Ask HN: How to Deal with Multiple Resignations?

[qetuo13579]

Last month our company president in the US announced that the electronics manufacturing department in Australia (former head office) will be made redundant and production is moving to the US. The R&D team of 8 electronics and software engineers in AU has been assured that their jobs are safe but 3 have already resigned. The US has a small engineering team but have plans to hire 4 more engineers.

What should we do to boost morale and prevent further resignations? Promise a bonus if they stay for 12 months? Immediate salary increases? Expedite hiring replacements for the engineers who resigned? Invest in professional development training courses for the remaining engineers?

[tacostakohashi]

From a mixture of what you have said, with some reading between the lines:

* AU was originally head office + manufacturing + r&d.

* Then, head office was moved to the US (where the company president is now), but manufacturing + r&d were left in Australia. I would bet money that when this happened, there was an announcement of "don't worry, this is the only change we're making, all the other jobs are safe and everything else is staying the same!"

* Now, manufacturing is moving, but everyone else has "been assured that their jobs are safe".

Can you see the pattern? The 3 that have resigned so far can.

[brudgers]

There's a maxim that people don't leave bad jobs, they leave bad bosses. There are not a lot of worse things a boss can do than eliminate a person's job because it is a violation of trust. All the things you list could have been part of the plan and offered when the redundancy was announced. That they were not shows that the boss was not thinking about the employees as people, merely as a cost center in an org-chart.

If the president cared, their ass would be on a plane to see people in person. They wouldn't be offloading the search for solutions to you.

Good luck.

[helsinkiandrew]

I know from experience that working at an outpost of a company run from another country can suck unless communication and direction are very clear.

Whatever the company may have said about assurances that their jobs are safe, making people in Australia redundant, moving production to the US and hiring more people in the US sounds as if thats the direction the company is heading in and the jobs in AU will be less interesting and eventually eliminated.

Retention bonuses and salary may help, but letting them know what the AU team role will be (why is it being kept rather than moved to the US). Will they have autonomy or ownership of something or just passed overflow work from the US?

[qetuo13579]

The AU engineers have all the existing product knowledge. The US is hiring for multiple positions to work on new products but US HQ doesn’t want there to be a distinction between the two teams. The plan is for both sites to be involved in all projects.

[twobitshifter]

I think the engineers are voting that it’s not a great idea to separate r&d from production. There’s many stories of how this has led to further outsourcing and loss of technical edge.

[DamonHD]

Have you asked the 3 who resigned why?

All of the things that you suggest may help, but if it turns out that they all hate US HQ or at least don't trust it and have mentally committed to jumping ship, it may be better to let them go. I've not seen good results from keeping people once they've passed that point.

[qetuo13579]

Two got spooked and were nervous about their future with only 13 months tenure. The third is a senior dev with more than 10 years who’s disgruntled and convinced he’d only be kept on to tidy up loose ends and then discarded. Of the remaining engineers some have 18 months tenure and others 8 years.

[gccs]

Their concerns are valid. If I was them I'd leave as soon as I had an offer from another company. A company opening positions in another location with such few employees is very concerning.

Assurance that their jobs are safe is a joke. Its like when a company says that they are just one big family. Only management believe those lies and they force them on everyone else.

[lostdog]

The company could put their money where their mouth is.

Are you truly being honest about keeping them on? Write up a contract that guarantees them X years of employment, at Y severance per month if terminated early.

More realistically, you should consider that the ones resigning have a better read on the situation than you do.

[oriel]

To look at the bigger picture here, this is really the longtail of trust lost in companies due to excessive layoffs and clear consistent messaging that the employee is just a head that can roll when its convenient and cost effective.

The reaction of those 3 employees was my own, and when the culture is so clearly against you, and the company clearly doesnt have more than fluff words (across the org) to retain you, then the net sentiment has shifted strongly away from "trust the employer" to "the employer will screw me the first chance they get".

[foobarbaz33]

The guys may be scared or disgruntled. But they very well could be making assumptions that line up with reality. Even you may not be privy to the long term plans for AUS. It may be a temporary stay until product knowledge is well established in the USA.

[Agingcoder]

You can't : if I were in their shoes I simply wouldn't believe you, and would leave as quickly as possible.

You could try giving them 'unbreakable' contracts (pay X with X big if you end up firing them) but even then, they know that if it's only about money, they will eventually be fired.

Basically, it looks like you now have one giant trust issue.

If I were a bit cynical, I'd say it's a great way for US management to get rid of the entire Australian team without having to deal with the complexities of firing everyone at once (which might be difficult or expensive in some countries, I don't know about Australia ).

[tschwimmer]

There’s nothing you can do. Layoffs are a strong negative signal to employees for a number of reasons. If you don’t want people to quit, don’t do layoffs.

[Raed667]

> has been assured that their jobs are safe but 3 have already resigned

There you go, they didn't believe in that reassurance.

You want to keep the rest? Make them see your long term plan for their department.

[foolmeonce]

Unless you want to internationally relocate to stay with this firm, I would assume that it is time to move on and leave this to someone else. Even if the firm has no intention of giving up the location, they also aren't going to be committed enough and keeping it will likely be a thankless battle.

[rdtwo]

Well for one you should be looking for a new job. If you are a management type your job search will take longer. Your R&D team is being retired or will be soon having been disconnected from production. So figure out how long this process will take and offer them bonuses to stay till the end

[innagadadavida]

Ask them this same question and update your post - that would make a more holistic and interesting conversation.

[ManlyBread]

Most likely you can't.

The signal from these actions is clear - there's no stable footing in this company anymore. People are leaving because there is no telling what comes next and it is better to leave on your own terms than to get fired.

Promises are worthless because the company can break them at any time. If you're serious about any then put them in writing so the terms are clear.

[bryan_w]

Let's say they are making $80k/yr: I'd offer them a $40k bonus if they stay 2 years and a severence of at least $160k if they are made redundant in the next 2 years. This should buy you some breathing room to show that things are stable.

[sloaken]

When manufacturing was made redundant, how did you treat those workers? Smart money gets a resume together and finds another job now, while the IT economy is hot.

What can your company do to convince people to stay? Hire more (more than 3) engineers in Australia. If they plan to keep an engineering branch in Australia. If they are planning on closing it down ... You offer specific plans to the remaining people to stay until you close. So say, we will maintain an office and your employment for 6 months after we close the place, that will give you 6 months, on the clock, to find a new job.

[muzani]

It sounds like lack of trust. Throwing more money at the problem won't secure trust. You'd probably have to go the hard route, which is having some honest conversations with people.

[michael1999]

What cause have you provided to believe your empty assurances? They correctly foresee that engineering is likely to follow production in the name of communication and efficiency.

[pestatije]

I'm definitely not recommending this, but wouldn't it be awesome, up to their face, if YOU did offer your resignation?

[softwaredoug]

"Your jobs are safe" isn't quite the same as the jobs will be fulfilling. I can imagine the team saying "well the writings on the wall, we're not doing the fun stuff anymore, its getting sent to the US team."

[fiftyacorn]

Whoever made the decision will be expecting this to happen, and I don't think there is much you can do