Your employee is leaving. Should you recruit for the same role again?

An employee announces their departure. Who will take over their clients? How will you divide the work? And how will you find a replacement quickly?
Often, the existing job description is retrieved, updated slightly and published again. Understandably so: the work continues, and business continuity needs to be maintained.
Still, it is worth taking a moment to consider the role itself first. Does your business still need the same profile as it did when you last recruited for this position?
 

What did the job description say, and what happens in practice today?

A role rarely stays the same for years. New clients come on board, the strategy changes and tasks shift. An employee takes on additional responsibilities because they are good at them, or simply because someone needs to do them.

After a few years, there can be a considerable gap between the original job description and the day-to-day work.

When someone leaves, that gap becomes visible. Some tasks turn out not to be documented anywhere. Others might be better assigned to a colleague or another department. And there may be needs for which no one has had clear responsibility until now.

This also makes a departure a useful opportunity to consider how you want to shape the role.

Take an account manager who has spent years building strong relationships with existing clients. If your business now wants to focus on developing new markets, you may need someone who also enjoys prospecting and opening new doors. That calls for a different emphasis in the profile you seek and in your selection interviews.

Or consider a manager who sets the strategy, leads the team and still handles a substantial amount of operational work themselves. Do you expect their successor to take on that entire workload? Is that realistic? Or should the responsibilities be divided differently?

What does your organisation need?

The departing employee can provide a clear picture of what the role involves today. But you also need to look ahead: what do you want to achieve over the coming years, and what contribution do you expect from your new colleague?

A few questions can help make those expectations more concrete:

• What should this person achieve in their first year?
• Which responsibilities belong to the role?
• Which tasks could be handled elsewhere in the team?
• What knowledge or skills are currently missing?
• How much authority will the new employee have to make decisions?

This also helps clarify which experience is essential and where you can be open to a different profile from the one you initially had in mind.

How C-Target helps

We have held commercial, management and operational roles ourselves. We know what it means to recruit people, lead a team and be accountable for results. We bring that experience to our conversations with clients when discussing a vacancy.

For example, when a role includes a wide range of responsibilities, we ask further questions. What takes priority? How will the new employee’s performance be assessed? And are those expectations consistent with the level of experience you are looking for, the support you can provide and the decision-making authority you can offer?

We also look at the skills already present in the team. Perhaps you primarily need someone who can bring structure, develop new clients or provide stronger day-to-day support to team members.

Together, we translate those needs into a clear job description and focused selection criteria. Sometimes, this confirms the profile you already had in mind. Sometimes, a different approach to the role turns out to be a better fit for your plans.

Our experience in management, recruitment and team development helps us work through those considerations with you.

A successful search starts with a clear brief

When someone leaves, you want to move quickly. Discussing the role thoroughly beforehand allows you to focus your search and explain clearly to candidates what you expect from them.

It also provides direction during the selection process: you know which experience to assess, which questions to ask and which expectations to agree on.

Is someone leaving your organisation? Or are you unsure how best to define a new position? We would be happy to explore with you which role and profile your business needs.

Contact us at info@c-target.be.