Promote or Hire In? Filling Operations and Branch Manager Roles

Your best operator has just asked about the Operations Manager job. They know every customer, they handle the hardest files and the team trusts them. Saying yes feels obvious.

Sometimes it’s the right call. But promoting your strongest operator can cost you twice: once when you lose your best person on the desk, and again if they turn out not to be the manager you needed. Middle managers are the link between senior leadership and the ops desk. Get the hire wrong and both sides feel it. Here’s how to decide whether to promote from within or bring someone in.

Why doesn’t your best operator always make your best manager?

There’s research behind this. A study by economists Alan Benson, Danielle Li and Kelly Shue looked at almost 40,000 sales workers and found that firms consistently promote their top performers, even though those people go on to become weaker managers. On average, the better someone’s individual numbers before promotion, the less their team improved under them afterwards. You can read their findings on promotions and the Peter Principle.

The study looked at sales teams, but the lesson carries straight onto the ops desk. Running your own files well and running a team are different jobs. The same research found that people with more experience working collaboratively made better managers once promoted, but weren’t any more likely to be promoted.

In a forwarding office, that’s the operator who trains the new starters, picks up colleagues’ files when someone’s off and gets pulled into every escalation. They may not handle the most shipments, but they’re often a better bet for management.

When does promoting from within work?

An internal promotion tends to work when the person is already doing parts of the job. Look for someone who:

• covers for the current manager and makes decisions the team accepts
• trains and checks the work of junior coordinators without being asked
• handles difficult customer and carrier conversations, not just their own accounts
• understands how the branch makes money, not just how the shipments move

If your strongest candidate only ticks the first box on the list, a team lead or supervisor role can be a sensible middle step. And if you want to keep a brilliant operator who has no interest in managing people, give them a senior operator route with real recognition, so promotion isn’t the only way to reward them.

When should you hire an external manager?

Promoting from within isn’t always possible, and it isn’t always right. An external hire usually makes more sense when:

• Nobody internal is ready. Promoting someone too early can damage both their confidence and the team.
• The role needs something you don’t have. A Customs Brokerage Manager needs the right licence and regulatory experience. A Gateway Manager needs to have run a gateway.
• The branch needs to change. If you’re turning round a struggling office or bringing in a new way of working, someone from outside can see problems the team can’t.
• You’re building something new. A new branch or a new service line needs a manager who’s done it before. Our guide to opening a new branch and building your first team covers this in more detail.
• Promoting would leave a gap you can’t fill. If moving your best operator into management leaves the desk short at peak, that cost needs to be part of the decision.

What should you test for in an external manager?

Freight knowledge is the easy part to check. What’s harder is working out whether someone can lead a team they’ve never met. These questions get beyond the CV:

“Tell me about a time a key person on your team resigned. What did you do in the first week?”
You’re looking for how they protected customers and covered the work, not just how they recruited a replacement.

“How did you know your branch was making or losing money on a customer?”
Branch Managers and Regional Managers should be comfortable talking about margin, not just volume.

“What did you change in your first 90 days in your last role, and what did you leave alone?”
Strong managers learn before they change things. Be wary of anyone who wants to rebuild everything in the first month.

“Who on your old team would give you a reference, and what would they say?”
How someone talks about their old team tells you how they’ll treat yours.

Where do you find good freight forwarding managers?

Usually not on job boards. Strong Ops Managers and Branch Managers are rarely out of work, and many won’t apply to an advert while they’re settled in a role. You have to approach them directly, often from competitors, which is why replacing a manager is often done quietly.

Through our middle management staffing service, we recruit across operations, air and ocean, customs brokerage, gateway, branch and regional management roles, entirely within freight forwarding. For senior leadership hires, our logistics executive search team runs every search confidentially.

Does it have to be one or the other?

No. Some of the strongest setups do both: they hire an experienced manager now and give them a clear brief to develop an internal successor. That way you fill the gap with someone proven, and your best operator gets a realistic route up instead of being pushed into the role before they’re ready.

At Freight Appointments, we’re known for our client relationships, and that starts with honest advice. If your internal candidate is the right choice, we’ll tell you. If the role needs someone from outside, we’ll tell you that too, and then find them.

Through our middle management staffing and logistics executive search services, we recruit Operations, Branch, Gateway and Regional Managers through to directors, working only in freight forwarding. Get in touch with our team to talk it through.

FAQ

Should we tell the team we’re recruiting externally for a manager role?
If there’s an internal candidate who expects the role, talk to them before the search starts. People take hearing it from you far better than hearing it from the market.

Can a recruiter approach managers at competitor forwarders?
Yes. Direct approaches are standard practice for management and leadership hires, and they’re usually handled confidentially so neither side’s name is out in the market too early.

What’s the difference between middle management and executive search?
Middle management covers roles like Operations, Branch, Gateway and Regional Managers. Executive search covers director-level roles and above, such as Operations Directors, Country Managers and C-suite positions.