# The Vacancy That Should Never Have Been Advertised

- Link: https://govelfraser.com/the-vacancy-that-should-never-have-been-advertised/
- Published: 2026-10-05T09:00:00+02:00
- Author: Blessing Kemlo

**By Blessing Kemlo | Govel Fraser**

_Before you spend money searching for a person, make sure you understand the problem
you are asking that person to solve._

A vacancy appears. The workload is rising, a team is struggling or an employee has
left. The immediate response is familiar: update the job description, approve the
budget and advertise.

Sometimes that is exactly the right decision. Organisations need new skills, additional
capacity and fresh perspectives. But a vacancy can also be the visible symptom of
a problem that recruitment alone will not solve.

The role may have accumulated responsibilities from several different jobs. The 
process may contain avoidable rework. Decisions may be delayed because authority
is unclear. Existing employees may have relevant capabilities that are not being
used. Or the job description may describe a wish list rather than the work that 
genuinely needs to be done.

## Recruitment is a decision—not the diagnosis

When a business starts with the assumption that it needs a person, it can overlook
other options. A new hire may enter a poorly designed role, inherit the same bottlenecks
and eventually be judged against outcomes they cannot control.

This is not an argument to avoid hiring or to expect existing employees to absorb
unlimited work. It is an argument for diagnosing the requirement before choosing
the intervention.

## Six questions to ask before advertising

 1. **What business outcome is failing?** Describe the operational problem without 
    using a job title as the answer.
 2. **What work must actually be done?** Separate essential responsibilities from legacy
    tasks, duplicated work and preferences that have accumulated over time.
 3. **Is the workload persistent and evidenced?** Review demand, volumes, backlogs,
    service expectations and capacity rather than relying on a single busy period.
 4. **Could the work be redesigned?** Consider process simplification, clearer decision
    rights, better handovers or the removal of unnecessary steps.
 5. **Is the capability already present?** Examine skills, development needs and realistic
    internal mobility. Do not assume that a job title tells you everything a person
    can do.
 6. **If recruitment is required, what evidence defines success?** Identify the capabilities
    and outcomes that matter, the support available and the conditions the new employee
    will work within.

## Choose the intervention deliberately

After diagnosis, leaders might choose to build capability through training, buy 
it through recruitment, borrow specialist capacity temporarily, redesign the work,
redistribute responsibilities within fair capacity limits or investigate further
because the evidence is incomplete.

These options are not interchangeable. Redistribution without checking workload 
can simply move the problem to another employee. Training will not fix a broken 
approval process. Recruitment will not automatically resolve unclear accountability.
Redesign cannot substitute for genuinely missing specialist expertise.

The right decision depends on the evidence, risk, urgency and business context.

## Make the vacancy earn its place

A useful pre-recruitment brief should explain the business problem, the work required,
the reason existing arrangements are insufficient, the alternatives considered and
the outcomes expected from the new role. It should also identify the evidence that
will show whether the intervention worked.

This can make recruitment more precise and improve the candidate experience. Applicants
deserve a role that has been thought through, not a collection of unresolved organisational
problems disguised as a job opportunity.

**The question is not simply, “Who can we hire?” It is, “What needs to change—and
is hiring the right way to change it?”**

At Govel Fraser, we believe understanding the work should come before choosing the
talent solution.

_Research note: The framework above is a practical decision aid, not a validated
assessment instrument. Each organisation should test its assumptions against actual
workload, capability and operational evidence._

**Author: Blessing Kemlo**
Govel Fraser | Unlocking Dignity Through Opportunity