How to Handle Employee Resignations: A Simple Guide for Employers

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<h2>Key Takeaways</h2>
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<li>Realise that staff will resign – even new employees.</li>
<li>If you lose a member of staff, use my Six Tests of Recruitment to determine whether you really do need to recruit for the job.</li>
<li>If you do need someone, then consider making a counteroffer.</li>
<li>When someone is leaving, be nice to them – one day they might consider coming back.</li>
<li>Conduct an Exit Interview for useful insights about how to improve the organisation.</li>
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Losing good staff is painful, particularly after you’ve put in time and effort recruiting and training them. Even new staff can sometimes leave; they regret their decision to resign from their previous job and their old boss persuades them to come back.

When you lose an employee, new or otherwise, you need to take a moment to reflect. Resist knee-jerk reactions, getting angry, or telling them to leave the building! Make sure you take the following key steps:

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1. Evaluate the Need to Recruit

• My Six Tests of Recruitment determine whether it’s actually worth recruiting (or re-recruiting!) for a role. 
• Sometimes you can automate tasks, outsource them, or train up existing staff to do them. 
• You can save yourself a lot of work – and help your bottom line – by not replacing staff. 
• See our guide, The Six Tests Every Hiring Manager Should Use Before Recruiting: Is Your Business Ready? and chapter 1.

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2. Make a Counteroffer

• If you decide that you really do need an employee to fulfil a task, then you may decide to make a counteroffer to try and keep the employee. 
• Don’t immediately ask them if they want more money, though. Open up a broader conversation about what would need to change for them to stay. Money might not be the issue. They might want different working hours, more holiday or a revamped role. 
• The downside of counteroffers is that they’re often “sticking plasters” to deeper problems such as poor management or limited development opportunities, and the person may end up leaving anyway.
• Think of counteroffers as a way of buying time to explore better options.

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3. Keep the Door Open

• If your employee is really set on leaving, then accept the situation and be respectful of their decision. This alone might encourage them to reconsider, and if they leave on great terms, they might want to return in future. 
• Give them reasons to come back:
  • Continue inviting them to team events to remind them of the personal and professional relationships they are breaking.
  • Tell them with great sincerity, “If things don’t work out for you, please call me first, as we’d love to have you back”. (You’re under no obligation to rehire them.)
• Ideally, employment shouldn’t finish badly. Otherwise, employees might leave a bad review on an employee review site like Glassdoor. This can be frustrating because such opinions are rarely balanced, often miss essential context, and seldom acknowledge personal fault.

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4. Conduct an Exit Interview

You want the employee to give an honest Exit Interview and they’ll be less likely to cooperate if you’ve made their last few weeks uncomfortable. (Exit Interviews are essential, so we have a separate guide, Discover the Power of Exit Interviews: Gain Insight to Improve Your Workplace.)

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Additional Resources

• Recruitment book; The Secrets of Great Recruitment: How to Recruit Great Employees.
• Downloadable PDF guide; The Key Steps to Take When an Employee Resigns.
• Article; Handling Employee Resignations: The Secrets to Making Them Want to Come Back!