Questions we answerHiring and headcount
Should I hire a generalist or a specialist?
Count the days of genuine specialist work first. Below about a day a week, a full-time specialist drifts into work they are not good at and leaves.
Free · a few minutes · starts from “I think we need another person”
The short answer
Start by counting how many days a month the specialist work genuinely exists. If it is well under a day a week, a full-time specialist will spend most of their time on work they are neither good at nor interested in, and will leave — buying that expertise on a retainer is the honest alternative. Generalists suit broad, unpredictable work, but only where somebody has time to direct them; an undirected generalist quietly becomes a second version of whoever hired them.
This is a job-spec question, usually asked with the advert half-written. The fear on one side is hiring depth you cannot keep busy; on the other, hiring breadth that turns out to be mediocrity spread thin.
Both fears are reasonable, and both are settled the same way — by working out how much of each kind of work actually exists, and who is going to direct it. Most published advice on this skips both and offers definitions instead.
Is it really this?
Worth checking before you spend anything. These are the signals that tend to tell the two apart.
Signs it is
- You can list the specialist tasks and they add up to something a person could do all week.
- The specialism is central enough that you want the knowledge to stay in the business.
- Somebody can set direction for a generalist, if that is the way it goes.
Signs it's something else
- The deep work is real but occasional — a few days a month, clustered around events.
- You need somebody to decide what the work should be, not to do it. That is a different hire.
- The role as drafted needs three unrelated specialisms, which is a wish rather than a job.
What's usually behind it
- A role that covers more ground than one person can be good at, written by somebody hoping otherwise.
- A specific deep need — a technical problem, a regulatory question, a channel nobody understands — attached to not very much volume.
- An earlier generalist hire that did not work, and an instinct to over-correct.
What people usually get wrong
- Hiring a specialist for the hardest problem and then filling their week with the easiest ones.
- Hiring a generalist into a vacuum and being disappointed they did not set their own direction.
- Forgetting that you have to be able to assess the work. A specialist nobody can evaluate is an expensive act of faith.
The options, and when each one fits
In no particular order. Which of these fits depends on your situation, not on the question you typed.
Generalist
The work is broad and unpredictable, and somebody has time to direct it.
Specialist
There is enough deep work to fill the role, and the knowledge needs to live inside the team.
Specialist support on a retainer
The deep need is real but small — the classic case where hiring under-uses somebody expensive.
Develop somebody internally
Somebody in the team is close to the specialism and the timeline allows them to get there.
When doing nothing is the right call
If you cannot yet count the days of specialist work, the advert is premature. A month of recording where the deep work actually comes from is a smaller investment than a mis-sized role and a resignation.
What the diagnostic asks
- What the new person would mainly add: capacity, a missing skill, or both.
- Whether anyone internal is close to the specialist part.
- How central the work is and whether it could be done from outside.
- How soon this needs sorting and whether the role is fundable.
“I don't know” is always an answer. Nothing is assumed on your behalf.
The routes it weighs
Every diagnostic weighs all ten routes. These are the ones that tend to matter for this question — a description of the rules, not a promise about your answer.
Recruit
Recruit a new person for a durable, sizeable need that is central to the team.
Specialist support
Bring in a freelancer, consultant or specialist for a defined piece of work.
Develop
Build the capability in someone already in the team, with time and support.
Outsource
Hand a defined, ongoing scope of work to an external provider.
Redistribute
Move ownership of the work to where it fits, and make that explicit.
Do nothing yet
Record the issue, set a revisit date, and decide what would change your mind.
What changes the answer
- Specialist work that genuinely fills a week points at a specialist hire; work that fills two days a month points at a retainer.
- Nobody with the time to direct a generalist weakens the generalist option substantially.
- Being unable to judge the specialist's output yourself is an argument for buying it from somewhere with its own quality bar.
Get your own read
A handful of short questions, then the strongest route for your situation, what's also credible, what we still don't know and what would change our view. No account, no setup.
Related questions
- What should my next hire be?Start from the constraint rather than the wish list. The right next hire is the one that releases the most work or removes the largest risk — which is often not the role that feels most overdue.
- We have a skills gap. Should I train, hire or bring someone in?It depends on how long you need the skill, how soon, and whether anyone in the team is close to it. Each answer points at a different route.
- Should I use a fractional executive?Fractional works where you need senior judgement rather than senior capacity, and where someone internal can carry the execution between sessions.
- Should I use a freelancer or hire?A freelancer or specialist fits a defined piece of work or a temporary need. A hire fits a durable, growing one. The diagnostic asks which you have.
- Can I afford to hire right now?Affordability is not the salary. It is the salary plus recruitment, onboarding, management time and the months before the person is productive — against what happens if you do not.
- Should I hire another person?Sometimes. Whether a hire is the proportionate answer depends on how durable the need is, whether anyone owns the work today, and what a new person would actually add.