The curious case of Notice Period !!

Amit was looking for a job change for quite sometime & when he finally got a job offer, he was very happy. The prospects of a new job had already started playing on in his mind (new opportunities, new things to learn, improved finances & a better quality of life). 

Monday mornings were never as bright for him as it was that day when he went to meet his manager to inform him of his resignation. After a brief discussion with his manager, Amit was left dejected. He was reminded of the 3 months Notice Period that he would have to serve as per the contract. 

This may be a hypothetical situation but we encounter this every day at our work place, don't we?

If you were in Amit's shoes would you be giving your heart & soul to the work in those 3 months? think about it practically?

That makes me wonder WHAT PURPOSE DOES THE NOTICE PERIOD SERVE?

Let me try & present my views on this - 

The probable set of action after Amit's meeting with his boss could be the boss informing the HR manager about it & they both discussing on way forward to look to retain Amit or to look for his replacement from within the organization or from outside. 

If they decide to retain Amit, they need to ask themselves why did Amit think of resigning in the 1st place. Was it money, lack of respect & / or opportunities, work-life balance or all of them? 

HR would do well for themselves if they spent time introspecting in this area & finding solutions which can prevent / reduce Amit type situations drastically. 

Now, if they try to retain him, they will spend some time in back & forth discussions which will eat into the notice period that Amit is already into. Typically these discussions consume around 50-60% of the notice period duration & if the organization is not able to convince Amit, then the search for replacement begins which involves the following :-

1) Identifying suitable candidates.

2) Lining up multiple rounds of interviews & getting the candidate on board with his/her own notice        period to deal with. 

typically the Notice Period is meant to give time to HR to look for an alternative & get the candidate on board to have some amount of hand holding with leaving candidate but the above mentioned process hardly gives people the time to achieve that objective. this is where the search for replacement can go wrong as the hiring now is done with time factor in mind which could result in organizations not necessarily picking the right candidate suitable for the role but instead picking the one who is easily available at that point of time. 

Organizations can rethink their strategy a little bit & consider handing over Amit's work to his fellow team members, subordinates or even manager by paying them an additional amount for the quantum & duration of the responsibility being shared & look to relieve Amit in 7 days Notice Period. (lesser the better !!) The 7 days would be utilized to gather all business specific information that Amit has been working on / has access to, organization assets that was provided to Amit, allowing him time to bid good bye to his friends, colleagues & managers & overall allow him a good exit. (organizations need to consider building this culture & promote it. Many organizations don't realize how much goodwill they can earn by doing this simple thing) 

in any case if Amit were to go on a long leave for health reasons how would the organization adjust? 

If organizations brought down the Notice Period to say 7 days, they will benefit immensely as - 

a. Candidates prefer to work for such an organization thereby organization building a good reputation for itself in the industry.

b. Candidates resigning will also be careful as they have only 7 days notice period to rethink their resignation & this will bring down the cases of people resigning ONLY to bargain for salaries.  

c. It will allow organizations to look at the bench strength & who knows one of the guys may be good enough to take up the role completely thereby eliminating the need to get a replacement thereby bringing savings to the organization.

d. It will set a trend in the industry as many would want to look at that seriously making availability of new candidates that much more easier across the system & significantly bringing down the cases of "blackmail" resignations.

Now, look at the situation - Amit's work is been managed / shared & business continuity is not affected. with this backdrop, searching for the right candidate to replace Amit would be that much more easier. 

HR now has all the time to go through the entire hiring process & ensure a BEST FIT candidate is brought in as replacement to Amit which will serve the organization well in the long run.   

Don't you think this will work well for organizations?

This is my 1st blog ever since I started my own company in 2013. 

I plan to publish a blog on last Sunday of every month & will cover topics that I feel can make a change to our system.  

My blogs are based on my learnings & experiences from the corporate world & as an entrepreneur. 

I welcome your views, suggestions & opinions on this blog. 

Thanks & Regards

Srinath Rao

OSR Consultants