What Have You Done for Me Lately: Three Ways Government Contractors Ease the Daily Workload

During my first week as a federal contractor, one of my clients asked, “How are you going to make my life easier?” That was her bottom line. If I couldn’t guarantee that we (myself and the team I managed) would ease her pain points and not create any new headaches for her, she wasn’t willing to work with us.

Fortunately, we quickly gained her trust and we did a lot of great work together. We even helped her and her team to earn several “team of the quarter” awards from her leadership.

Here are three ways good federal contractors and consultants can make federal employee’s lives easier each day.

1. We provide expertise that doesn’t exist on staff. Sometimes the federal government needs assistance from an expert in communications, risk analysis, grants management or some other niche topic. Rather than hiring a full-time equivalent to do the job, particularly if the skill is only needed for a limited time, the federal government can hire a contractor to provide that expertise. This allows the government to be more nimble. Rather than having to go through the daunting federal hiring process, the government can quickly bring on a consultant to do the job while being managed by a federal employee.

2. We sweat the details so you don’t have to. It’s our job to make sure all the t’s are crossed and i’s are dotted. It’s not unusual for government leaders to have five hours of back-to-back meetings each day and to receive 100-plus emails while they are in those meetings. They are “drinking from the fire hose” as we would say. That doesn’t leave a lot of extra time for our federal clients to stay on top many of the day-to-day but important tasks, like reporting, ensuring that the communications you send out of our organization are top quality, or staying on top of taskers and data drills.

3. We are your silent partners. Basically, it’s our job is to make our federal clients look good. That could run the gamut of preparing you for a meeting, finding answers to a difficult data call from your leadership or, sometime even ghostwriting a product or report for your approval because you lack the time and/or the specialized knowledge to produce it.

Your federal contractor or consultant should find ways to lighten your daily load. If they aren’t doing these things, then it might be time to think about a change. What are some of the ways a federal contractor could make your life easier?