Part of our work is sitting with senior people who have just been exited. They talk, and they are honest, because there is nothing left to protect.
Six or twelve months later, those same people are in the market. Some are hiring. Some are being asked for referrals. Some are sitting across from a recruiter being asked why they left.
What happened in that final conversation is still with them.
Where the cost shows up
Three places, none of which appear on a budget line.
The first is rehire. Boomerang hires are some of the cheapest, fastest placements available. They know the business, they need no induction, and they usually come back more capable than when they left. People who were exited badly do not come back. They also do not apply again, even for a role they would be perfect for.
The second is referrals. Senior HR and P&C people know everyone. When a role opens at a business where someone they know was treated poorly, they say so quietly. That conversation happens before any application does, and you never see it.
The third is us. Recruiters keep a view of which employers handle things well. When a strong candidate asks us about an organisation, we answer honestly. We are not running a campaign against anyone. We just tell people what we know.
What makes an exit go badly
It is rarely the money.
The pattern we see is this. The decision was made weeks before the conversation, and nobody said anything. The conversation was rushed. The reason given did not match what the person understood to be true. Support was offered in a generic email with a login. Then contact stopped.
The person is left to make sense of it themselves, and the version they land on is usually worse than what actually happened.
What makes it go well
Also not the money.
A clear reason the person can repeat without feeling diminished. A manager who stays contactable afterwards. Support that starts within days, not weeks, and comes from someone who knows the market they are walking into.
That is often the whole difference. The outcome for the person may be identical. The story they tell about you is not.
Worth asking
Of the people you exited in the last two years, how many would apply for a role with you again. How many would refer someone good. If you do not know, that is the answer.
Where we fit
We support people through transition after an exit, and we place HR and P&C talent. Which means we see both halves of this. We see how people leave, and we see what they say when they are back in the market.
If you have a restructure coming, the support you put around it is the part people remember. If you are also wondering what that support would cost, this gives you an indicative cost and ROI range in under two minutes:
Bianca and Emma
People & Purpose
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