An employee is looking for another job

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In a world where there are more job options and industries than ever before, it’s clear to see why many people no longer stick to the once-traditional route of remaining with one job for most of their life.

According to a survey carried out by Zippia, the average person changes jobs 12 times in their working lifetime, so it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise if a member of your staff leaves to find a new job.

If you think that one of your employees is looking for another job elsewhere, it’s important to know the correct measures and steps to take to prepare for this eventuality so it doesn’t come as too much of a shock.

Plan ahead and have a contingency plan in place

The first and arguably most important thing to do in preparing for an employee to leave your business is to plan ahead.

An employee can decide to leave your business at any time, providing that they work out the remainder of their notice period, but before you even reach that stage, you should have a plan in place to help ease the transition of an employee leaving.

You should regularly review and update job descriptions and you should always have an up-to-date advertisement ready to go live in the event that you need to find a replacement for an employee.

It’s also a good idea to always ensure that any necessary training material for a new hire is constantly updated to make it easier to train them if and when the time comes.

Determine how valuable the employee is

While it might sound incredibly harsh, will you be gutted that this particular employee has left because they’re genuinely good at their role and you’ll miss the work they do or are you more concerned because you don’t want to have to go through the hassle of hiring someone else to replace them?

If their departure from your company would have a major impact on the rest of the team, especially if they’re in a senior position, then it could be quite a loss to the business if they decide to leave.

However, if you think that the person can be easily replaced and you believe that their heart just isn’t in the job anymore, it’s usually better to just let them leave, rather than trying to get them to stay. No one wants someone working for them if their heart isn’t really in it anymore, so while it might be quite a loss at the time, it will usually work out better in the long run.

Try to find out why they might be leaving

Knowing the reason why an employee might be planning to leave your business can help you to avoid similar issues in the future.

It might just be that they want a higher paying job or a better promotion that they don’t feel is available to them at your business, or there might have been an incident or dispute at the workplace that led them to feel uncomfortable or even unsafe at work, which spurred their decision to resign.

By finding out the reason why they might want to leave, you can help to resolve any issues that led to their decision and if they plan on leaving due to monetary reasons, you might consider the current pay that you’re offering your employees.

Don’t presume that they will definitely leave

If you hear rumours that a member of your staff is looking for a new job through other employees, don’t jump the gun and automatically assume that they will leave.

It could very well just be rumours that you’re hearing and even if they do turn out to be true and the member of staff is indeed looking for other jobs, that doesn’t mean to say that they’ll definitely leave.

Some people like to keep their options open and so job hunting might be part of their process when it comes to having an open mind approach to their career; it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re planning to commit to leaving the business.

If you do think they might be planning on leaving, it might be worth scheduling a one-to-one meeting with them to try and gauge how they’re actually feeling and to give them the opportunity to explain their decision.

Just let them look

If you think that an employee might be looking for other jobs but you’re not really sure why and you don’t think it’s appropriate to ask them just yet, then sometimes it’s OK to just let them look.

You’ll likely be in the loop very soon if they do decide to leave, but in the meantime, they might just want the space to explore their options and as their manager, it’s your duty to let them do this.

Trying to intervene when they’re just looking for other jobs can sometimes just be a stopgap in between them making their final decision, so oftentimes, you could just end up delaying the inevitable anyway.

Move on but don’t completely cut ties

In the end, sometimes it’s just not possible to convince someone to stay at your business or it might just not be worth the fight for you to do so and in this instance, it’s usually best to just let everyone move on.

That’s not to say that you have to completely cut ties with this employee, especially if they were a good worker and a valuable member of the team. If they leave the business on good terms and you’re happy to keep an open mind if they ever decide to come back, it will result in a much better environment for everyone involved and it also means that they’ll know that they were a valued member of the team.

It might also be worth conducting an exit interview if the employee is happy to do so, so that you can both learn from the experience.

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