When a key employee resigns, gets promoted, or goes on extended leave, you’re not just losing a person—you’re risking momentum, team morale, and institutional knowledge. The solution? Smart backfilling.

This guide explains what it means to backfill a position, when to do it (and when not to), and how to approach the process so your team comes out stronger—not just whole again.

At Red Clover HR, we help organizations navigate transitions like these every day. Backfilling is one of the most overlooked opportunities to reimagine a role, retain internal talent, and keep operations running without disruption.

What Does Backfilling a Position Mean?

Backfilling is the process of hiring someone new to take over the duties of a departing or temporarily absent employee. In other words, backfilling means hiring to replace a position that has been recently vacated. Unlike creating a new role, backfilling is about restoring existing capacity so that projects stay on track and institutional knowledge is preserved.

Common reasons for backfilling include:

  • Employee resignation or retirement
  • Promotions or internal transfers
  • Parental or medical leave
  • Long-term sabbatical or external assignment

It’s not just a replacement—it’s a moment to reflect, reassess, and rehire smarter.

Backfilling is a preempted step taken when an employee is being promoted, transferring positions or leaving the organization. When you are backfilling a vacant position, you have an opportunity to base your hiring decisions on prior experience, which gives you an advantage you did not have when the role was newly created.

When you are backfilling a position, you have an opportunity to learn from your past and move forward in a way that places you in a better position than you were before. The easy way to move forward is just to find someone to fill the vacant position, doing it the way you’ve always done it. However, that would be like fitting a round peg in a square hole. Sure, your new hire will probably fit most of your needs and be able to fulfill the responsibilities of the job. But without taking time to strategically evaluate the vacant position and your improved approach to backfilling the role, there is a missed business opportunity to improve your approach to recruiting and things may slip through the cracks. Figuring out what you really need will give your organization the most secure structure.

When Does a Position Need to be Backfilled? 

There are many situations that would lead to a position needing to be backfilled. 

Before rushing to post a job, take time to evaluate the need for the role and how best to fill it. Use this opportunity to make informed, strategic decisions.

Ask yourself:

  • Is the work this role covered still business-critical?
  • Could the responsibilities be automated, outsourced, or redistributed?
  • Do we have someone internally who could grow into this role?
  • Is a short-term solution more appropriate (e.g., a contractor or temp)?
  • If we rehire, should the role or salary band be updated based on current needs?

Sometimes, not backfilling is the smartest move. But when you do need to backfill, doing it well can prevent burnout, revenue loss, and turnover ripple effects.

When you do need to backfill a position, these are some conditions that might land on your radar if you’re in a place where you actually need to perform backfilling for a role:

An Employee Gave Their Notice

An employee in an important role just provided their notice. Yes, you can reassign responsibilities and make things work in the short term, but in the long run, you’ll need someone in this role to be successful. You’ll need to bring in someone new to fill your former employee’s shoes ASAP.

It’s Time For a Promotion

You have a top performing employee who is ready for a step up. You know you could use them at a higher level and you might lose them if you don’t give them the increase in responsibility they crave. But their current work is important and you can’t make things work without someone in their place long term. When they make the move up, you’ll need to backfill their previous role.

Temporary Backfill

At times, an employee may go on leave. Their role is critical to the business, but you need to ensure business continuity while they are away. You’ll need to find someone to bring in on a short-term basis to fill the gap while they are away.

Why You Should Backfill a Position

More important than simply replacing one person with another, backfilling when done correctly is a strategic approach to hiring. Backfilling helps preserve your business continuity and helps you look to the future of your business, rather than just putting a bandaid on a tough situation. When you hire with intention and work to find someone who is truly the right fit for your needs, you are also more likely to increase your employee retention and satisfaction.

The Difference Between a Backfilling Strategy and Replacement

Ultimately the difference between a strong backfilling strategy and just replacing comes down to strategy. With a backfilling strategy implemented you have an opportunity to gain knowledge from the person currently in the role. Conducting a thorough exit interview will help you understand the role and what you may need to change in order to backfill the role with the best person for the job. Throughout the course of the exit interview, the department employee may give you key information, such as:

  • The role wasn’t really at the level advertised in the job description. The employee felt they were doing work above or below the level that was described.
  • The employee identifies skills gaps that inhibited them from performing successfully in the role.  
  • The employee identifies their day-to-day was dominated by certain tasks they didn’t anticipate from the job description.

Additionally, a backfilling strategy gives you the opportunity to intentionally adjust the role based on the organization’s needs and feedback provided by other stakeholders such as managers, peers and department heads. This feedback could look like this:

  • The organization has changed since this job description was last updated and it makes more sense to hire this role under a new title.
  • The company’s client base has shifted. For example, if your focus was on serving foodservice industry clients, but recently you’ve shifted to education, who and how you hire also needs to shift. It would be a benefit to review and revise the job description to make sure you hire someone with relevant knowledge, skills and experience.  
  • A manager identifies they’ve taken on a lot of work in a specific area and they need additional support.  

Beyond the organization perspective, there is an opportunity to adjust the job description based on what has been learned about the skills needed to perform the job from the previous occupant:

  • You address key skills for the role and ensure they are highlighted in the job description and you ask questions during the interview process to affirm the candidate’s competency in those skill areas. Evaluating prerequisites for consideration, including degrees, work experience, and software skills based on how possession of those skills and experiences benefited the previous employee in the role.

How to Backfill a Role Step-by-Step

Whether you’re working with your internal HR team or outsourcing HR support, a structured backfill process helps reduce risk and increase retention.

1. Capture Knowledge Before It Walks Out the Door

If possible, schedule transition overlap between the outgoing and incoming employee. If not, prioritize knowledge transfer in other ways:

  • Document daily responsibilities, workflows, and passwords
  • Record screen-share demos of recurring tasks
  • Hold team debrief sessions or training handoffs

If the role isn’t being backfilled immediately, assign a knowledgeable internal point of contact to act as an interim guide.

2. Reassess the Role

This is the perfect moment to make the job better than it was before.

Ask:

  • Which parts of the role were high-impact? Which were outdated or underused?
  • Are the job title and responsibilities aligned with today’s needs?
  • Does the salary band reflect market benchmarks?

Benchmarking compensation can help you avoid underpaying, overpaying, or misaligning a role to the current market—especially if the position has evolved.

3. Start with Internal Candidates

Internal promotions are often faster, cheaper, and better for morale. Even if no one is a perfect fit, grooming a stretch candidate can pay off long term.

If no internal fit exists, launch an external search with a clear, updated job description. Consider involving team members in reviewing resumes or participating in interviews to build buy-in.

4. Communicate the Plan

Silence causes speculation. Announce the transition, share a general timeline, and explain how work will be covered in the meantime.

For example:

  • “Taylor is moving into a new role starting next month.”
  • “We’re reviewing internal candidates and considering external options.”
  • “In the meantime, Jamie will be point of contact for open items.”

Transparency builds trust—and helps prevent team burnout during the gap.

5. Customize Onboarding for a Backfill

A backfilled employee is stepping into a preexisting role—sometimes with legacy systems, historical challenges, or team relationships to navigate.

Support them with:

  • Context about what’s working and what’s being improved
  • Access to documentation from their predecessor
  • A clear 30/60/90-day ramp-up plan
  • A peer “buddy” for informal guidance

This is one of the easiest places to lose people early. Over-communicate, check in often, and document early feedback.

6. Reinforce, Don’t Just Replace

Once your backfilled hire is in place, reintegrate the team. Announce wins. Acknowledge transitions. Show appreciation for those who covered during the gap.

And if you realized through this process that your organization needs better systems or role clarity? Consider whether it’s time for broader support through outsourced HR.

What Not to Do When Backfilling a Position

Backfilling can quietly create problems if done reactively. Here’s what to avoid:

  • Reposting the old job description without updating it
  • Rushing to hire without a plan
  • Ignoring internal talent
  • Failing to communicate with the team
  • Onboarding like it’s a brand-new role (instead of a backfill with context)

Done well, backfilling is a leadership moment—one that shows your team you care about continuity, growth, and thoughtful hiring.

Backfill Decision Checklist

Before you fill that seat, make sure you can check these boxes:

  • Have we documented the work the previous employee did?
  • Do we still need the role in its original form?
  • Have internal candidates been evaluated and supported?
  • Is an interim coverage plan in place during the gap?
  • Is our onboarding tailored to the nuances of a backfill?
  • Are we capturing lessons to improve this role for the future?


How an HR Consultant Can Help With Backfilling

Backfilling is a daunting task. Not only are you going to be down a member of your team, but it’s also going to take a lot of work to backfill properly and find the right person. It may seem easier just to forget backfilling strategy, post the job as is and see what happens…. But this will take more effort to find the right person and does not leave you in a better position from where you started. It can be hard, especially if you don’t know where to start. Red Clover can help!  

Final Thoughts

Backfilling a position isn’t just about restoring a headcount, it’s about keeping your team resilient through change.

With the right planning and process, a backfill hire can bring fresh energy, improved systems, and new clarity to a role that mattered enough to protect. Whether you’re backfilling one person or restructuring an entire department, this is a chance to build forward, not just rebuild.

Need help designing a backfill process that works? Get in touch with Red Clover HR to create a plan that supports your people and your business—today and for the long haul.

Red Clover’s HR Consultants can assist you in building out a strategic staffing plan from scratch.  Whether it’s one vacant position or many, we can work with you to identify priorities and strategically work to fill your roles with top talent. Red Clover’s HR Consultants can develop behavioral interviewing structures for your interview process, train your employees in behavioral interviewing to support your commitment to finding the right talent, leverage assessment tools like DISC in your interview process or completely manage your recruitment process. To start the conversation contact us.