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2015-03-17 07:22:06
Rebecca Knight
March 12, 2015
It s Friday afternoon and one of your employees asks for a private meeting.
Before you even close the door, she tells you she s found another job and is
leaving the company. Once you get over the shock, how should you respond? How
do you cover her responsibilities? And how do you make sure that the rest of
your team isn t overburdened when she leaves?
What the Experts Say
Unexpected resignations present big challenges for leaders, especially those
unaccustomed to dealing with them. It s probably a frustration you haven t had
for a while and if you re a relatively new manager, you might not have ever
experienced this before, says Priscilla Claman, the president of Career
Strategies, a Boston-based consulting firm and a contributor to the HBR Guide
to Getting the Right Job. Abrupt employee departures are especially hard on the
psyche. If you ve grown to really rely on that person, you may feel deserted
and alone, says Anat Lechner, a clinical associate professor of management and
organizations at NYU Stern. You re left psychologically and practically
without a point person. Here are some tips to help you manage the separation
and make the transition as smooth as possible.
Know the protocol
It s important to first understand your company s HR procedures for handling
these situations. At some organizations, policy dictates that the moment a
person offers a resignation you cut their employee ID card in half, call
security, and escort them out of the office, says Claman. At others, people
are required to work out a notice period typically two weeks stipulated in
their employment contract. Two weeks is common, but if the employee is leaving
for an internal position, there is often some flexibility to negotiate for a
slightly longer lead time, says Claman Although you can always ask the
employee to stay longer, don t expect flexibility, Claman says. They
probably already have a start date at their other company. Besides, she says,
when an employee blindsides you, you need to ask yourself: do I want this
person here anymore?
Don t emote
Once the news is delivered, Claman advises muting your inner response of:
What? Why? You didn t tell me! Instead, she says, breathe and even if you
re upset do your best to engage in a warm and friendly conversation about
[the person s] future plans. In the modern workplace, people come and go over
and over again so it s important to maintain relationships, she explains. If
your interactions with the employee have been difficult and you sense hostility
in the departure in other words, he can t wait to leave you need to figure
out what can be salvaged, says Lechner. She recommends saying something like,
I appreciate the contributions you ve made and I understand that you ve had a
tough time here. For the sake of your reputation and mine, let s take the high
road. She adds, Do things right so there s no bad blood.
Ask for a rationale
It s still important, however, to try to understand the why behind the
employee s decision, says Lechner. Very often you can do nothing about it,
she acknowledges. Sometimes the person simply got a better offer and her mind
is made up. But, occasionally, you can discover new information that will help
you construct a solution. You may, for instance, learn that she s resigning
for personal reasons: Her spouse is being transferred to a new city or she
needs more time to care for an aging parent. In these circumstances, you could
offer alternatives. Perhaps she can work remotely or take an unpaid leave of
absence. You can make the suggestions because the employee might not have
thought about it before, Lechner says.
Consider a counter offer or not
Whether or not to make a counter offer comes down to how critical this person
is to you and how much of a disruption their absence will cause, says Lechner.
But both experts caution that counter offers are often counter-productive. It
s like being on the verge of divorce and then reconciling, says Claman. Once
the other person has gone through the thought process of leaving, it s hard to
fully trust them again. A better strategy is to retain a relationship with
the departing employee and then re-recruit them in a year, she adds. Say:
We ve missed you. And we would love to have you back.
Collaborate and communicate
You can t control how others react to the news, but you can control how it gets
communicated. Claman suggests collaborating with your exiting employee on how
to best present the departure. Say, Let s talk about what you re going to say
and what I m going to say. Does the employee prefer to tell others
one-on-one? Would you the boss like to make an announcement at an
interdepartmental meeting? Should the news circulate via email? Be honest and
open when communicating the departure to other stakeholders, says Lechner.
Explain the circumstance in plain language and assure them you are working
hard to find a suitable replacement and doing your best to make the transition
as smooth as possible, she says.
Transfer knowledge
Now you have some difficult decisions to make about how to divvy up
responsibilities while you re short-staffed. Acknowledge that your team will
have a workload problem for a time and that people are likely to feel
overburdened, but also use the departure as an opportunity to talk to
employees about their careers and opportunities for growth, says Claman. Say,
Frank is leaving. I want to talk about what that means for you. Is there
something that Frank does that you have an interest in learning or trying?
Then, during the exiting employee s notice period, set up an extensive
shadowing mechanism so that those taking over his responsibilities can absorb
what they need to, Lechner advises. The biggest challenge is transferring the
sticky knowledge the things an employee knows that can t necessarily be shown
on an Excel spreadsheet, she adds. For this, you need to negotiate continued
communication with the person so you can tap their knowledge either by email
or phone when problems arise.
Make a hiring plan
Claman recommends coordinating with HR to formally list a job opening as soon
as possible. This helps people on your team understand that this is temporary,
she says. Ask employees for input on what skills, experience and qualities
they would like to find in the new hire. Perhaps they know people inside or
outside the company who would be a good fit. Or an internal promotion might
be in order, says Claman. This could be a chance for someone to expand and
grow into the role. Lechner also recommends reconsidering your team
configuration. Ideally you should operate at some level of overcapacity so
that when you lose an employee, you don t need to panic, she says. This
little bit of redundancy doesn t need to cost you more think about whether
you could hire two part-time people instead of one fulltime person.
Have a party
On the employee s last day, it s important to gather your team to thank the
person who s leaving and wish them well, says Claman. It doesn t have to be a
big party; it could be coffee and donuts in the conference room. But the act
of celebration is key. After all, it s not only about the person who is
leaving. It s also about the people who are staying, she says. You are
rewarding the people for whom it s going to be a difficult few weeks. Failing
to acknowledge an employee s departure and his or her contributions sends a bad
message to your team, adds Lechner. The subtext is that employees are a
plug-and-play resource : here one day, gone the next. She continues, It s
important to humanize the work relationship.
Then take time to reflect
Good managers should never be truly surprised when an employee announces she
is leaving, says Claman. As manager, you need to be aware of people s
interests and needs. You should know what they want to do. And you should be
able to tell when someone is tired of her job, has aged out of it, is not
engaged, or has life changes afoot like a move or a spouse transfer that
make a resignation likely, she says. If this news did indeed blindside you, it
is incumbent on you to start having more contact with your team so that you
know what they want for their future and can predict or prevent these
situations going forward.
Principles to Remember:
Do
Immediately develop a hiring plan to replace the employee
Frame the resignation as an opportunity for remaining team members to take on
new responsibilities and learn new things
Publicly acknowledge the employee s departure and his contributions to the team
Don t
Take the resignation personally; instead, retain your relationship with the
employee by engaging in a friendly conversation about future plans
Try to counter-offer unless it s absolutely necessary you ll have more
success if you wait a year and then try to recruit them back
Be blindsided again. Make an effort to talk to your team about their
professional interests and needs
Case Study #1: Be creative and accommodating about knowledge transfer
When Kenneth Jennings, the CEO of Mr. Rekey Locksmith, a residential and
commercial locksmith service, found out that his top finance person we ll
call her Louise had accepted a new job, his mind reeled. You put a lot of
trust in your employees and so when they walk out without much notice, it s a
bit of shock, he says.
Once the surprise wore off, Ken relaxed. You have to remember in these
situations that you re dealing with people. I want people to be happy, and I
want them to have opportunities to move up in their lives, he says.
With a warm and friendly attitude, he congratulated Louise on her new job and
asked what drew her to the new company. I probed a little on what they were
offering that we couldn t. It was a little like an exit interview; her answers
gave me insights into what I need to do to retain people.
Louise was under pressure to start at her new company as soon as possible, but
Ken explained that he needed her help in bridging the transition. As a
compromise, she worked part-time for both companies for two weeks and agreed to
make herself available should questions arise after her departure.
Ken made a companywide announcement about Louise s resignation. I wanted to
open the lines of communication right away so that everyone would think: What
do I need from this person before her departure?
He also immediately began looking for a replacement. He even asked Louise if
she knew of anyone who would be a good fit for the job in front of his whole
team. I wanted everyone to know that we are all engaged in looking for a
replacement, he explains.
Case Study #2: Preserve professional relationships even long after the
resignation
Ren Banglesdorf, the CEO and co-founder of Charlie Bravo Aviation, an
Austin-based company that buys and sells private jets and helicopters, was
taken completely aback when her executive assistant resigned after only six
months in the job.
Julie* told Ren she was leaving the company for her dream job in the fashion
industry. Outwardly, Ren took the news well. I didn t want to react
negatively. I told her I was happy for her and asked when her last day would
be, she says. But the news was a blow. Julie handled everything from
scheduling travel to creating market reports for the eight-person company. Her
leaving meant that all that work would be on my shoulders, Ren says.
Previously, she asked resigning employees to leave immediately so as not to
dent morale, but she asked Julie to work during her two-week notice period
mainly because she needed her to keep doing everything she had been doing,
she says. During this time, Ren got in touch with a former Charlie Bravo
employee, Mary*, who had left the company on excellent terms a few years
earlier. The two women had stayed friendly on Facebook and recently bumped into
each other. Ren knew Mary was looking for a new role.
She knew our company and she knew our culture, Ren says. The day after Julie
left, Mary took over her job. It worked out amazingly well, says Ren . When
I was younger, I took it personally when people resigned. I don t do that
anymore. From a professional standpoint, it s so important to maintain
relationships because you never know when you might need that person in the
future.
Rebecca Knight is a freelance journalist in Boston. She has been published in
The New York Times, USA Today, The Financial Times, and The Economist.