No company wants to lose their best employee, but it happens, and it can have a significant impact on your organization. It can negatively impact morale, productivity, and the focus on your other employees. Depending on the employee and their impact, it could send waves through the company, even if they are leaving on good terms.
Our recruiters can empathize with losing a top performer. When they leave, a little uneasiness can set in, especially for managers. Is this a one-off thing or are other employees going to follow? How will this impact company culture? How are you going to replace a pillar of your organization?
HIRE BETTER TODAY
1. Conduct an Exit Interview
Losing your best employee can be a shock if you do not see it coming, but you need to find out why. Make it a learning opportunity. Speak with the employee about why they are leaving. Give them the chance to speak about things they think could be improved. Get their perspective on their role. It’s also important to address any pressing needs and tie up loose ends. See how willing the employee is to assist with transitioning out of the company.
2. Create a Transition Plan
Once you understand why and when the employee is leaving, you need to start planning your transition. Think about:
- How are you going to transfer knowledge from the exiting employee so you don’t lose key insights?
- Who will take on the employee’s duties temporarily while you search for a replacement?
- What steps can you take to make the transition as smooth as possible?
Start putting together a plan to hold down the fort until you can recruit and hire a replacement.
3. Start Looking for a Replacement
Start the recruiting and executive search process as soon as possible. Extract the key attributes and traits that made your exiting employee great at their job and use them to develop a candidate profile and job description. Use this as a guide when assessing new candidates. The quicker you can establish your recruiting strategy, the faster you will be able to find the right replacement.
Taking the above 3 steps will help you quickly get on the path to recovery and help you be in a better position to replace your exiting employee.
Read More From Our Executive Search Blog
8 Stay Interview Questions to Ask to Improve Employee Retention
Are You Prioritizing Retention? 5 Ways to Retain Top Executive Talent
5 Easy to Implement Recruitment and Retention Strategies
3 Essential Tips to Retain Diverse, Underrepresented Talent
IQ PARTNERS is an Executive Search & Recruitment firm supporting clients across the country. We help companies hire better, hire less & retain more. We have specialist teams of recruiters in Executive Search / Board & C-Suite, Technology, Media, Digital & Marketing, Accounting & Finance, Financial Services & Insurance, Cannabis, Startup, Data Science, Consumer, eCommerce & Retail, Operations & HR, Manufacturing, Supply Chain & Engineering, Legal & Professional Services, Pharmaceutical & Life Sciences, Non-Profit & Sustainability, and Sales. IQ PARTNERS has its head office in Toronto. Click here to view current job openings and to register with us.
