By law, a team member is free to terminate his/her employment at will by giving the required period of notice. Most resignations are straight forward and can be handled using the process set out in the table below. However, sometimes resignations can raise issues you need to manage correctly. For example, is the resignation legitimate or might we somehow have caused them to resign? Was the team member constructively dismissed – forced to resign? Do we want to try to reverse their decision to resign? Has the team member given the required notice period and what part of that notice period will they work?

Resignation often comes with a request for a reference or to act as a referee and this should be managed on a case-by-case basis. To see what can constructively be learned from a resignation, the Organisational Development and Capability team hold exit interviews. Sometimes we must deal with situations where the termination is not strictly a resignation e.g. the team member is absent with little prospect of return or abandons their employment (see our section on non-disciplinary termination).

Resignation proces

When an employee notifies you of their intention to resign follow the process outlined in the flowchart.  If you are unsure at any point discuss the matter with Organisational Development and Capability.