Author: Debbie Fennell

By Linda Thompson, MHSA

When an employee leaves an organization, it is commonly left open, or posted internally, externally, or both. But in practice there are several other choices: the role can be eliminated, the position may be intentionally left unfilled, or the responsibilities of the role can be outsourced, assigned to an existing position, or divided across existing roles. 

This blog post explores the option of assigning the responsibilities to another employee or dividing the tasks and responsibilities across existing roles. There are advantages and challenges for organizations as well as for individual employees.

Employees in these options may have the advantage of:

• experiencing growth opportunities and gaining new skills that increase their marketability,
• earning new credentials and/or certifications,
• building their own internal and external professional networks,
• increasing credibility and influence within the organization and/or field,
• receiving compensation increases, and
• gaining work satisfaction and motivation from the employer’s confidence in their ability to assume new responsibilities. 

There are several organizational advantages as well when assigning or dividing a role to existing staff.

• An existing employee may not need employee orientation, policy training, or the new employee paperwork. There may even be less training involved if the employee already has some familiarity with the role requirements.
• Productivity downtime when an employee leaves may be minimized or eliminated when the organization has one or more people on board who are able to quickly be assigned. 
• When best practices are followed, providing employees with growth opportunities may lead to a more highly-engaged and satisfied workforce.  
• Labor expenses may be reduced.  Although reassigning role responsibilities to one or more people may include an increase in compensation, the increase is not likely to equal the cost of fully compensating a dedicated, full-time employee. 

Considering the advantages to both the employee and the organization, this option may look like an evident solution, yet we can probably all think of scenarios where it didn’t turn out well. 

Under some conditions an employee could face significant challenges when an employer assigns new responsibilities to an existing full-time role.  For example, the employee could experience:

• overwhelm and increased stress,
• a lack of clarity about job expectations and priorities,
• challenges in utilizing PTO benefits due to workload and lack of coverage while away, and
• perceptions of being taken for granted, treated unfairly, or used.

When reassignments don’t work well for employees, there are usually related organizational challenges. Disadvantages to organizations may include:

• challenges covering necessary tasks and processes when a person covering multiple roles utilizes PTO benefits, and
• a disengaged team that is more prone to burnout if assigning to the wrong person for the wrong reasons. With burnout comes increased health care costs, reduced productivity, increased personnel and HR issues. Eventually increased turnover is the result.   

Best practices can be used to better ensure a positive outcome for employees and organizations when a vacant role is reassigned. One clear approach is to foster a strengths-based organizational culture. In organizations with such a culture, productivity is 22% higher and employees are less likely to quit.* Creating a strengths-based culture requires attention to the general and individual needs of employees. It means assigning tasks and opportunities that match the person’s work style and motivations. Organizations can better understand employee strengths, motivators, and ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving through a number of assessments designed for this purpose. Examples include DiSC, CliftonStrength, and Kolbe assessments. 

Consider the following best practices when reassigning the responsibilities of a vacated role:  

• Know which team members are motivated by additional responsibility or are looking for growth opportunities. Offer, rather than dictate, the reassignment.  Allow time for the employee to consider the role and to ask questions. 
• Position the reassignment as an opportunity or promotion, highlighting the benefits to the employee. 
• Be willing to increase compensation for additional responsibility. Increased compensation speaks to appreciation and recognition. For some, it is a strong motivator. 
• Be clear about the new role and priorities in relation to the employee’s current role. Revise or rewrite existing job descriptions to identify what has changed in the employee’s responsibilities.  
• Consider cross-training other appropriate staff to cover essential responsibilities while employees are away on personal time.
• Act quickly. Followers need stability from their leaders. The best practices described lose impact when an organization drags its feet by postponing decisions about the vacated position, neglecting to schedule follow up discussions, delaying the revisions needed to job descriptions, and projecting uncertainty regarding compensation. 

When organizations are in tune with the skill sets and growth aspirations of their workforce, permanently assigning tasks associated with a vacant role rather than hiring new staff may be a win-win solution for all.

* Reference: https://hbr.org/2013/07/employee-engagement-does-more 

Linda Thompson, MHSA
Executive Coach
Gallup Certified CliftonStrengths Coach
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