An engineer hands in their notice and suddenly recruitment becomes urgent. The old job specification comes out, somebody asks for an advert and the business wants the replacement yesterday.
I see this in engineering and manufacturing SMEs. The difficulty is that the document may describe the job as it existed years ago, while the person leaving has quietly accumulated a rather different collection of responsibilities.
You are not necessarily replacing a vacancy. You are trying to work out what the business has become dependent on.
That deserves a proper conversation before anybody starts searching.
Work out who “Joe” has become
I use “Joe” as shorthand for the person who has picked up a bit of everything. They programme machines, sort out production problems, know who to call and keep things moving when the normal process does not.
That is an illustration of a role that has grown over time, not a new case study about a named employee.
If Joe leaves, writing “we need another Joe” does not explain the work. It may not even describe a job one incoming person could reasonably do.
Start by listing the responsibilities, decisions and knowledge the business relies on. Which belong together? Which should sit somewhere else? What has been absorbed because there was nobody available to take it on?
You may need to redesign the role or divide responsibilities. That does not automatically mean three new salaries. It means understanding the work before pretending a like-for-like replacement will solve everything.
Separate the immediate gap from the longer-term plan
What must continue while you recruit? Who can cover it safely and realistically? Which decisions need an experienced person immediately, and which can wait or be developed?
Make that plan explicit. Otherwise the remaining team becomes the temporary solution indefinitely, while the search carries on in the background.
Then look further ahead. Do not wait until somebody announces a leaving date before examining where knowledge and responsibility are concentrated.
A basic SWOT discussion can help: strengths to build on, skills that need development, opportunities for people to progress and the operational risk if key knowledge disappears. Use it to plan the work and support people, not to stereotype who might leave or retire.
For the fuller approach, read my succession-planning article. You do not need to reproduce an entire succession programme inside every vacancy brief.
Write a requirement somebody can realistically meet
The person leaving may have learned the business over many years. An external candidate will not arrive with that same internal knowledge simply because their CV looks similar.
Agree what they must already be able to do, what you can teach and who will provide that support. If nobody has time to train, that changes the appointment you can reasonably make.
Be equally honest about pay, hours, location and responsibility. A narrow requirement on a budget that does not match it will not improve because the advert has been renewed.
I have seen searches produce very little relevant response. That is an observation about particular vacancies, not a reliable percentage for the whole market. Your own response matters more: which requirements are people missing, and what is that telling you about this vacancy?
Do not let previous mistakes freeze the next decision
A bad appointment can make everyone cautious. I understand that. But adding another interview is only useful if you know what information it is supposed to provide.
Agree who decides, which evidence they need and how the stages will answer the important questions. If three people are all testing the same thing, a fourth meeting may only add another diary problem.
That is not an argument for rushing someone through one interview. It is an argument for a process that earns the time it takes.
When a decision is delayed, say what is unresolved and who will resolve it. “We would like to see a few more” needs a reason, not just a nervous feeling.
Challenge assumptions about people
“Graduates will not cope.” “Older candidates are stuck in their ways.” “They will leave in a few years.”
Those are not assessments of the individual in front of you. They are shortcuts that can cause you to miss relevant capability and can raise discrimination concerns.
Assess what somebody can demonstrate, what they want to do and the support the job requires. Do not assume competence, learning ability or future tenure from age or career stage.
Being able to train someone is a genuine business decision. Being unwilling to investigate someone because of a label is something else. Use the applications and interviews guide to plan a consistent assessment.
Give the search an owner and a review point
Somebody needs to keep the brief, feedback and decisions connected. It may be the hiring manager working with HR, an internal recruitment team or a recruiter. It still needs an owner inside the business who can act.
Agree what progress will be reviewed and when. Look at the work done, candidate response, objections and assessment evidence. If the search is not working, decide whether to change the offer, the brief, the support available or the method of finding people.
Do not assume an open role is always costing more than an agency fee. Understand the actual impact: cover, delayed work, pressure on the team and the decisions the vacancy is holding up. That makes for a better commercial discussion than either “recruitment is too expensive” or “we must hire anyone now”.
Plan before the next person leaves
An SME does not need a vast recruitment department to do this. It does need to know what the job is, how the new person will succeed and who can make the decisions.
Start with the pre-job creation checklist and the Employer Recruitment Pack. If specialist agency support is part of the plan, the guide to working with recruitment agencies explains how to organise that relationship.
My job is not simply to throw CVs at an old specification. I want to understand the requirement the business actually has.
If replacing your version of Joe is becoming a headache, let’s have that conversation before the search becomes another emergency.