They've been a huge asset on your project - but how will things go once they're gone?  While they’re working with your team, a financial consultant is available to share all of their knowledge, insight and expertise in an organic way, as the work progresses. Their contributions to your bench strength are invaluable. But, once the engagement is over and you’ve parted ways, you may be left feeling a little naked without all that topnotch financial talent watching your back. Having some knowledge retention strategies for a financial consultant's work is a consideration you need to plan for at the outset. Few people think this through until it’s too late, but with a little foresight and planning you can ensure that legacy of knowledge stays with your company even after they’re gone. Here, we present several strategies you can deploy to reap ongoing benefit from a financial consultant’s involvement with your team.

‍1. Keep your top performers in communication with your consultant.

‍Consistent reporting and communication lines between your most motivated, hard working permanent staff and your financial consultant will give your staff plenty of opportunity to glean invaluable lessons and knowledge from your financial professional. It will help them keep important initiatives on track and eliminate roadblocks that might slow them down.

‍2. Ask your financial consultant to mentor one or more of your regular team members.

‍Many financial consultants started out with mentors of their own. Take advantage of their predisposition toward mentoring and ask if, informally, they can work closely with you or someone else on your team to show you about things like best practices, professional tips and commonly used resources they tap into for their work. Tell your staff members about the mentoring opportunity, and what kinds of strengths they can expect to achieve as a result. Whether it’s learning the basic roles and function of a CFO from an interim executive, or how to analyze the numbers for an investor presentation, make sure that a permanent set of eyes and ears can absorb this critical knowledge and understand all its moving parts.

3. Convene your team to meet with the consultant at regular intervals during the life of the project.

‍Your team will have the opportunity to analyze project milestones and discuss progress toward the goals in your scope of work. Seeing how a project comes together in real time can educate raise everyone’s awareness and knowledge level.

‍4. Include an exit training session with your consultant before they leave.

‍As your project comes to a close with the consultant, ask the consultant for some training on how to use their work product. If you hired a consultant to develop a complex financial model, say, be sure they go over all its sections with you. You may need some terminology defined, formulas explained, etc. Don’t let them go until you have a full intuitive understanding of their work product. If you take these precautions, parting with your financial consultant will leave you a little smarter and better prepared for what lies down the road. Need to hire some top talent now? It's simple to sign up and post your project with Graphite. Or, browse our gallery of financial and other talented professionals.