Can employers enforce 3 months notice?

[Boboz]

After 14 years in my current role I have taken the plunge and applied for a new position (many reasons has prompted this move). Due to the time in my current role I have had to give 3 months notice. This is a pain but fortunately, following an interview, I was offered the new job despite my notice period.
I have one more week left in my current job; the things is my employers have done absolutely nothing during the 3 months to find my replacement. The advert actually went out today and interviews will take place at the end of the month (3 weeks after I have left the organisation). The frustrating part is I could have been in my new position months ago as I had no one to give a handover to. Has anyone experienced anything like this? Can employers enforce 3 month notice?
To add insult the role is advertised with the same wage but under a lesser title (assistant while I was an officer) and less in the way of responsibilities.

It's very annoying but sadly very common! I work in HR and virtually every month a line manager will come to me saying 'we need to recruit someone to start in XYZ complicated and important role asap, my team member is leaving tomorrow', when I say 'what, did they not give their contractual notice?' the manager then blithely says 'oh yes they gave 3 months notice but we didn't get round to starting the recruitment until now' argh!!! They quite often then have the gall to complain that the recruitment process takes too long and/or their preferred candidate has to give 3 months notice even though they wasted the notice period of their own person leaving. (I do sympathise that there can be lots of reasons why it takes a while to sort out recruitment but it is also quite annoying to be dropped on at the last minute and I imagine annoying for the person leaving as well)

To answer your question, technically employers can enforce contractual notice periods because if you do not give your correct notice period you are in breach of contract, meaning they can sue you for compensation. However usually this is not worth it from the employer's point of view because in order to get any meaningful compensation (ie more than it would cost in legal fees to go to court) they would have to show significant financial loss as a result of you leaving early which can be quite difficult to do. So it's very rare for an employer to bother sueing ex-employees over breach of contract although of course they can threaten it.

However what is common practice if someone refuses to work out their full notice period, is mentioning they were in breach of contract and did not complete a full notice period and proper handover in any future reference. So you did the right thing working out the full notice period, annoying though it is.

Thank you maxelly for taking the time to reply. I know I have done the right thing so can move on with my head held high.
The organisation I am leaving won’t have anyone to give the new worker a handover but that shouldn’t be my worry now.