When an employee gives notice

When an employee gives notice, it’s not in itself a good thing or a bad thing for you as the manager. It is, however, a reason for personal reflection as to why the person left. It’s been my experience that employees leave companies for one of the following reasons.

1. Personal in nature and having nothing to do with their manager, the job, or the company
2. Professional in nature, but based on a personal decision
3. Getting off the ship before it sinks
4. Incompatibility with company culture, policies, or strategic direction
5. Professional or salary growth seems unattainable or far off at their current employer
6. Lack of challenging work or skill set enhancement
7. Incompatibility with their manager

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Let’s now consolidate the above list into three primary reasons:

• Things that have nothing to do with you
• Things that have a little to do with you
• Things that have a lot to do with you

?Numbers 1 and 2 have nothing to do with you. The person may simply be following a love interest to another city, going back to school, switching profession, or other personal reasons. The best managers cannot and most likely will not try to stop the employee from leaving. They will wish the person well, and if appropriate, offer to be a reference, and part on good terms.

?Numbers 3, 4, and 5 are mostly related to your company, but you as their manager, are their most important company representative. You have the opportunity and responsibility to discuss company related issues with your employees. Without this manager-employee interaction, regardless of the professional level, most employees during times of uncertainty will fear the worst and act on those feelings.

?Numbers 6 is related to both you and the company. Your department may not be given anything truly interesting to work on. That said, as the department manager, if you think there are new and interesting things your department could be doing to help the company, it may be worthwhile to talk with your boss. If your manager agrees, it can provide an interesting project for your team; if they disagree, at least you know you tried.

?Also on Number 6, as the manager, there may be things that you can do within your responsibility to help challenge your team and help them grow professionally. These things could be

• Cross-training – allowing team members to gain new skills
• Delegation – Allowing team members to take on higher level tasks you have been doing
• Training – Formal classroom training or on-the-job training on higher-end skills, if appropriate, given your department’s goals
• Mentoring – Work with your team personally to help expand their skills

?Number 7 is simply about the relationship that you have with the employee. You and the employee may just be very different people with very different personality types. Both are good, just different. In other cases, however,

• Your management style may be uncomfortable for the employee
• The employee may not agree with your assessment of their performance
• The employee may not feel they are being treated fairly by you
• Other manager-employee related issues

?If you feel that the employee left for number 6 or 7, I am by no means suggesting you are at fault. That said, whenever a person working for me left, I always used it as a reason for personal reflection to fine tune my management style and grow as a person and a professional.

?The primary advice and takeaways are to know that:

• Employees leave companies for many reasons; some reasons are related to their manager, and some are not
• When an employee gives notice, use it as an occasion for personal reflection as how to grow as a manager and as a person

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?(First published in GateHouse News Service.)