The New Dictionary of Hiring

Single-Person Dependency

/SING-GUHL PUR-SUHN DI-PEN-DUHN-SEE/

NOUN

A Single-Person Dependency is an important business capability that is effectively held by just one employee.

MEANING

Every business has a few jobs that only one person really knows how to do. Everything is fine until Susan leaves.

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Susan, naturally, has just updated LinkedIn.

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List the capabilities that would disappear with one resignation. Who else could do the work? Where is the knowledge documented? How long would it take to recover? It's much cheaper to ask Susan now than to reconstruct her job from her inbox later.

Defined by:
James Ellis,
Employer Brand Labs

Category:

Risk

Related Terms:

MAKE THE CHANGE

Instead of:

Assuming current capability is secure simply because someone currently provides it.

Ask:

Which important things can only one person here currently do?

EXAMPLE

Only one employee knows how a vital process works. They're also the only person who can fix it when it fails. Their vacation is now an unofficial business-continuity exercise.

HOW TO USE IT

Ask leaders which important decisions, systems or relationships rely on one person. Document the exposure and push for cross-training, succession or a second source of capability.

SAY IT TO LEADERSHIP

We have a part of the business that effectively lives in one person's head. We should build a backup before we learn how expensive that is.

NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH

Strategic Dependency: a Single-Person Dependency is a capability you already have, held by only one person; a Strategic Dependency is any capability the plan relies on, whether or not you have it yet.