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Replacing a Talented Employee – Recruiting Emergency or Opportunity?
You feared this would happen. Your most talented employee has decided to leave the organization for an exciting role elsewhere. Even though you’ve lost sleep thinking about this potential scenario, you feel unprepared.
The typical (and understandable) reaction is to fire up the recruiting machine immediately. Let’s get the new person on board as soon as possible… maybe even in time for the outgoing and incoming employees to cross paths (which hardly ever happens). Or maybe we can make a counter-offer to convince the employee to stay (which hardly ever works… in fact, almost never… but that will be a different, future article).
Your First Step
I offer one word of advice – STOP! Everything will be okay. It might not be easy or fun, but it will be okay. Your leadership will be tested and the organization will be watching. Now is when you show them how you use your strategic thinking skills to work through a difficult situation.
After a few deep breaths, think about the situation as an opportunity. Think about what possibilities this may open for the organization. Gather a small number of people who are close to your organization and talk through a few key questions. (By the way, it typically does not make sense to have the departing employee in the conversation.)
Questions to consider:
1. What would we do if we didn’t replace the employee?
This always needs to be the first question. But not replacing someone should not be the default answer, because this is probably not a good time to be penny wise and pound foolish. However, talking through the scenario will help distinguish the core outcomes of the role. As time goes on, we all hang on to tasks that no longer add the same value as when they were started. Now is the time to strip the role down to the essentials and add to it new critical expectations. If you determine that the position is no longer needed, then you can save the organization some money or divert the FTE elsewhere.
2. Is there a better way to utilize the FTE?
Where else in the organization is success inhibited because of FTE constraint? Every open position should be viewed as an asset that resides at the organization level and not the department level. As hard as it may be, thinking broadly about “transferring” the FTE to another area may be the best solution. But be careful to distinguish an FTE-constrained department from one that suffers from poor performance. Don’t throw FTE at an underperforming department. Fix the underperforming part.
3. If we spent a little more to upgrade the position, what different outcomes could that produce?
If we went “up-market” with our new hire, what would that bring to the organization? Would we be more strategic? Execute more effectively? Push more out the door? Handle projects more efficiently? And what is that worth to us?
4. Is there a current employee who could stretch into the role?
In many cases, key contributors who remain in the same role for long periods of time block the development of others. Open positions that are conducive to accelerating development are like gold – sometimes called “rocket jobs” because of the trajectory of incumbents’ careers. If this is one of them, then think about who you could move into the role AND think about the support they will need to be successful. Maybe the role could be tweaked a little to accommodate the stretch candidate.
Finally, Go Forth and Lead
When a talented employee decides to leave your organization, treating the situation as an emergency can prevent us from seeing the opportunity. When that happens, slow down, step back, and ask a few questions. Your organization will become stronger for it.
Thoughtful piece about a common HR issue. So often resignations result in a knee jerk response and the opportunity created by the vacancy is missed. Nice framework for a more appropriate response!
Thanks John. There’s a lot of pressure in the environment to move fast. Sometimes that’s not the best approach.