When Your Longest Tenured Employee Announces Their Retirement

When someone has been with your company for decades and announces they are going to retire, it’s a big event which needs to be handled more seriously than a routine replacement. Finding this colleague’s successor can have monumental impacts on your organization, so preparing to replace this person requires more rigor and due diligence than most other hires. The first thing to think about is immediately starting your search.

Let’s assume this colleague gives a 12-month notice before their retirement. At the very least, you need to start the hiring process three months in, giving yourself three months to hire and six months for this person to train with your outgoing employee. Your tenured employee will need to transfer decades of their institutional knowledge to the new person. This isn’t just about  day-to-day activities, but also where the bodies are buried, how things truly get done, and what landmines to avoid.

The interview process will be more drawn out and methodical, requiring multiple in-person meetings with all levels of management. Additionally, introductions to staff members who will be supervised by this new employee will also be warranted. If this individual is taking over a department, the culture fit must be vetted not just by management but by those who will be with them eight +hours a day. This is why you should start your search much earlier than you think. The standard two-week notice period does not work. Each new person that becomes involved in the hiring process adds an additional week to the timeline. People take vacations, their kids get sick, deadlines pop up from nowhere, and suddenly the time you thought you had has run out. And perhaps to make matters worse, the candidate you assumed was a shoe-in takes another job. The initial search start is now over and you have to start again.

Stay ahead of these speed bumps and start now.

The answer to the question you might be asking as you read this is “yes,” you will have overlapping payroll for the time period when the new person starts and the outgoing person leaves. But remember this is worth the added cost in order to achieve the most seamless transition possible. You would rather have overlap than nothing, but some choose nothing to save money. If you take the cheaper route,  your new colleague enters on day one to a complete mess instead of a calm, controlled situation. Evidence taken from many exit interviews has specifically mentioned the onboarding and training processes as major factors in success at the job (and why they are now leaving). Put in the extra time and effort to begin your search early and your organization will thank you later.

To learn more about how HHM Talent addresses hiring challenges faced by their clients, including those of replacing long standing employees, reach out to Joe Arrigo at jarrigo@hhmcpas.com

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