Leaver Journey

Similar to candidate journey, companies design leaver journey in order to ensure that each employee quitting the company is exited in a structured and orderly manner.

The leaver journey starts from the time the employee gives notice to his or her employer about the intention to quit (voluntary separation) or the company asks the employee to leave (involuntary separation). It ends formally when all tasks on employee departure checklist are completed.

In case of resignation, HR departments regularly conduct exit interview
* to assess the reasons for the employee leaving the company,
* to take the employee’s views on work and the company in general as well as
* to explore any “de-motivating” factors that led the employee to resign.

In case of involuntary separations, exit interviews are rare, as the leavers seldom cooperate. At the same time, any discussions beyond the termination chat are not easy to perform, neither by line-manager nor by HR. They are biased and besides this almost every list of exit questions addresses positive aspects of employment and this only increases leaver’s sorrow and regret.

Having no possibility to discuss the dismissal in an organized way, leavers do not have the opportunity to talk about their feelings, alleviate their emotions and verbalize their anger. Full of discomfort, desperation and bitterness, they go home and have all incentives that can cause harm to the company despite that their separation has been handled in a professional and mature manner. Stealing clients, poaching talent, failing a law suit resulting in financial burdens and bad press on employer ratings sites are only some of them.

As the fair and appropriate severance pay, may sweeten leavers unexpected turn in life, companies should go beyond it. Companies who want to mitigate risks of leavers’ “revenge” should help them to cope with the dismissal. Providing counseling, career, and job search support, delivered by an objective third party such as an outplacement provider, is one possible way.