I offer one word of advice \u2013 STOP<\/strong>! 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<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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.)<\/p>\n

Questions to consider:<\/h2>\n

1. What would we do if we didn\u2019t replace the employee?<\/h3>\n

This always needs to be the first question. But not replacing someone should not be the default answer<\/strong>, 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.<\/p>\n

2. Is there a better way to utilize the FTE?<\/h3>\n

Where else in the organization is success inhibited because of FTE constraint?<\/strong> 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 \u201ctransferring\u201d 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\u2019t throw FTE at an underperforming department. Fix the underperforming part.<\/strong><\/p>\n

3. If we spent a little more to upgrade the position, what different outcomes could that produce?<\/h3>\n

If we went \u201cup-market\u201d with our new hire, what would that bring to the organization?<\/strong> Would we be more strategic? Execute more effectively? Push more out the door? Handle projects more efficiently? And what is that worth to us?<\/p>\n

4. Is there a current employee who could stretch into the role?<\/h3>\n

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<\/strong> \u2013 sometimes called \u201crocket jobs\u201d because of the trajectory of incumbents\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

Finally, Go Forth and Lead<\/h3>\n

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<\/strong>. Your organization will become stronger for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You feared this would happen. Your most talented employee has decided to leave the organization for an exciting role elsewhere. The typical (and understandable) reaction is to fire up the recruiting machine immediately. STOP! This article encourages you to view the situation more strategically. It provides a framework of four key questions for thinking through ways the situation can be leveraged to produce the best outcome for the organization. This loss can be an opportunity if seized and managed appropriately. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[37,36],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":848,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682\/revisions\/848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}