No Bench, No Backup: Most Firms Admit They Would Have to Hire From Outside to Replace Their Top Three

Ask a company what happens if its three most senior leaders walk out the door tomorrow, and the honest answer from most is: we start ringing recruiters. That is the stark takeaway from the "Leadership Reality Check," a survey by the Greek HR consultancy People for Business, part of the We R Holding group. Of the executives questioned, 57.1 percent said an external search for replacements would have to be launched. Not one respondent claimed to have successors ready to step in and close the gap without an operational vacuum.

The exercise is an assessment rather than a representative poll, but it lays bare how slowly personnel transitions move. While 35.7 percent said they could see internal candidates, those people would need between 6 and 12 months of preparation before taking over. A further 14.3 percent expect a serious operational void if a change happens abruptly.

Where the blind spots sit

Asked to name the biggest gap in their own organisation, 42.9 percent pointed to the absence of leaders who are ready to deploy. Just over a fifth — 21.4 percent — cited difficulty attracting and retaining talent as their central weakness. Processes, meanwhile, appear to have their own inertia: at half of the companies surveyed, personnel decisions drag on for months, and at 42.9 percent they take several weeks.

Knowledge poses a separate hazard. Critical expertise tends to cluster around a handful of key people, and 42.9 percent of organisations do nothing at all to address that concentration risk. By contrast, 57.1 percent said the bottleneck is known internally and actively managed.

Human resources departments are still fighting for strategic weight in many places. Only 14.3 percent of those surveyed regard HR as a full strategic partner at present; half see the function as being in a transitional phase. When it comes to holding on to high performers, 57.1 percent put the decisive weight on soft factors — corporate culture, solid relationships with colleagues and a cooperative working atmosphere.

A pattern that reaches beyond one survey

The picture of unfilled leadership posts fits a wider international trend. Skillsoft's "Workforce Readiness Report," fielded in August among executives and full-time employees, found that 77 percent of leaders worldwide — and 79 percent in Germany — see existing skills gaps within their teams.

Governments and business associations are trying to shore up succession in owner-managed companies through targeted programmes. In Austria, the Federal Ministry for Economy, Energy and Tourism and the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber recently completed the first cohort of NextGen4Austria, which trained 22 young professionals from sectors including transport, IT, retail and hospitality.

Austria's National Council also passed an amendment to the Trade Regulation Act (Gewerbeordnung) on 14 October 2026. It extends transition periods for business takeovers and keeps operating permits for facilities valid for longer after a shutdown, easing the legal friction that can slow a generational handover.