The Grass is Not Always Greener on the Other Side

Employees leave a company for many reasons. It could be a spousal relocation, a significantly better offer or promotional opportunity from another company, a move to care for an elderly parent, retirement, and so on. When we think about onboarding and offboarding it’s good to remember the old adage, you want to make the first impression and last impression the best they can be.

Of course, in some cases, an employee may be terminated by the company, which doesn’t usually leave a good impression. We aren’t discussing that here. When an employee voluntarily resigns from the company, they typically will give at least two weeks’ notice, a professional courtesy that is still expected. There are cases where an employee will text their boss and inform them that they quit. Unfortunately, that is becoming more prevalent in today’s workforce. If that does occur, the chance of you rehiring that employee is slim to none.

If the employee gives you a two-week notice and they are working on a critical project, you might be able to extend their notice period to a month or possibly longer. Of course, that will be based on their future employer and the employee themselves. I have seen times where a good employee in this situation can stay for a longer notice period, four to six weeks in some cases.

If an employee has worked for you for several years and been a solid performer, you want to make sure they are treated well as they exit the company. About 28 percent of employees return to their former employer, hence the reason to treat the employee with respect on their departure. I tend to call that “the grass is greener” phenomena. In most situations, the grass may be a different shade of green at another company, but it’s not actually greener. Every company has issues of some kind, some bigger, some smaller. There is no perfect company because companies are run by people and every person has weaknesses that cloud their judgement in some way. With over one quarter of your employees being returning employees (coming back a second or even third time in some cases), make sure you treat a departing employee with the same level of professionalism and respect you treat current ones.

Excerpt from People Are Your Profit By Mark Mitford, MA, MBA