Someone just handed in their notice. Maybe it was expected. Maybe it came completely out of nowhere. Either way, there’s a familiar feeling that follows a mix of frustration, mild panic and the immediate urge to just get the job posted and find a replacement as quickly as possible.
I’ve seen this play out hundreds of times across 27 years of working in HR and operational management. And the businesses that handle it best aren’t the ones that move fastest. They’re the ones that pause just long enough to think clearly before they act.
Here’s what I’d actually do in the first 48 hours.
Hour 1 Breathe and Don’t Post the Job Yet
The instinct to immediately post the vacancy is understandable but almost always wrong. You don’t yet know what you actually need you just know you’ve lost what you had.
Before anything else, sit down and ask three questions:
- Is this role still the right shape for the business?
- Was this person doing what their job description said, or something quite different?
- Is this an opportunity to restructure, promote internally or redistribute rather than just replace?
A resignation is often the best chance you’ll get to look objectively at a role without the pressure of it being occupied. Use it.
Hours 2–4 Have a Proper Conversation
Book time with the person who has resigned not a formal exit interview yet, just a conversation. Keep it calm, keep it professional and keep it curious rather than emotional.
What you’re trying to understand:
- What’s actually driving the decision is it the role, the team, the management, the money or something else entirely?
- Is there anything that would change their mind and is that something you’d actually want to offer?
- What do they know that you need to capture before they leave?
This conversation is genuinely valuable not to talk them out of it (that rarely ends well) but to gather information that helps you make better decisions going forward. Most people will be honest if you approach it properly.
Hours 4–8 Assess the Real Impact
Now think commercially. What does this resignation actually mean for the business?
- What work will immediately be at risk if this person leaves tomorrow?
- Who else in the team will be affected and how?
- What knowledge, relationships or processes live only in this person’s head?
- What’s a realistic timeline to have someone functioning in this role and what happens in the gap?
This assessment shapes everything that follows. If the answer is ‘the business will be fine for a few months’ you have time to recruit properly. If the answer is ‘things will start falling apart in two weeks’ you need a different plan, possibly an interim arrangement while you recruit.
The cost of a bad reactive hire almost always outweighs the cost of a short gap. Almost always.
Hours 8–24 Communicate With Your Team
People talk. If your team hears about this through the grapevine before you’ve said anything, you’ll spend the next week managing anxiety and speculation on top of everything else.
You don’t need to share everything but a brief, calm, honest message that acknowledges the resignation, thanks the person leaving and reassures the team that there’s a plan goes a long way. It maintains trust and stops the rumour mill before it starts.
Hours 24–48 Now Decide What You Actually Need
By now you have enough information to make a proper decision rather than a reactive one. The options are usually:
- Replace like-for-like the role is right, you just need the right person in it
- Restructure the role same function, different shape, possibly different seniority or scope
- Redistribute the work no replacement needed, the work gets absorbed elsewhere
- Promote internally someone in the team is ready for this
- Interim first, recruit later bridge the gap while you take time to recruit properly
Each option has different implications for cost, timeline and risk. The right answer depends entirely on your business but making this decision consciously, rather than defaulting to ‘just replace them’, is what separates a well-managed resignation from an expensive one.
The Most Expensive Thing You Can Do
Panic-hire. Post the same job advert in a hurry, interview whoever applies fastest, make an offer because you’re under pressure and end up with the wrong person in the role. The average cost of a bad hire is estimated at anywhere from one to three times the annual salary when you factor in recruitment costs, management time, underperformance and the whole process starting again.
Forty-eight hours of clear thinking at the start will save you months of the wrong hire at the other end.
Had a resignation land on your desk?= Get in touch !
