How to Handle an Employee Resignation

Dealing with Employee Resignation

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As rightly Said, employee resignation is very sensitive for both an employee and management. In today’s time it has become part and parcel for any business. Any unexpected resignation can be a hindrance for an ongoing or planned project and certainly it can affect certain business decision. Likewise, employee also would be thinking on lot of areas before moving on to new opportunity and might have taken a decision from a high level of dilemma.

Now, how to make this transition smooth is purely in hands of management. So Business function will also not suffer, proper handover & knowledge transfer will help not only business but also team working on the same as well as employee who will not take any burden ahead in his head for leaving certain things undone.

Steps for making resignation/notice period smooth:

1) Acknowledge E-mail:

Acknowledging email will make employee know that there is a definite response from HR/Authorized person and it does matter to my organization. I have observed many organizations and HR does not react immediately on resignation and keep on standby and respond after employee follows up for his resignation acceptance and that might not give correct impression to employee on relieving policies.

2) Meeting/ Discussion with employee:

Knowing right reason for an employee resignation is crucially important for an organization and HR. Hence, HR will know if there are chances to retain an employee and if not what was the main factor behind resignation which can be taken care incase of next hire for replacement of this position.

3) Negotiating/ Retaining:

In most cases where there is high dependency of a resources, management tries to retain an employee by understanding right expectation from an employee if is possible on monetary terms or related to growth opportunities which totally depends on company’s policies. But this meeting should be done as early as possible after resignation so that it gives time to an employee for properly thinking on both the options and also to HR for starting hiring process or internal resource transfer for a particular project.

4) Figuring out on notice period:

Once the resignation has been mutually accepted, discuss what would be the last day of working for the employee. In most cases, notice periods are already decided when an employee joins. This has to be adhered to unless the employee and employer mutually decide otherwise.

Again it depends on ongoing project, dependency of resource, specific skillets for the particular project, client’s priority etc.

5) Handover process:

Proper knowledge transfer is to be done so that the work which was being done by an employee is transferred to someone with all required access.

6) Exit interview:

Exit interviews may seem formality sometimes but according to me this is equally important as hiring interviews. This will not only make employee exit smooth but also would be able to express his/her views with openness.

Sample questions:

• What is the reason behind resignation? 

• Will he/she rejoin organization if there is a change? Yes/NO and why? 

• Will he/she recommend organization to any of references? 

• What he/she liked the most here? 

• What he/she disliked the most here?

7) Relieving process:

Finally before the employee completes his/her last day, ensure all exit formalities have been taken care of. You may want to create a process where the employee needs to get an acknowledgement from relevant superiors before he leaves. This ensures that all pending tasks have been completed and the necessary handovers are done.

Also, ensure that all items given to the employee have been returned. Here’s a quick checklist of things you may have to take back before he leaves. 

• Laptops

• Keys for Office/Drawers etc.

• IDs and Access Cards

• Company Cell phone

8) Full & Final settlement:

Complete the last process of an employee before he/she steps out of an organization.

Clearing out all dues and reimbursement, and issuing letter of relieving and experience as per the company policy.

Following this process can reduce many loopholes and unnecessary delays. Try to keep things professional so that there are no burned bridges at the end of either party.