Should I Fill a Vacant Position?

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I have about 30,000 unemployed IT people jumping up and down and shouting, “Yes, yes, hire someone!? Hire me!”? I like to keep my readers happy, so there’s my strong bias.

Okay, now reality.? First, congratulations on firing the deadweight.? Firing is really difficult, but sometimes necessary, and not all managers have the strength to do so.? I realize it stinks to be fired, but this person earned their firing by not showing up to work.? (And please, I don’t want to hear how the manager should have agreed to accompany the employee to therapy so they could work through the problems the employee was having getting to work.? That is not a manager’s job.? If you can’t show up to work, you should be fired.? If you have a legitimate medical problem, go see your HR department and ask for FMLA or ADA protection.? Otherwise, show up and work.)

You have a team that works well together.? That is an awesome blessing and I can see why you don’t just rush out and hire someone new.? It’s not all that easy to find someone who will be a good fit with the team.? Sure, right now there are undoubtedly a multitude of people with the right technical skills, but you also need someone who can work with the good people you’ve got.

And then there’s the issue of burnout.? You don’t want to abuse your current staff.? It’s far easier to find a job when you have a job, so if your people start to feel overworked, they can certainly jump ship and you don’t want that.? Don’t count on the poor economy to keep them on board.

Now, the financial side of things I can’t address because I can’t possibly judge from here, but you can (hopefully–of course you can’t judge them perfectly without your crystal ball).? But here is my suggestion for solving your dilemma:? Ask your team.

I know my answer will be unpopular with some management types who think that managers should make such decisions and shouldn’t involve the little people.? But, the reality is, your team members are the ones who will have to live with the consequences of this decision.? You could say, “Oh, but I can hire at any time,” but the hiring process is never quick and easy and when it comes to a crisis it will be too late to act.

So, call a team meeting and sit down and discuss what they would like to do.? They may be anxious to get someone new on board.? Or, they may be concerned about the company’s finances and figure having one less person lowers the chances of them being personally affected by loss of revenue to the company.? They may prefer to work a bit more with people they know and trust than they do to take the risk of getting a new loser on board.? They may already feel? overworked and be utterly boggled as to why you’re asking this question–of course you should be hiring someone new.? The reality is, I don’t know and neither do you.

So, ask your team members what their opinion is.? They may even have ideas that you haven’t thought of–such as how to reorganize to best use their existing skills with a suggestion to hire someone with a different skill set than you currently have assigned for the vacancy.

And one other thing to think about–vacancies are often stolen by other groups within a company.? Not saying that that should force you into hiring quickly just to maintain your headcount, it’s just that there is someone else out there that wants your headcount and if you aren’t going to use it, heaven knows they will.? This is not necessarily a bad thing, just a reminder that sometimes you can’t hire later.

If you do decide to hire, let the team members be part of the interview process.? They have to work with this new person.? And don’t get caught up in analysis paralysis, looking for the absolutely perfect person because perfect doesn’t exist.? And please, don’t exclude the unemployed from consideration.? There are numerous unemployed people who would make fantastic employees.? Ones who show up to work every day and actually do work.