Identifying business critical roles for your company’s success is a vital part of hiring the best talent and should form a key element in your hiring strategy. But what is a business-critical role, and how can you recognise one?
Chances are, your company’s identification of this type of role relies on a gut-feel assessment, the role’s uniqueness, or whether it commands a high salary. But, this doesn’t always hold true.
What is a Business Critical Role?
Business critical roles can be summarised as the ones which add the most value and have the greatest strategic impact in a company. They aren’t necessarily the ones which are hardest to fill, demand the highest salary, or even those at C-level. In fact, depending on the type of company, the most business-critical role in an organisation may be a sales manager or a key account manager.
Here’s How to Identify Business Critical Roles in an Organisation
It’s crucial to know where these roles are in your company as your talent strategy should centre around them. They should command the most investment in terms of resources and people, frequent learning and development assessments, and effective management. Larger investment in business-critical roles enhances the organisation’s performance, contributes to the overall objectives, and provides a competitive advantage.
Unfortunately there’s no ‘one size fits all’ solution to identifying which roles are critical; just as every company is different, so are their needs. Each organisation therefore has to assess this for themselves, but there are common markers to look out for.
How to Manage These Roles?
Moving away from the mindset of hiring A-players for every role isn’t easy. But when you begin to think in terms of A-positions it becomes easier to identify and manage business-critical hiring. It’s thought that fewer than 20% of roles in a company will be business-critical, but they create the majority of value for the company.
Take tech behemoth Apple as an example. Their USP and competitive differentiator is that they’re innovative, creative, and at the forefront of consumer technology.
So, who are the business critical people responsible for keeping Apple in this position? Which role would have the biggest cost or reputational impact if mistakes were made? Where would production/sales be most affected by a vacancy? Most likely by Apple’s research engineers who are coming up with the next iPhone and safeguarding Apple’s future.
Is it safe to say that CEO Tim Cook is less business-critical to Apple’s success than these engineers?
Business Critical Workers Know Their Value
If you don’t recognise what your key positions are, that doesn’t mean the people in them won’t. Employees will realise how integral their position is and be aware if it’s not valued. Conversely, if you’re hiring an experienced person to do a business critical role, they’ll also be aware of their importance.
If you don’t make it clear that you have this understanding, the candidate will pick up on this. Poor candidate experience and engagement are key factors in turning prospects away from a role, so this could be problematic.
By identifying business critical roles, you can convey the role’s value to candidates and improve their experience.
Retaining A-position employees who continually provide value creation and strategic impact is very important, particularly because they’re likely the most expensive to replace. That said, first you’ve got to find them and hire them!
Bringing in a Recruitment Partner
If you want the right people to fill your business critical roles, you’re going to need the top talent in the market. But these people are rarely out of work. In-demand talent is likely doing really well at their current organisation, smashing their targets, and have no reason to be actively on the job market.
That means you’re going to want to engage with them. And not all business have that time. Which is why you might want to think about bringing in a recruitment partner who has the expertise and time to find the right people for these key roles.
It stands to reason that finding the right people to fill an A-position isn’t easy. But that’s where we come in. Solutions Driven has specialised in sourcing business-critical hires for global organisations for 20 years. Our unique 6S Process is tailor-made for crucial employees, and our 12-month guarantee means you’re never left without a plan.
