“We don’t really know what this person should be doing.”
“The job spec keeps changing.”
“We just need someone good and we’ll shape it around them.”
“It’s hard to define this role properly.”
These are not unusual thoughts.
They tend to appear when an SME is growing quickly, pressure is rising, and the organisation has outgrown the structure it used to rely on.
The role feels important.
The need feels urgent.
But every time you try to pin it down, it slips.
One conversation pulls the role in one direction.
Another expands it.
Another adds “just one more thing”.
You start with a rough outline.
You end up with something that feels vague, overloaded, and hard to explain to anyone else.
At this point, most founders assume they have a recruitment problem.
They think the challenge is finding the right person.
Or that the market is tight.
Or that they just need someone senior enough to cope with the ambiguity.
But the confusion usually starts before recruitment even begins.
If this situation feels familiar, the issue is rarely effort or intent.
It is usually a lack of clarity around outcomes, ownership, and decision responsibility that has emerged as the business has grown.
This is the point where many SMEs assume the problem is finding the right person, rather than defining the role itself.
The pattern
Unclear roles create selection noise. Different stakeholders hire for different things.
That produces a role that starts ambiguous and becomes unstable.
Many SMEs interpret this moment as a hiring challenge.
Recruitment Collective identifies it as a Capability vs Headcount issue, where the business needs clarity of outcome and decision ownership before adding a person.
Without this clarity, hiring becomes guesswork rather than a solution.
What it usually signals
This often points to Workforce Misalignment, where the business needs a defined capability and decision owner, not just an extra person.
How to stabilise a role before recruitment
1. Define the outcome
What must be true in 90 days?
2. Define the boundary
What is explicitly not part of the role?
3. Define the interfaces
Where does the role rely on cooperation, and where does it need authority?
4. Define decision rights
What can be decided without escalation?
A quick diagnostic
What decision are we trying to avoid by hiring?
What would good look like in writing?
What work should disappear?
Who owns success?
If those answers are unclear, pause. Clarify. Then recruit.
This is why hiring often fails to reduce pressure in SMEs.
Part of the SME Workforce Problems diagnostic map
Next steps
Use the Hiring Risk Radar to pressure test role definition.
Anchor the work inside the Workforce Advisory framework.
Seeing this in your own team?
Diagnose where the pressure is coming from.