to discuss any issues with the new processes and share ideas and solutions. 

Qualifications and Skills Required

So, what qualifications and skills do companies look for when hiring a business process consultant? Well, university education in a relevant field is a must. Consultants need at least a Bachelor's degree but a Master’s or Doctorate qualification is generally preferred. Another qualification that a consultant must have is a certification for a worldly recognized process such as Six Sigma or Business Process Management (BPM). 

Successful business consultants also need actual work experience in their field of work. For example, a business process systems consultant should have IT experience. Similarly, anyone interested in HR business process consulting should have worked as an HR manager or director for a few years.

Business process consultants are also required to have excellent written and verbal communication skills. This will allow them to conduct research, write reports and present their findings to top leadership. One must also have a strong ability to form and maintain cross-functional relationships. This skill will enable the consultant to get organizational buy-in for suggested process improvements. 

Consider Hiring a Business Process Consultant

Companies hire a business process consultant to help them improve or redesign their processes to achieve business goals. For a consultant to succeed at their main task, they often must conduct in-depth research into the company’s current processes to identify areas for improvement.

As such, a consultant needs to have a university degree and a few years of management experience in their field of choice. Successful consultants also have great communication and teamwork skills. These enable them to get support and buy-in for their process improvement ideas.

If you're looking to bring systems and processes up to date in your business, contact us to see how we can help.