Financial Train Wreck

'I quit'. It's what fills most business owners full of dread. It means disruption, uncertainty, cost and change.

We specialise in matching Finance roles of all shapes and sizes. It's a critical role to fill at the best of times but often it comes with the tightest of deadlines. Like changing saddles from one moving horse to another whilst they're both trying to reach the finish line in the Grand National, it's hell to manage.

So here's a recent true story to break it down.

Once upon a time, there was a business owner who had just heard 'I quit' from their Finance Manager. It wasn't that she was that unhappy, just that a better opportunity had come along. Due to her length of tenure, she only needed to give 2 weeks' notice, and whilst she would have loved to have given longer, her new role desperately needed her, so they agreed on 3 weeks.

Somewhere else, an employee was handing in her notice. She's been in her role for years and years. She knew how to do her role instinctively. How could I possibly put into words what I do daily? She was like family, and she didn't really want to do it, but had found a significant role where she could learn new skills. She was worried that being in a role for so long was holding her back these days. I'm sorry, she said, but I can only give 3 weeks' notice. I need to move on.

(Note: all words that can be interchanged in this story are marked in bold. Please feel free to adjust as needed to suit your situation.

The clock was ticking.

This scenario is very real and happens in business somewhere in Australia every day. At best, there is a detailed procedural set of documents and/or videos covering all finance tasks, a new person (the right person, fingers crossed) to hand over to and the very best of intentions in a common goal to transition smoothly.

What can happen, though, is this.

• Both roles go up on the job board of choice with an exact copy of the old ad (without review), backed up by a Position Description that hasn't been changed in at least as long (assuming there was one to start with)

• The outgoing employees both have an incomplete finance cycle to document in the time they have left, so some of it will have to be recorded either from memory or through a simulation, or it will be missed entirely.

• Everyone holds their stressful breath for the next 15 working days: Will anyone call in sick? Will the new employee (in both organisations, as there's a chain remember) be counter-offered by an employer that she feels she is ready to move on from, but feels terrible about, because they haven't found a replacement yet? Will everyone manage to close things off AND still complete the finance tasks in their respective roles?

It's a simple event that happens every day of the week. In this and most case scenarios, it's worth remembering there are at least seven key people involved when one person decides to move on in a Finance role (think of buying and selling a house):

• The two outgoing Finance Managers from each organisation

• The new Finance Manager coming into one of these roles (the other person is already included above)

• The direct reports of both the people moving roles

• The owners/directors of both organisations (I've assumed here the owner/director is the same and that it's a straightforward business, rarely the case, of course), who are affected if something important gets missed in the handover

That's a lot of plates spinning at a time when running a business has never been harder.