Replacing Key Staff

Our small management consultancy firm recently underwent a key staff change whereby a long standing employee left and the process of finding a replacement for them began.

This particular key employee had been working for us since starting the business and was well versed in the operations, products and services which our company offered. Indeed they had thought up and instigated many of the systems by which we now operated and which made us an efficient organisation.

Finding a replacement for this key member of staff was difficult in the sense that for the first time we had to carry out a detailed analysis of what they actually did and how they did it. Then secondly, the questions concerning how closer a replica to the current employee should be the new person be began to surface.

It was here that the difficulty really started as there were not only operational aspects to consider. There were also unique personality traits and other idiosyncrasies which made the current key staff member good at their job and that a standard replacement who looked good on paper would not necessarily be able to replicate.

It was recognised that the change represented an opportunity to actually improve operating systems through having a set of new eyes focus on the business in a way that an incumbent person would not be able to view.

After interviewing several potential candidates we felt that we were no closer to discerning which of the people we saw would make an appropriate replacement to our current golden employee.

Those experienced with operating in medium to high staff turnover businesses might have fine-tuned their selection and recruitment processes to a degree that they can identify individuals who can fill key staff positions.

I know that we struggled and in the end essentially had to make educated guesses as to who might be suitable.

Our experience, to be honest was not a totally comfortable one and we would welcome comments from other small businesses who might have undergone similar situations. They must be a more scientific means of conducting an exercise to replace key staff.