Recruiting managers in a crisis requires a two-stage approach... and other skills!

The recruitment of managers in a crisis requires a two-stage approach

The current corona crisis is demanding a lot from companies and their managers ... and it will get worse (cancellation of short-time work, 2nd wave, etc.).

This situation also leads to exhaustion and burnout at management level. Important roles are cancelled at short notice and have to be replaced.

However, it typically takes 6-9 months to fill a management role with a suitable candidate. During this transitional period without a manager, a vacuum is created that affects ongoing projects (lack of contact person) and makes employees even more insecure in this unusual situation.

Therefore, especially in the current crisis, companies must act immediately and cannot wait for the end of a potentially lengthy selection process.

In order to stabilise such a situation, other factors are also needed. expertise, as those of a "normal" operational manager.

In the short term, the primary objective is to win over the human factor for this (possibly renewed) transformation and to stop the drain of expertise. Even if restructuring has already begun (adjustment of the workforce size), it is essential to ensure that knowledge is retained and that these departures do not lead to further uncertainty among the remaining employees.

Crisis management of this kind is not normally part of a manager's wealth of experience, but is the responsibility of a crisis manager who has been trained (and tested) for this purpose.

It therefore makes perfect sense to fill such vacancies in two stages. In the first stage, the situation should be stabilised immediately by a crisis manager and the transformation completed, and then in the second stage by a permanent manager who can rebuild on this solid foundation.