Your Senior Operations Person Retires in 18 Months. Now What?

Every firm says: “Our biggest problem is our senior people are retiring and we can’t replace them.”

Wrong problem.

Right problem: “Our senior people have 20 years of institutional knowledge in their heads, and we’re trying to replace that with new hires who’ll take 3 years to get up to speed.”

Brainlink doesn’t replace people. We capture the institutional knowledge before they leave, then automate the execution.

The Real Problem

You think the problem is: “We’re losing experienced people and can’t find qualified replacements.”

The actual problem is: “20 years of institutional knowledge is about to walk out the door, and we’re trying to rebuild it from scratch with new hires who’ll take 3+ years to get up to speed.”

Different problem. Different solution.

The Traditional Approach (That Fails)

Here’s what firms typically do:

18 months before retirement:

• “We need to start planning succession”
• Identify the role
• Create job description

12 months before retirement:

• Post the job
• Struggle to find candidates
• Realize: experienced people in this role don’t exist in the market

6 months before retirement:

• Panic
• Offer to hire two people to replace one (because we can’t find someone with equivalent experience)
• Try “knowledge transfer” sessions

Month of retirement:

• New hires start
• Retiring person has 2 weeks to “train” them on 20 years of accumulated knowledge
• Retiring person writes documentation that captures maybe 30% of what they know
• Retiring person leaves

6 months after retirement:

• New hires struggling
• “Why don’t you just ask [retired person]?” becomes common refrain
• Realize massive knowledge gaps
• Team doing same work with 40% less efficiency

18 months after retirement:

• New hires finally getting up to speed
• Still missing critical institutional knowledge
• Team still less efficient than before

Total impact: 18-24 months of reduced capacity, 2 salaries instead of 1, knowledge permanently lost

Real Example: The Construction Firm

85-person construction firm. Senior project coordinator retiring after 22 years.

What she did:

• Managed project documentation across 15-20 active projects
• Coordinated between project managers, subcontractors, and clients
• Maintained budget tracking and change orders
• Generated project status reports
• Held 22 years of “how we do things” knowledge

Traditional replacement approach:

• Would need 2 people to replace her workload
• Each at $75k = $150k/year
• 12-18 months for new hires to get fully productive
• Permanent loss of institutional knowledge

What we did instead:

Step 1: Knowledge Capture (6 months before retirement)

• Documented all her processes
• Identified which parts required human judgment (30%)
• Identified which parts were execution/coordination (70%)

Step 2: Automation (3 months before retirement)

• Automated project documentation workflows
• Automated budget tracking and reporting
• Automated status coordination
• Automated report generation

Step 3: Strategic Hire (2 months before retirement)

• Hired ONE person at $85k
• Focused role: handle the 30% requiring judgment, monitor the 70% that’s automated
• Retiring coordinator trained them on judgment calls and context (not execution)
• 6 weeks to productivity (not 18 months)

Results:

• Replaced 1 person with 1 person (not 2)
• Salary cost: $85k vs. projected $150k
• Savings: $65k/year
• New hire productivity: 6 weeks vs. 18 months
• Institutional knowledge: captured in automated systems
• Team capacity: actually IMPROVED (automation more consistent than manual)

Operations director:

“We thought losing Sarah meant hiring 2 people and losing all her knowledge.

Instead, we captured what she knew, automated what she did, and hired one person who focuses on what actually requires human judgment.

The new hire isn’t trying to be Sarah. She’s doing a different job—the strategic parts—while automation handles the execution parts.”

Why The Traditional Approach Fails

Problem #1: You’re trying to replace knowledge with experience

20 years of institutional knowledge can’t be transferred in 2 weeks.

New hires either:

• Need 20 years to accumulate equivalent knowledge (unrealistic)
• Operate without the knowledge (inefficient)
• Leave in frustration (back to square one)

Problem #2: You’re replacing execution capacity, not strategic capacity

Senior people’s value isn’t just doing tasks faster.

It’s knowing:

• Which tasks actually matter
• When exceptions apply
• How things connect
• What to watch for
• Why we do things certain ways

New hires can learn tasks. They can’t learn 20 years of context quickly.

Problem #3: You’re hiring desperately, not strategically

“We need someone NOW” leads to:

• Lowering standards
• Hiring wrong fit
• Training disasters
• More turnover
• Perpetual replacement cycle

The Knowledge Capture Approach

Step 1: Separate knowledge from execution (6-12 months before departure)

Document what the person does:

• Which tasks require their judgment/expertise? (keep human)
• Which tasks are execution/coordination? (automate)

Usually: 20-30% judgment, 70-80% execution

Step 2: Capture the knowledge (6 months before departure)

For the judgment work:

• What decisions do they make?
• What context informs those decisions?
• What patterns do they recognize?
• What exceptions exist?
• What would a new person need to know?

Document this. Build decision frameworks.

Step 3: Automate the execution (3-6 months before departure)

For the execution work:

• Automate workflows
• Automate coordination
• Automate reporting
• Automate data processing

Now: execution doesn’t require human.

Step 4: Hire strategically (2-3 months before departure)

Now you’re hiring for:

• Judgment and decision-making
• Relationship management
• Strategic thinking
• Monitoring automated systems

NOT hiring for:

• 20 years of execution experience
• “Knowing how we do things”
• Task execution speed

Different role. Easier to fill. Faster to productivity.

Step 5: Transfer the right knowledge (final 2 months)

Retiring person trains replacement on:

• Decision frameworks
• Context and relationships
• Exception handling
• Strategic thinking

NOT on:

• How to do tasks (automated)
• Execution processes (documented)
• Coordination logistics (automated)

Realistic transfer in 2 months.

The Succession Planning Framework

For anyone retiring in next 3 years:

12-18 months before departure:

• Conduct knowledge audit
• Identify judgment work vs. execution work
• Begin documentation of decision frameworks

6-12 months before departure:

• Implement automation for execution work
• Refine documentation
• Create training materials focused on judgment

3-6 months before departure:

• Begin strategic hiring (not desperate hiring)
• Hire for judgment role, not execution role
• Start knowledge transfer on strategic/judgment work

Final 3 months:

• Intensive knowledge transfer on relationships and context
• Retiring person available for questions
• New hire shadowing on judgment calls

Post-departure:

• Automation handles execution consistently
• New hire handles judgment work
• Consulting relationship with retiree for 6-12 months (optional)

What This Means For You

Look at your team.

Who’s over 55?

Who’s been there 15+ years?

Who’s retirement-eligible in next 3 years?

For each person, ask:

“If they retired tomorrow, could we replace them with 1 person or would we need 2?”

If the answer is 2: you have a knowledge capture opportunity.

Start now. Not in 18 months when they give notice.

The Bottom Line

The retirement crisis isn’t about losing people.

It’s about:

• Losing institutional knowledge
• Losing execution capacity
• Desperate hiring to replace both

Better approach:

Capture knowledge. Automate execution. Hire strategically.

Replace 1 person with 1 person (not 2).

Get new hire productive in months (not years).

Retain the knowledge that matters.

That’s succession planning.