As the owner of a business, one thing you will always have to be ready for is the resignation of an employee, and this includes both long term and short term employees as well. Be it that the employee no longer needs the job, has found another job, is moving, or any of the other many reasons there could be, resignation is something that *will* happen and there is no real way for you to avoid it as a business owner . So when it does, how will you handle it? Do you announce the employees resignation? If so, who do you announce it to? When do you make this announcement? What legal aspects are there with an employee’s resignation? These are just a few of the many things to consider.
Dealing with an Employee Resigning
First and foremost, when an employee comes to you and informs you of his or her resignation, you are going to want to ask for the employee to give you an official written letter of resignation with the final date of employment. This is generally going to be able to protect you from fraudulent unemployment claims, among other things.
Next up is whether or not you are going to allow the employee to complete their work term, or dismiss them immediately. If the employee is valued and/or trusted, then you can benefit greatly by keeping them for the term. You can have them finish up any open projects, document and detail steps and processes for any projects that can’t be wrapped up, and possibly even help to transition another employee into those projects if the original employee cannot reasonably complete them. If the employee is not valued or simply is not needed to finish out the term, then you should politely inform them that they will be paid for the remainder of the time until termination, and that their services are no longer needed.
