There was a client who struggled with finding a competent department supervisor. Over the years they brought in outside people, they promoted up internal people, they transferred over people from other departments. Nothing worked they struggled to meet minimum requirements and meet standards.
They had failed to measure up to three funder audits. The employees were not filling out the paperwork correctly, they were not meeting deadlines. The workers were not held accountable for their responsibilities. When confronted they would seemingly rather leave the company then comply.
The “Peter Principle” seemed to be the department standard.
But then they tried something a bit different. They redefined what the minimum qualifications would be for the position. They only looked outside of the company, because on one internally met the new requirements. They had to increase the base salary and would give free reign to the right candidate.
I know nothing special is listed there. But the main component was that the new supervisor would not be held responsible for the failing of the previous staff or supervisors. They would only be held responsible for the work from when they were hired moving forward.
This was unprecedented for the company. They had also hired a transition consultant to work on cleaning up the past mess.
There is a cost for not finding the right person for the job. The loss of time, retraining and loss of billing need to be added to any calculation in hiring the wrong person for the job. Choose wisely.