After spending almost half of his life contributing to your office projects your employee has decided to end his association. He was there with you in your good times and in your bad times. Your office was his second home and his dedication and honesty towards his work was beyond comparison. You have secured many marquee clients because of his commitment. Now he has decided to leave you, Not because he wanted to but he is compelled to as he is going to explore his career in other areas. He gave you the needed milestones for your company to excel. He put forward your company ahead of the race amongst its peers.
I as an employer has rewarded him occasionally for all his achievements and even offered him some company shares. I feel I have done enough from my side and still felt that he needs to be rewarded with a good gesture. At least we could stay in touch with him even though he is not part of my company anymore. You never know if he would later consider re employment from us but for time being change is the only option left with him. But my HR policy do not allow me to offer him and Good Bye Bonus even if I want to.
The HR policy has so many good things like Retention Bonus, Joining Bonus, Performance Bonus then why not Good Bye Bonus ? Isn’t it something that is the demand of time now ? Isn’t it a good gesture to check with the employee whether he has successfully settled down or not in the new city? If some assistance is required then route him to necessary resources like Brokers. After all HR spent a lot of efforts in on boarding him. Why cost is above human touch here ? Just because The company is done with the services from the employee and such bonus payout would make no sense to the company.
Imagine of the great perception the employee would be carrying while you offer him this payout. The happiness is worth observing and re-hiring such people would be very easy comparatively to the employees who are left as it is. I do not demand it for everyone who leaves but some exceptions could be made. More importantly it is necessary to bring such policies in force if they are not in place at present. A mere 5% bonus would not affect much if the employee has offered you long term services.
Apparently HR Team has been criticizing a lot about candidates no show. But why not shorten that gap by compensating the existing resources rightly. Probably IT is the only industry where there is lots of compensation inequalities when it comes to working in the same skill sets. Please think in both strategic and broader perspectives. Strategies would only work when the junior employees are there to execute it. Only strategies and plans would not work single handed.
Happy Reading!