Be Hyper Cautious Before Formalizing a New Job Role

When I was in Boy Scouts, the troop I was in was originally divided into two patrols: the Screech Owls and the Scorpions. Each of those patrols operated as a team and pooled resources, like camping equipment, amongst themselves for the benefit of the individual patrol.

For a while, our troop's numbers were pretty strong, so strong that some of the guys thought it merited the creation of a third patrol. Not everybody was for it, though, some some of the guys also had concerns about sustained growth of the troop.

But hey, we were young guys, so why not go ahead with the risk, especially if we got to choose a new mascot for that patrol?? The Blue Fox patrol was introduced shortly thereafter, and for a short while, the three patrols were balanced pretty well.

Unfortunately, those guys concerned about sustained growth were right for their concerns. Football practice started conflicting with troop meetings, and since football uniforms are much more of a chick magnet than are Boy Scout uniforms, a lot of guys jumped ship. (Side note: Boy Scouts of America - Can you please lengthen those official uniform shorts...? Thx.)

Even though we no longer had the numbers to sustain 3 patrols, those guys in the Blue Fox patrol didn't want to let it go, especially the patrol leader. And it's kind of understandable. Being a patrol leader is cool, so if the Blue Foxes were to dissolve, goodbye patrol leader position. Eventually, we did dissolve the Blue Fox patrol but only after a full year of continued struggle and some adult intervention.

Let's back up for a second. I mentioned the Blue Fox patrol leader didn't want to let go of his position because it was a cool title. I should clarify that though: he didn't actually say that out loud. That's an inference made by me (but probably a pretty fair inference). What he actually gave were a variety of excuses of why the Blue Foxes needed to remain a patrol. Obviously, the excuses only held up for so long before that patrol was finally dissolved.

This is a silly, low stakes story, but there are some big implications here on your business. Justly or unjustly, a person will seek to hold importance to their job role even if that job role is no longer valuable to an organization. 

I wrote a post last week about why it's important to have a CEO mentality, and in that post, I highlighted that well intentioned people try to give weight to their particular work because they've lost that big picture. So yeah, that carries over here. Well intentioned people will fight for their role even if it's no longer valuable.

Here's the worst news: you're going to have one hell of a time trying to get rid of that role. Let's face it: we live in a highly litigious society. Unless you have a lot of concrete evidence on your side, a person can slap you with a wrongful termination suit over just about anything. They can and probably will claim personal damages in the loss of a particular role even if it has nothing at all to do with that particular person's personality or ability. Even if you win the suit, everybody is still a loser for having to pay exorbitant legal fees.

(Oh, and side note, true performers don't tend to stick around in valueless positions anyway, so that person in the valueless position probably isn't adding a whole lot to your bottom line as is. In other words, if they haven't taken any steps to obsolete the position of their own volition, they're probably not good for much else in your company.)

So, how do you combat this? The simple answer is that you meet it at its head. When somebody proposes to formalize a new position, take a step back to see what sort of strategies you might want to approach before moving ahead. Here are a few approaches you can take:

• Test out the position via a time-based contract. Not sure if a position will be valuable long term? Contract it out for a year or so. At the end of that term, re-evaluate to determine whether to formalize that position or do away with it.
• Make it a seasonal employee position. Similar to the first approach, this approach recognizes that more manpower is needed during peak times each year but not all year.
• Make it a part time employee position. This recognizes that there is too much work to be done for current staff to handle but not enough to hire another full time person.
• See if you can sub-contract the work out. If you're working on a special effort that requires a special skill set for a limited amount of time, it'd be imprudent to bring somebody into your company full time. What happens once that work is completed? Sub-contracting is a very popular practice in the business world today and a very viable approach here. 
• Re-prioritize work to allow a current employee to take on new work. What if a current employee is spending 50% of her time on something the company is no longer interested in? The company can stop that work and have her pivot to take on this new chunk of work. 
• Ask if the new position is really needed at all. Sometimes it happens where people campaign for things that really aren't needed. A good time to evaluate this is when people start trying to put pen to paper. You might find that the proposed position isn't needed at all. 

I'm sure there are more things you can do beyond this quick list. The idea here is to get you and your organization to stop and think before saying yes to that new role. It could be detrimental to your company's success in the long term, so be sure to make sure you've given all the approaches above a fair shake before committing to something.

This post originated on my personal blog, @dkhundley, sharing personal development ideas and showcasing my graphic design work. Check it out over at www.dkhundley.com.