A Job Description Isn't the Same Thing as Role Clarity
You gather the team to prepare to hire into an open role. Someone pulls up the job description.
Outgoing employee: Wait. That’s not what I do.
Supervisor: That’s not the role I’ve been supervising.
Team: That’s not the team member we need.
Recruiting: That’s not the role we thought we’d be recruiting for.
Suddenly, a document everyone assumed described the role has created questions in both directions.
For the outgoing employee: Was I doing the right job? Were these things I was supposed to be accountable for? Were there expectations I didn't know about? Was I getting compensated fairly?
For the company: Then what exactly are we replacing? Is the posting right? Are we recruiting for the job as it exists today—or for an old description of it? What are we going to tell candidates? Is the salary appropriately aligned? And once we hire someone, what are we going to tell them they're actually responsible for?
As uncomfortable as that realization may be, nobody necessarily did anything wrong. . It is possible that the job was never well-defined. Or, the job evolved. Priorities changed. Responsibilities accumulated or disappeared. The employee and manager developed an understanding of the role that never made its way back into the document.
The hiring process didn't create the lack of clarity. It exposed it.
The organization could simply update the job description and recruitment posting based on what the outgoing employee says they do—but even that isn't necessarily role clarity. Before backfilling, there's an opportunity to ask the potential kill-switch question:
Do we still need the role?
And if the answer is yes: What do we need this role to be now?
Maybe the role needs to change again. Maybe something the outgoing employee absorbed over five years belongs elsewhere. Maybe the promotion itself changes what the team needs. Maybe something written in the old job description suddenly matters again.
The best place to start? At the beginning, of course.
First, get clear on the role itself. Why is the role still needed? What is the primary mission of the role? What are the top responsibilities? What are the measurable outcomes for the role?
Then, get clear on the best person to fit the role. What level of experience does the role require? What skills must the candidate bring with them, and what can be learned? Does the role require supervisory experience? What attributes will help someone work successfully with this particular team?
Clarity of need. Clarity of role. Clarity of candidate.
Making those decisions before recruiting doesn't guarantee that every hire will work out. But they can help ensure that you're hiring for the work your organization actually needs now—not blindly replacing a person, perpetuating an outdated job description, or discovering halfway through the interview process that everyone had a different role in mind.
The goal isn't to eliminate every hiring risk. It's to make sure you know what you're hiring for before you start looking for the person to do it.
