June 20, 2024
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An open position does not always represent the same business need. Sometimes a company is replacing an employee who left. Other times, it is adding headcount because demand or operational needs have increased.
Both situations lead to recruiting, but the decisions behind them should be different.
When an employee leaves, the easiest response is to post the existing job description. That may also be a missed opportunity. A role can change significantly while one person holds it. Software may automate part of the workload, responsibilities may shift between departments, or certain tasks may become more important. Before recruiting a replacement, managers should examine what the departing employee actually did and what the business needs from the next person.
This review may lead to a different job description, seniority level, or skill requirement. In some cases, the work can be redistributed internally rather than filled with another full-time employee. Replacement hiring also has a clearer operational baseline. Managers can look at the previous employee's workload, performance expectations, compensation, and contribution when deciding what the next hire should accomplish.
Growth hiring introduces a different question: is there enough sustained demand to justify another position?
A busy month alone may not provide the answer. Managers should examine whether workloads have increased consistently and whether existing employees are regularly working at or near capacity. Revenue trends and customer demand can provide additional evidence.
For revenue-producing positions, companies can also estimate how long it will take before the new hire contributes financially. A sales representative, for example, may require months of onboarding and pipeline development before generating meaningful revenue. Businesses using sales recruiting services still need realistic expectations for that ramp-up period when building a hiring plan.
Replacement hiring usually begins with an existing role, even if that role needs revision. Growth hiring may require the company to define responsibilities it has never formally assigned before.
This can create ambiguity. A growing business might know that its sales department needs help without knowing whether it needs another salesperson, a sales operations employee, or an account manager.
Looking at where work is accumulating can clarify the decision. If salespeople are spending large portions of their week handling administrative tasks, adding another salesperson may leave the underlying bottleneck untouched.
A replacement hire can often be evaluated against established expectations. Growth hires need additional scrutiny because the company is increasing its total cost structure.
Managers should define what improvement justified the position before recruiting begins. Depending on the role, that might involve increased production capacity, shorter response times, higher sales volume, or fewer delays.
Hiring decisions become more useful when companies separate the need to restore capacity from the desire to create additional capacity. Replacement hiring provides a chance to reconsider an existing position, while growth hiring requires evidence that another role will solve a sustained business need. Look over the infographic below to learn more.
Replacement hiring restores capacity the business has lost when someone leaves. Growth hiring adds capacity the business has never had. Both produce a vacancy, but the reasoning and the evidence behind each are different.
Usually not without reviewing it. Roles drift while one person holds them, as software absorbs tasks and responsibilities move between departments. Check what the departing person actually did before advertising.
Look for sustained rather than momentary demand. Consistently rising workloads, staff regularly working at capacity, and supporting revenue or customer trends make a stronger case than one unusually busy month.
Because revenue-generating roles rarely contribute immediately. A sales hire may need months of onboarding and pipeline building first, and a plan that assumes instant contribution will look like underperformance.
Define the improvement that justified the role before recruitment starts, whether that is production capacity, response times, sales volume or fewer delays. Growth hires warrant extra scrutiny because they raise the total cost base.
