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Hiring an internal Business Improvement (BI) team might seem like the smart move.
You get a dedicated group focused on continuous improvement, lean practices, and operational efficiency. But beneath the surface, the real cost of building and running an in-house BI team is much higher than most leaders expect.
Before you start posting job ads, here’s what you need to know.
1. Salaries Are Just the Beginning
A typical business improvement hire—especially one with Lean Six Sigma or transformation experience—commands a competitive salary.
But that’s not all. Add:
- Benefits and pensions
- Bonuses and incentives
- Paid time off
- Training and certifications
- HR, IT, and admin support
- Equipment and software access
💰 What looks like a £70,000 hire can easily cost £100,000+ per year, per person.
2. Long Ramp-Up Time
Internal teams take time to build and even more time to become productive.
You’ll spend weeks:
- Hiring
- Onboarding
- Training
- Setting up systems
- Aligning them with departments
⏳ According to Gallup, it takes 3–6 months for new hires to reach full productivity. That’s time you may not have.
3. Experience Gaps Are Common
Process improvement is complex.
Many internal hires, especially junior or mid-level, lack real-world delivery experience across industries or project types. They may understand frameworks but struggle with:
- Change resistance
- Executive alignment
- Cross-functional delivery
- High-stakes transformation projects
📉 As a result, internal teams often become support staff—not drivers of change.
4. Internal Politics and Prioritisation Issues
In-house teams are often pulled in different directions by multiple departments.
That means:
- Priorities shift mid-project
- Leadership lacks alignment
- Internal teams lose authority
- Projects get watered down or delayed
🚫 Unlike external consultants, internal teams often lack the independence to challenge leadership or push back on inefficiencies.
5. Turnover Risk and Knowledge Loss
Internal staff leave. And when they do, so does all the project history, insights, and process documentation—unless systems are airtight (they rarely are).
📉 Replacing improvement talent can take 60–90 days, and training replacements adds even more time and cost.
6. You Still Need Outside Help Anyway
Most in-house teams eventually hit limitations:
- A complex transformation project
- A system upgrade requiring external knowledge
- A need for speed beyond internal bandwidth
That’s when companies turn to external specialists anyway—but now they’ve already absorbed the full cost of an internal team too.
Final Thought
Hiring an internal Business Improvement team may look cheaper on paper—but the hidden costs add up fast.
You get:
- Slower delivery
- Higher long-term costs
- Skill and experience gaps
- Greater risk if priorities shift
One experienced consultant can often deliver more value, faster, with far fewer costs attached.
