TRANSITION

Steven Cesare, Ph.D.

A resourceful business owner from Maryland called me the other day to inform me that his Human Resources Manager just submitted her resignation notice to him. I congratulated him on the good news! As readers of this blog know all too well, I sincerely believe that every employee dismissal is a providential occasion for position upgrade. Let me be clear: I am not speaking ill about the personal qualities of the incumbents taking the next step in their career; I sincerely wish them and their families well, as they move beyond the current employment relationship. As a capitalist, my professional role is to constantly improve the company’s asset value, level of incremental productivity, and likelihood of sustainable success.

Do you ever buy a stock, mutual fund, or precious metal, hoping it will be worth less in the future?

Neither should business owners when it comes to replacing employees.

Building upon that pretext, I expressed optimism and opportunity to the business owner regarding the successor to his current Human Resources Manager. It is not personal. She is making an employment move that she believes is in her best self-interest. All business owners must adopt that same attribution.

It has long been my approach that transitions of certain positions (e.g., Field Department Managers, IT staff, as well as Accounting, Marketing, and Human Resources employees) should be characterized by an aggressive approach to enact a desired future state, rather than relegating oneself to a state of self-pity, regret, or pessimism that the horizon is destined to be perpetually bleak.

Get out of the fetal position, now!

Or sell your company immediately!

As I have suggested to other business owners in similar scenarios, here are some of the recommendations I made to the Maryland business owner. First, begin the recruitment process instantaneously. That alacrity, allows the incumbent to be part of the interview panel. Who knows the actual job better than the incumbent? If the answer is not the incumbent, the incumbent should be terminated at the moment of resignation.

Next, I told the business owner to begin giving immediate transitional tasks to his Human Resources Manager; tasks that will add insight, value, and utility to the company once the successor has been hired. For example, have the incumbent revise the Essential Functions of the Human Resources Manager job description by the end of the day tomorrow. Second, have the incumbent review and revise the on-boarding program that she went through at the time of hire, improving its direct relevance, efficiency, and scope, with the goal of facilitating her successor’s early achievements; this can be done by the end of the day tomorrow.

I suggested the owner require the incumbent to draft 10 Standard Operating Procedures that are most integral to her role in contributing to overall company value. For example: on-boarding new employees, leading human resources investigations, meting out employee discipline, conducting performance reviews, coaching managers, developing training programs, overseeing the workers compensation process, etc. These one-page bulleted documents can easily be done by the end of the work week.

Taking a more macro view, I suggested the business owner direct the Human Resources Manager to develop a Top 10 List of idealistic Start-Stop-Keep items needed to notably improve the quality of the Human Resources Department. And in like fashion, position herself as the omnipotent CEO and develop another wish list of Top 10 Start-Stop-Keep items to reform, improve, and redefine the entire company to the next level. She should present both lists to the executive team by the middle of next week.

As stated above, I ardently believe this type of transition should be applied to all key positions, every time.

If the transition is not maximized, don’t be surprised if the replacement asset will cost more than the incumbent, which means you, the successor, and the company will be worth less in the future than today.

Does that diminished future worth, make your current fetal position that much more comfortable?

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