Never mind the chief executive or chairman, the hardest person to replace is
the operations director, a study claims.
Interim management consultancy Executives Online asked 114 director-level
execs which job function is the hardest to fill.
Almost one in five say a good operations director is the most difficult
person to find – and is even harder to replace than the finance director,
nominated by 16 per cent. Fifteen per cent suggest the IT director is the next
hardest post to fill.
Only 2 per cent say the chairman is the hardest to replace, while the chief
exec was selected by just 7 per cent of the survey.
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Norrie Johnston, managing director of Executives Online, said: "At a
time of economic downturn companies value the practical, hands-on skills that
drive day-to-day business forward. If good operations people leave, the
bottom-line impact can be felt immediately.
"As a result, companies are taking care to hold on to these people –
leaving fewer of them in the jobs market when vacancies come up."
