President Obama is having this exact dilemma right now with the unexpected death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The process to replace Justice Scalia is just beginning and is guaranteed to be the subject of many headlines before the November election comes to a close. Even if you don’t have to get the entire Senate to sign off on a new hire to replace a key employee in your organization, it can be one of the most difficult things you have to do in a calendar year. So here are five strategies to put in place when you have to replace one of your key employees.
1.Understand their actual responsibilities
Notice that we are not asking you to recite this person’s job title, rather, we are asking you to understand what they actually do. Their job title and what they’re responsible for in a day may not align at all. Some of the most valuable individuals in an organization do not have a fancy title, and some of the people with the fanciest titles roll up their sleeves and work on the business every day. When you’re starting to embark on a path to figure out what kind of person you need to handle the responsibilities of the exiting person, don’t take a 30,000 foot overview approach to understanding what they do for your company. If you only get a high level understanding of what they do, you’re unlikely to find a new person who has the right kind of skills to pick up where they’re leaving off. Dig in, ask the questions, and determine if you have anyone on your current staff that would excel at parts of this person’s job. The fewer things you have to train a new person to do, the easier the transition will be for the new person, and the more seamless the adjustment to life without the key employee will be.
2. Understand their actual role
This is related to point number one. Their job title and description might say that they work in your finance department. However, within the finance department they are in charge of team morale, setting up happy hours, recognizing outstanding performance, mentoring two younger team members and are active on three other internal committees that meet regularly to work interdepartmentally to streamline department activities and meet company goals and objectives. See, the finance title is just part of the story. How many other people and departments are going to be affected by their departure? This gets at the heart of all the intangible stuff that goes beyond the job description that separates the good employees from the great employees. In understanding the employee’s “actual” role you will make sure not to miss things that are getting done that are outside of the job responsibilities.
3. Determine what the key stakeholders need from a replacement
Once you understand all of the obvious and not-so-obvious aspects of what your key employee does, you can start figuring out how many people it might take to take on the responsibilities you’re used to seeing handled by one person. When you’re assessing how your staff handles its workload and who might be suited to take on additional responsibilities, don’t assume that because something falls under a person’s job description they’re the one that is actually completing the tasks. There could be some swapping of responsibility that has developed on the team in favor of one person’s inclination toward completing a task more efficiently and accurately. If you’re meeting with everyone on your team on a weekly basis, this task is going to be easier than it would be for the average manager, and you’ll be able to start working on a job description ASAP. After all, if you have the fortune to have two or more weeks to hire a new person or people, you’ll be able to start interviews shortly, and train your current staff on areas they might be able to take over.
4. Do you actually need a replacement?
After your analysis, you should be able to determine if you need to hire anyone at all. Or, if you do need to hire someone new, you might be able to hire someone at a more junior level than the person that’s leaving which will help your bottom line. With a more specific job description, and fewer job requirements, you should be able to have a recruiter or job ad attract more of the right candidate.
5. Onboarding (the good, the bad and the non-existent)
If you have the option of convincing your key employee to stay long enough to help train in or mentor your new employee(s), your onboarding process will be easier and likely take less time. Additionally, you’ll have the experienced person devoting a lot of their remaining time and energy toward training. There likely is not a better employee to show your new employee(s) the ropes. Studies have shown that how well onboarding is completed is directly correlated to how long and how happy a new employee ultimately is. If you are unable to onboard with the employee that is leaving, try to get your employees that have been trained in on the exiting employee’s responsibilities to train in your new employee(s).
We know how painful it is to lose one of your key employees, but if you follow these strategies after you find out about their departure, your process to replace them will not only take less time, you’re more likely to find the right person or people to take over for them. The last thing you’d want to do is go through the hiring process only to find out that the person you selected isn’t the best person for the job.