Employee retention strategies won’t prepare you for the inevitable, but these management best…

It’s inevitable, at some point, someone on your team is going to leave. Of all the things you have to worry about as a manager, having a…

It’s inevitable, at some point, someone on your team is going to leave. Of all the things you have to worry about as a manager, having a key team member leave shouldn’t be one of them. If you follow these management best practices, you can be prepared for the inevitable and celebrate their new opportunity with them instead of worrying about what’s to come.

Employees leave, and that’s a fact

One year, two years, or even ten years. At some point, even the most dedicated team member is going to leave. If someone on your team expresses a desire to leave your company, offering them a raise or extra vacation time may help to retain them for another year. However, the chances of this strategy succeeding long-term are unlikely. Data from research firm CEB (since bought by Gartner) showed that “50% of employees who accept a counteroffer leave within 12 months”, as referenced by Harvard Business Review in 2016.

Besides, beyond employees leaving, there are many other reasons why you should be prepared. It’s not on the departing employee to ensure you’re ready for their departure, it’s the responsibility of the company to make sure it has contingencies in place for many different scenarios, such as:

• Internal transfers

• Unexpected local or global events

• Vacations

• Downsizing

• Someone is sick, or takes an extended medical leave

• Parental leave

There are a lot of things outside your control, contingency plans are just good business, and they should be baked into your every day practices and not an afterthought for them to be most effective.

How to be prepared

Cross-training — This can be done by having team members learn each other’s roles and responsibilities so that, if someone leaves, another team member is able to jump in without missing a beat. Cross-training employees isn’t always necessary, and a quick rule of thumb is to consider if there are already multiple people who do the same role every day. There are many benefits to cross-training beyond this, including more empathy for the work others are doing, and a more informed team.

Promoting from IC to Manager — These key players can still fall back to IC work if needed, or help train new talent you bring into the role. Hopefully you’re already doing this, if not, you may have just found out why people are leaving (lack of new opportunities).

Have managers continue to do IC work — This is probably an unpopular opinion (and might get me some hate), but it’s a strategy that works (see most early stage startups). Having managers continue to do individual contributor (IC) work can also help to prevent knowledge silos, as well as keep the team’s skills up to date and in line with industry standards. Even companies like Meta are making this transition and asking managers do IC work.

Keep good documentation — Documenting your processes will allow other team members who aren’t fully trained on a process the ability to follow along until they’re comfortable. This also makes great training material for onboarding new employees. It requires some work to build and maintain, but can really pay off long term.

Keep contractors on retention — Keeping contractors on retention who are trained in the same area gives you extra coverage and capacity for any time you might need it, not just when people leave.

Conduct exit interviews — You want to do what you can to prevent more team members from leaving. Are there reasons this person left that might also be causing someone else to consider leaving?

Develop a succession plan — Identify key positions within the organization and develop a plan for how to fill them if an employee leaves. This can include identifying internal candidates or developing relationships with external candidates. This could also be how you plan to distribute the work temporarily if needed.

Build a talent pipeline — Develop relationships with potential hires before you need them. This could include attending job fairs, networking events, and reaching out to passive candidates. I’m not promoting ghost job postings, that’s bad, please don’t do that. There are however many great candidates who might join your company if the timing was different, and keeping in touch with them as a Hiring Manager can be helpful. Given enough contacts, maybe one of them is ready for a switch now where they weren’t a few months ago when you first connected with them.

Create a knowledge-sharing culture — Encourage your employees to share their knowledge and expertise with each other through training sessions, mentoring programs, and other knowledge-sharing initiatives. This can help ensure that important information is not lost when someone leaves.

Employee departures happen, and it’s important for managers to be prepared. By adopting at least some of these best practices, you can ensure that your team is ready for any scenario that may arise. These strategies not only help prepare for employee departures but also create a culture of knowledge-sharing and cross-training that can benefit your team in the long run. Don’t wait until someone on your team is leaving to start planning for the inevitable. Be proactive and celebrate their new opportunity, knowing that your team is ready for whatever comes next.