The case of a good breakup-How HR should deal with her EXes

No one likes to see a good thing end. But sometimes we’re pushed into ending good relationships (and bad ones!)for various reasons. For instance, this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic millions of people across the world have been let go from work because of the negative economic impact faced by many companies with ILO predicting that nearly half of the global workforce will be affected by the pandemic. Uber, for instance, has so far fired over 6700 employees while many companies here at home have also gone through a similar route with the numbers steadily rising past the 2 million mark. While it is every leader’s required skill to be resilient and prepare for both worst & best cases scenarios, ending a relationship is never easy for anyone. In this COVID time, it’s also important to remember that how we treat these layoffs matters a lot soon after we overcome & get through this.

Why should you care?

Randstad study, found that a staggering 86% of people would not consider applying to or continue to work for a company that has a bad reputation with former employees or the general public.

• Everything should be looked at from the lens of a relationship. The companies doing the best in attracting & retaining great people are those who treat people as that. People. Not an asset or a means to an end. You’ll recognize them straight from how they engage with you before you’re even hired and those who go out of their way to establish a relationship with you as opposed to those trying to close the job fast. The best HR managers know everything is a long-time compounding play. That’s the difference between hiring and talent acquisition. If we always work to maintain good relationships with those working & not working for us, the benefits are reaped eventually. We’ll look into strategic talent acquisition in another article.

“Employees engage with employers and brands when they’re treated as humans.”- Meghan Biro

“If you’re good to your staff when things are going well, they’ll rally when times go bad.”-Mary Kay Ash

• Branding is everything in the 21st century. And this doesn’t just apply to marketing departments only. HR has to invest more in attracting & retaining the right type of talent in the company. We’ve discussed severally in this blog about the power of EB in the digital & networked era and the low retention numbers of millennial talent. As mentioned before, employers and leadership are on the test this year as potential talent is monitoring how they’re responding to the crisis in relation to their staff. One such company that has since suffered because of negative HR press is Amazon and Facebook. It’s also the age of social where gossip & reviews travel faster than anything else including what former employees have to say about you.

65% of Millennials said that they are more skeptical of claims made by employers now than they were in 2011. (CEB Survey, 2014)

The majority of job seekers read at least six reviews before forming an opinion of a company. (Glassdoor U.S. Site Survey, January 2016)

• Technology gives HR superpowers we didn't have before.- And we don’t mean firing people over Zoom, but rather, with the use of technology even during this work-from-home period, there’s still a lot we can do to manage exits well and retain key relationships of those we’ve let go of. The emerging face of technology gives HR abilities we didn't have before. More notes on this are below.
• You can’t force people to stay anyway-As Reid Hoffman notes in his book The Alliance; Managing Talent in the Networked Age, “Acknowledging that your employees might leave is how you build the relationship that convinces people to stay.” By accepting that there’s no long-term obligation a company & jobseeker have with each other, it makes room for candid conversations from the very beginning of the hiring process for both parties to figure out how to get the most out of the relationship, from Day One!

So let’s review some techniques about how we could manage exits(voluntary or not) better.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Getting closure?

• The exit interview- There’s a reason why most people in relationships ask for closure after the end of a good relationship. The exit interview provides us with a great opportunity to figure out what happened. It’s also important to understand the real reason why the relationship is ending and what could have been done differently. Deviate from the usual exit survey and craft your questions in a way that gives you the most insightful responses about critical areas of your HR strategy e,g Culture, Leadership, or Retention. Do not just copy a template online. Every company is different so the key is to focus on the key HR KPIs that are tied to business results while still maintaining empathy. And to take a few pointers from great onboarding processes, do not try to squeeze everything into one day or an hour. Feel free to even take the staff outside the office for lunch or coffee to get them into a more comfortable setting. Solicit feedback on everything including what they would wish to change about their job, company culture or processes, and even the exit itself. This is a chance to let them know they’re valued even at the end. A great interview(including exits) should however never feel like one. So the goal is to have meaningful conversations with the employee about their experience with you while being genuine and authentic. If you’re dealing with a large group of people, pair this up with team or company parties or farewell dinners and make it a transition not the finale.
• Follow the law & your policies- The last thing you want to face after Corona is a list of lawsuits because you missed out on critical steps during your dismissal process. Work with legal & HR partners from the very beginning to evaluate company policies, ethics & labour laws. This should guide all your communication, compensation & exit procedures and help you avoid landing into trouble later on. This is especially so if the exit isn't voluntary as in the case of a disciplinary or performance dismissal. And while at it, be sure to set up a robust exit management policy or procedure. This keeps things consistent & helps avoid anything slipping between the cracks. I’ve seen teams trying to recover gadgets & laptops from staff who’ve left to others not disabling security & software access to their detriment. Having a checklist and 2 or 3 people signing off at various stages helps you with accountability & efficiency while staying organized. Check out Product hunt or Capterra for exit management software that can also automate this process for you but an Excel sheet can also work just fine.
• Be honest- Trust is a key ingredient in every relationship. All parties need to be honest about how the relationship went and the good and bad of it all. This is the only way to ensure we’re working on real issues and not superficial ones. So even if we’re now forced to do this over video and you may be dealing with a larger number of exits than normal, leaders(especially managers & HRs) should ensure two-way open communication and be honest to staff always. The longer you try to keep things under wraps, the less control you have over the situation. As we said, news travels fast. And fake news travels even faster. Be honest but intentional with your communication plan. The reverse is also true for employees choosing to leave voluntarily.
• Compare expectations- Did the reality meet the expectations? Bring out their onboarding survey that highlighted key things that made the employee apply for your job or choose your company. What were their expectations at the beginning vs at the end? The goal should be to minimize the disparity as much as possible. This is why tracking the employee journey from beginning to end is critical. Because whatever is not measured is not improved. Our work in HR is linked and by the time you’re organizing the employee’s last week, gather all relevant data regarding them to form a much better picture of their tenure & keep the engagement personalized. Data is power. Trust me, it will come in handy for the next level of engagement.

Still texting?-The Alumni Club

Should you text your ex? HR definitely says YES! This is one of the differences between companies that still have traditional HR processes and those working towards strategic HRM. The latter is forward-looking. As Reid Hoffman wrote in the book The Alliance, the best managers know that you can’t keep someone working for you forever in this age(especially with millennials & now remote work). Having conversations with your employees about their career aspirations and recognizing they may leave at any time is key to helping get the most out of the relationship while it lasts. One of the companies known best to do this extremely well is Mckinsey Consulting. This Company not only helps you land your next opportunity but also has an alumni club for its global workforce which is active & engaged.

“The best teams in the world have incredible talent, but they also have depth so they can readily adapt to change & adversity. In sports, they call this bench strength.- Russell Glass

• Keep in touch- Technology can help you maintain your key relationships even after the exit process has ended. This is especially so for managers dealing with a large number of contacts eg Uber COVID layoffs. Use either a contact management system, alumni management software and even those specifically built for enterprises such as https://enterprisealumni.com/ or build one in-house which can use Artificial Intelligence to automate engagement and kickstart meaningful conversations by having tools that track key info about them e.g career moves, key skills or networks. Machine learning can help you sieve through larger amounts of data eg from resumes, performance reviews, career paths, interview notes, etc to help you make decisions faster & smarter. Remember, former staff can be great for different HR initiatives including employer branding, succession planning, reverse mentorship, and hiring pipeline (referrals & boomerangs are some of the easiest hires), and could even become potential customers for you. Keeping in touch on social media platforms & professional sites can not only help build your future pipeline but also keep you abreast of what they're saying about your company. Follow up, Just don’t be a creep about it.

-Photo by Ksenia Makagonova on Unsplash

• Help each other move on- A breakup doesn’t have to be the worst thing in the world. It’s a networked world where everything comes back around tenfold. Offer generous severance packages that will help your staff land on their feet and feel appreciated, especially if the job loss was sudden. A lot of tech companies in US have even set up talent lists for their former employees and set up several engagements with their networks or talent community to share news or recommendations. Andela also encouraged their community last year to check out their talent list and hire their ex-devs. You could set up other resources including blogs, email lists, text jobs alerts, WhatsApp groups, or any other channels that are the most natural for your ex-staff to keep engaging with each other or you. Or borrow a leaf from some of the best-managed alumni communities by global communities such as Harvard and use alumni management software. Just keep everything opt-in since there are many who prefer to completely just end a relationship and not keep ties. Respect this. Do not assume anything despite your good intentions. For more on how to set up engaging email campaigns, read our blog post on the same.
• The transition — Moving on also involves ensuring duties and tasks are handed over effectively and in due time. HR should oversee this as they work on a new hire or plan for the role. You don’t want the Dunder Miffin situation where the new boss Charles, picks the wrong people for the transition duties as they worked to finish their hiring process after losing 2 staff abruptly. (Reference below)
• The recommendation letter- An episode of How to get away with Murder this week showed me great examples of this. The key lawyer Annalise Keating arranged a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant with her interns where she hand-delivered their recommendation letters. Each one is crafted to reflect her thoughts on each of them & not just a generic template. She chose to focus on the attitude & character of her people instead of law competencies. As the famous HR quote goes. “Hire for character. You can always train for skill.- Peter Schultz”. You can watch the episode(Season 4 eps 1) to listen to each of the interns read their personalized recommendation letters and take notes. Use other channels including social media and LinkedIn recommendations to give shout-outs to your employees and leave a good word. Keeping a record of these properly will help your company deal with constant referral requests. If a new company wants my review, even if the manager has left your company, this should still be available. And while at it, encourage them to also leave a good word for you on review sites like Glassdoor & Kununu.

What if the relationship was bad?

• Follow all the above tips including being honest with the employee about how they failed to meet your company expectations and providing an honest review of your opinion of them & their work. Remember to keep records of all conversations and documentation that would support your decision. Be honest to future employers who may reach out to you later for a referral. Follow due process internally & legally to make the exit as quick & professional as possible.

Let’s normalize having good breakups and keeping in touch with our exes. Put in as much work into your exits as you did in your hiring. The good ones at least;-) Feel free to innovate as well and maybe one day we will be taking pointers from your company.

For an incredible example of what a terrible exit exercise looks like, enjoy watching the popular TV show The Office season 4 episode 4(Goodbye Toby)

Read the entire script here. So many lessons amidst all the humor. Ssn5 Eps 21&22 also highlighted some of the exit loopholes as Michael resigns and tries to poach his colleagues & clients hilariously to join his newly formed competing paper firm.

Do you have any ideas about what else HR could do better in handling staff exits? Comment below.

If you’ve lost your job recently, check out https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/employment-law/pages/post-separation-monitoring.aspx