‘What a traitorous *******, after all we have done for them, I can’t believe they are leaving’.
Don’t say that. Handling exits, particularly from senior trusted people is difficult, you can feel let down, abandoned and disappointed, however it is crucial to deal with them professionally and without allowing emotions to creep in and affect your behaviour.
The world is full of movers and shakers. If people didn’t leave their jobs and move around business and sectors would become stale and indeed your own business would have an impossible time recruiting!
Why it hurts
Companies that invest heavily in their staff can feel the largest sense of betrayal, however, it can also mean that you have an easier time recruiting and picking the talent in comparison. Think of times of change as an opportunity for a fresh set of eyes, renewed enthusiasm and an ability to perhaps develop a new competitive edge for your business.
That said, it is also important that you handle the exit well in terms of process and structure.
Burning bridges is never advisable, they may want to come back, and you may want to reengage them in the future! They could go somewhere else, gain lots of new skills and experience (at someone else’s expense) and come back as a real asset.
What to do
However, let’s think about the practical steps that need to be taken to protect your business:
To garden leave or not to garden leave:
Garden leave is where your employee remains at home, on full pay, but does no work and cannot contact clients or customers. This may sound attractive, particularly if they have a long notice period so you can remove them from client exposure in the hope that their knowledge of the company becomes outdated and irrelevant and by the time they leave they are less of a threat in terms of competition.
However, paying someone to sit at home for a lengthy notice period may be outside the realms of your budget, and if you haven’t got a solid succession plan in place you may need to ensure that you get a decent handover completed before you put them off.
Notice period:
Senior individuals with specialist knowledge of the business are valuable to competitors, notice periods are way of either ensure time for proper handover and to give you time to get a replacement in place (the incoming candidate may also have a long notice period), or for their knowledge of the business to become less relevant on garden leave.
If you are behind on your HR admin and realise to your horror that a senior and valuable individual has a short notice period, you cannot require them to extend it, and you are at the mercy of their consent for any extension, with no obligation for them to agree.
Handover:
Keeping someone who has given notice engaged for a proper handover can be challenging. There runs the risk that once their notice has been given, they have ‘switched off’ and are cruising to the end of their notice.
Leave them to it and it could become disruptive and demotivating for the rest of your workforce. Put them under too much pressure and they may go off sick for the notice period. Quite a conundrum.
Our advice is to sit down at the start of the notice period and agree an action plan with agreed milestone and deliverables. Try and build incentives in, where stages are met within the agreed timescales consider having the offer of garden leave, a leaving ‘bonus’ or even the ability for their notice to be paid in lieu to allow them to leave early.
Protection: Confidentiality and Restrictions
This one depends on your contract, if you have restrictive covenants in your contract of employment, they have been signed and you have ensured they have been validly implemented (take legal advice on this) you can potentially restrict an employee’s activity when they leave, for the protection of your business.
If an employee ignores them and operates in breach you can potentially take legal proceedings against them (again, taken legal advice) however by the time you get to court (even with emergency injunction proceedings) damage may well have been done and it is going to cost you.
Further, depending on what happens in the general election restrictive covenants could well be outlawed, ensuring that you have robust confidentiality clauses, and your intellectual property is protected is key.
Again, engaging with the departing employee is key. Our advice would be to arrange a meeting to discuss what is protected in terms of confidential information and the company intellectual property. Note that you are happy to support their move and again ease any transition, if they are prepared to discuss their plans with you to put your mind at ease.
A written reminder before they leave of their obligations is also a useful document to issue to avoid a departing employee claiming they had no knowledge of their obligations.
Contact us today
Navigating employee exits, especially from senior roles, can be tough and emotionally charged. But ensuring a smooth, professional transition is crucial to protecting your business and its future.
At Hroes, we specialise in helping businesses manage these delicate situations effectively. From designing solid handover plans and negotiating notice periods, to ensuring confidentiality and IP protection, our HR consultancy services and software provide the tools you need to handle departures smoothly and confidently. Contact us today to get started!