As part of our ongoing efforts to ensure strategic workforce planning and long-term institutional sustainability at Boise State, Human Resources and Workforce Strategy is providing the following guidance related to consideration before automatically refilling vacant positions or initiating financially-impactful personnel actions, such as bonuses, reclassifications, repurposing a vacant position, or salary adjustments within a pay grade.
A vacancy can be a valuable opportunity to strategically reassess how work is structured, prioritized, and supported across a team or department. This guidance is intended to support thoughtful, business-savvy decision-making by offering practical considerations for both executive leaders and front-line managers as they evaluate staffing needs in the context of evolving priorities or budgetary constraints.
We recognize that workforce decisions are not purely operational. Changes related to roles or position design can have real human impact on employees and teams, influencing workload, morale, engagement, and a sense of stability. These decisions are often complex and may involve difficult conversations. Guidance for workforce conversations is intended to support leaders in approaching these moments with care, empathy, and shared responsibility, while balancing institutional needs with consideration for the people who carry out the work. While the considerations below specifically speak to considerations for vacancies, these considerations may also be applied to other financially-impacted personnel actions.
Front-Line Manager Workforce Assessment Considerations
Front-line managers are closest to the day-to-day work and are best positioned to assess what work needs to be completed and how tasks are actually being performed. A vacancy offers a practical opportunity to review workload distribution, process efficiency, and team capabilities.
The considerations below focus on realistic, operational approaches managers can use to determine whether the work can be managed differently, at least in the near term.
- Review how the work is currently getting done. Identify which responsibilities must continue, which can be paused or reduced, and which may no longer be necessary.
- Assess team capacity and skill sets. Consider whether current staff have the skills or bandwidth to absorb portions of the work, particularly if priorities are clarified or tasks are redistributed.
- Look for process improvements or efficiencies. Examine whether outdated steps, manual processes, or duplicative work can be streamlined to reduce overall workload.
- Prioritize essential outcomes over tasks. Focus on the results that need to be achieved, rather than maintaining every task exactly as it was previously performed.
- Explore temporary or flexible coverage options. Consider interim solutions such as short-term assignments, shared support, part-time assistance, or student employees where appropriate.
- Use the vacancy as a “trial period”. Where feasible, assess the impact of operating without the position for a defined period to better understand actual staffing needs.
- Support staff development and engagement. Support staff development and engagement by thoughtfully assigning stretch opportunities aligned with each employee’s strengths and interests. Providing meaningful, challenging work helps grow and develop the current workforce. When paired with clear expectations, appropriate resources, and ongoing support, these opportunities can be a highly effective development strategy.
Executive-Level Workforce Planning Considerations
At the executive level, staffing decisions have broad operational, financial, and workplace culture implications. Vacancies provide a strategic moment to evaluate whether current structures, role design, and resource allocations are aligned with institutional priorities and long-term objectives. The considerations below are intended to support enterprise-level thinking and cross-functional alignment when determining whether and how to refill a position.
- Assess work alignment with strategic priorities. Evaluate whether the work performed by vacant roles directly supports current and future institutional goals, or whether priorities have shifted in ways that warrant redesign or reallocation of resources.
- Examine structural efficiency across units. Consider whether work could be centralized, shared across departments, or integrated into existing functions to reduce redundancy and improve coordination.
- Evaluate long-term cost sustainability. Look beyond immediate operational impact and assess the total cost of refilling certain positions over time, including aggregate salary growth, benefits, and downstream staffing implications.
- Challenge legacy role assumptions. Question whether open positions exist because of historical precedent rather than current business needs, and whether alternative models could achieve the same outcomes adequately or more effectively.
- Leverage vacancies to drive institutional agility. Use staffing gaps as an opportunity to modernize workflows, adopt new technologies, or redesign service delivery models that increase resilience and scalability.
- Consider broader workforce implications. Assess how refilling, or not refilling, a position affects workload balance, succession planning, employee engagement and/or morale, and the university’s ability to adapt to future change.