Move the people you have before you hire

At Heath Media I inherited three people: an editor, a videographer and editor, and a social media manager. All three roles changed. Only one new hire followed.

Person	Was doing	Moved to	Why
The editor	One channel	A different channel	His expertise had more leverage there
The social media manager	Social	Short form content producer	He understood the paid ads niche better than I did
The videographer and editor	Editing	Editorial direction	He was strongest at storytelling, so he set standards across a growing team
A new hire		Social media manager	To take the role the short form producer left

What is the pattern?

The skill someone already has is more useful than the job title they arrived with. Two of the three moves were sideways. The one promotion, into editorial direction, was into a role that only existed because the team grew.

And I moved a person into the short form role because he understood the niche better than me. Say that out loud.