I think that the most demotivating part of Harper’s job is that she has been in the same role for four years and is currently managing a workload that exceeds the responsibilities of her role. If I were an HR manager meeting with Harper’s supervisor, David, I would advise him to:

1. Schedule biweekly 1-1s with Harper to touch base about her workload and help her determine which tasks to prioritize
2. Take a look at all of the employees that he manages workloads and determine if there are opportunities to reassign some of the work that is on Harper’s radar to other employees
3. Consider promoting Harper to replace Jose if he has the power to do so. Considering Harper has extensive experience in her role, and, due to Jose’s departure and her increased workload, has some experience completing the work that Jose was completing, promoting her would likely contribute to her job satisfaction (due to the title change + salary increase), would be a smooth transition for her and the company at large, and would alleviate the problem of Harper (and possibly other employees) feeling overworked.

Losing Harper as an employee would likely have very negative impacts on the other employees. Since Jose’s position has not been filled, losing Harper, an employee who has been in the same position for four years, will further increase the workload of others in her department. Beyond this, I believe that it will take a long time for a new hire to match Harper’s level of productivity since they will have to spend time learning about the position and the culture of the company.