Employees leave their job for many reasons.  Some of them are preventable and some not.  How do you really know the root cause of an employee’s resignation?  How to examine and learn from each resignation? 

There are seven styles of resignation we often see in the workplace ranging from positive, and constructive to negative and harmful. 

These styles include: 

• Grateful goodbye – employees show appreciation and provide assistance as they depart.

• In the loop – employees keep their supervisor apprised of their intention to leave.

• By the book – employees give standard notice and an explanation for their departure.

• Perfunctory - employees resign by the book but do not explain why.

• Avoidant - Indirectly inform the manager or let word of resignation filter back to them.

• Bridge Burning – employees engage in harmful dysfunctional behavior on their way out.

• Impulsive quitting – employees walk out the job with no notice.  

These styles of resignation reflect how resigning employees feel about their managers and the company.  Thus, a data-driven and evidence-based examination performed by HR and Manager are critical to explore the root cause of the resignation.  Some methods are considered helpful such as exit interviews, when the employees and the managers have a good working relationship.  However, leaders should reassure employees that participation is voluntary, and the information provided is only to be used to improve working experience for the remaining workforce. 

HR can also track where their former employees go.  If they decided to stay home or go back to school, then alternatives to promote work life balance or tuition reimbursement are worth considering.  What if the employees are leaving for competitors?  This is where HR and the company can investigate the solution to adjust their total rewards, career advancement and employee development programs.   

Hiring replacement’s cost is massive.  When next employees disclose their intention to leave, instead of thinking about how to find the replacement fast, and create a task hand-over list, it is worth considering to strategically examine why people are leaving and how make plan to prevent it happening again.   Turning the learning opportunity from a harmful and dysfunctional turnover to create a positive workplace retention plan is worth the leadership team’s time and efforts, most definitely. 

We still find that employees leave managers and not the company. Training your managers on how to be effective leaders is so critical!

We can help you with training. Feel free to book time on our calendar to learn more.