Should you try to retain an employee after they’ve handed in their resignation letter?
CIO in Education, 1,001 - 5,000 employees
I generally don’t. As Bret said, if they’ve already decided to resign, it’s more than likely too late to get them to stay. Even if you’re successful in the short-term, whatever got their attention in the first place is probably going to happen again.AVP and Deputy CIO in Education, 10,001+ employees
It's never made sense to me to retain someone that has turned in their resignation. If they are leaving it means I can't compete (for whatever reason... salary, promotion, responsibilities, etc), because they have already talked to me and we've done everything we can to meet their needs, or they haven't talked to me which means we don't have the right relationship and they are better moving on. In most cases, it's a positive move for the employee and I support and celebrate their decision.Co-Founder and Director in Software, 2 - 10 employees
In my experience it is something that differs based on certain talent that I would want to take the effort to retain, or not. There are definitely times that I have gone the extra mile and successfully retained employees by opening a dialogue and making an effort to understand their reason to opt for the change. Several times they have made up their mind to move and there is no point in having the conversation but at other times it definitely is worth it. Saves us time and effort in trying to hire and train new talent. Either way, it's a simple gesture to show the team member that they are valued and we want to make the effort to understand them better and that goes a long way.CTO in Education, 1,001 - 5,000 employees
It is always good to listen to everyone before or after handing the resignation. An exit Interview is necessary to clear the air. Most of our employees were leaving due to personal problems with their superiors or colleagues or due to workload. And in most cases you will get a chance to fix it and retain them when needed.Content you might like
Always12%
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Sometimes20%
Rarely2%
Never0%
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What does Infrastructure and Operations (I&O) currently struggle with the most at your organization?
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Community User in Software, 11 - 50 employees
organized a virtual escape room via https://www.puzzlebreak.us/ - even though his team lost it was a fun subtitue for just a "virtual happy hour"
So my philosophy has always been that we don't pay people enough to be unhappy. If you're going to be unhappy in the work you're doing and not enjoy it, go find someone who's going to pay you a lot of money to be miserable. Because if you're going to be miserable, you might as well make as much money as you can. I look at all the intangible things we could do to make the job enjoyable, and I am in Tallahassee, Florida, which is a technological wasteland. We pay very little money, but I had zero turnover during the pandemic, even with folks who can telecommute and work anywhere now.
I think you've done truly an exceptional job, but I think you are more of an outlier versus what I've heard from many, many CIOs and CTOs. In the Bay Area, we're in this wonderful bubble. But when you get outside the Bay Area, we've seen that our customers who are CTOs and CIOs are struggling just to find basic talent. And remote working has both helped and hurt. I've heard many CIOs and CTOs say, "The coastal tech firms are gobbling up my talent, because they're offering them coastal comp, and they can work wherever they are."