Are You Hiring for the Role You Have—or the Role You'll Need?

When a position opens, the natural response is to replace it.

Same title. Similar experience. Familiar responsibilities.

But before reposting the old job description, there's a more important question to ask:

Does your business actually need the same role it needed two or three years ago?

For many cannabis companies, the answer is no.

The industry has changed. Teams are leaner, businesses are more disciplined, technology is changing how work gets done and many employees are responsible for significantly broader mandates than they once were.

Yet hiring strategies don't always reflect that evolution.

Don't Automatically Replace the Person Who Left

When someone leaves, there's often pressure to fill the vacancy quickly.

But a departure can also be an opportunity to reassess the role itself.

Instead of asking, Who can replace this person? ask:

What does this business need from this position over the next 12 to 24 months?

A sales leader hired during a period of aggressive expansion may need a very different skill set today. An operations role may now require greater experience with automation, efficiency or international compliance. A marketing position may increasingly involve data, technology and revenue accountability.

The title might stay the same.

The job underneath it may not.

Hire for Where the Business Is Going

Strong workforce planning starts with the company's strategy, not an org chart.

If international expansion is a priority, which capabilities will your team need?

If profitability is the focus, do your leaders know how to optimize rather than simply grow?

If you're implementing new technology, do you have people who can actually integrate it into existing workflows and bring their teams along?

If your business has become leaner, are you hiring people who can operate effectively across functions?

These questions should be answered before a job description is written.

Otherwise, companies risk hiring someone who is perfectly qualified for yesterday's version of the role.

Skills Are Becoming More Important Than Titles

This matters particularly in cannabis, where job titles have never been especially standardized.

A Director at one organization may have responsibilities comparable to a VP at another. Someone working for a smaller producer may oversee several functions that would be separate departments within a larger company.

Looking too narrowly at titles can therefore eliminate candidates with exactly the experience a company needs.

Instead, focus on capabilities.

What problems has this person solved? What have they built? Have they managed through change? Can they work with limited resources? Have they operated at the scale you're trying to reach?

The strongest candidate may not have followed the career path you expected.

Consider What Technology Will Change

AI and automation are also changing how companies should think about headcount.

That doesn't necessarily mean fewer people. It means the work people are hired to do may change.

Tasks that once consumed significant time can increasingly be automated or accelerated. At the same time, skills such as judgment, communication, strategic thinking, adaptability and leadership become more valuable.

Before hiring, employers should consider which parts of a role are likely to change over the next few years.

You don't need to predict exactly what the workplace will look like in 2030.

But hiring someone based entirely on what the job looked like in 2023 isn't much of a strategy either.

Build Your 2027 Team Now

As companies begin planning and budgeting for 2027, this is an opportunity to look beyond vacancies.

Which capabilities are missing from your organization?

Which roles have quietly outgrown their original job descriptions?

Where are employees carrying responsibilities that should now be formalized?

And which hires will help move the business toward where it wants to be next?

The goal isn't to predict every change coming to the cannabis industry.

It's to build a team capable of adapting when those changes arrive.

Before you make your next hire, don't just ask whether a candidate can do the job today.

Ask whether they're someone you'll still need for the job tomorrow.