People & Leadership

How to recover after losing your best employee

Jewel Hazelton is an editor and content writer. She specializes in providing advice small to mid-size companies looking to maintain their businesses growth. In her free-time she enjoys cooking, traveling, doing yoga and enjoying her local Atlanta neighborhood.

January 25, 2018 2 min read Leave a comment

When a football team loses its star player due to a season-ending injury, other players need to “step up” so the team can still perform and have a winning season. Businesses have to deal with similar losses, too. What makes a good employee quit? A key employee may leave for several reasons—moving, illness, a new career opportunity, higher education, or they even decide to start their own business. However, it could also be due to culture, employee autonomy, management, and lack of growth.

How can you bounce back from losing your best employee?

First, stay calm. You want to project confidence to your employees who are not leaving. Let them know while losing Joe or Jane is a painful blow to the team, life goes on and so will the business. It is time for everyone to move forward and overcome this temporary obstacle.
Minimize the damage. Can the departing employee responsibilities be reallocated? If some of the former employee’s skills are unmatched by your remaining staff, perhaps you can step up to the plate to fill the void or hire a seasoned freelancer with those skills.
Find an internal replacement. No one is truly indispensable. With some training, another loyal employee may be able to backfill the opening on your team—and they may even surprise you with different talents and perspectives that the previous employee didn’t have. If that is not an option, put on your recruiter’s hat and start networking.

Now, take steps to keep this situation from haunting you again:

Find out the real reason the employee is leaving. Speak with the employee after they give their notice, if possible. Common causes include lack of challenges, limited growth opportunities, and employee autonomy, micromanagement, dysfunctional culture, or feeling undervalued. You may not like the answer, but at least you can begin correcting a problem that may be festering others.
Identify critical skills that the former employee held and cross-train others to perform these jobs. Cross training helps employees to be more engaged in the business and supportive of your goals.
Start grooming potential “star” replacements. As a business leader, you should never stop looking for ways to hire great talent, cultivate their abilities, and motivate them to stay on your team.

How do you handle departures of your staff?