How Can We Encourage Underperforming Employees to Resign Voluntarily? Seeking Advice

I am working with an IT company in Pune. We have recently completed the performance appraisal process and found that many people are not able to justify their work at the expected level. Therefore, we believe that some employees may not be suitable for long-term retention due to their subpar performance. Despite providing performance improvement plans to some individuals, the overall improvement has not met our expectations. Additionally, some of these employees are senior professionals with over four years of experience.

Seeking Advice on Voluntary Resignation Strategies

Could you please suggest appropriate actions we can take to encourage these employees to leave the company voluntarily? Should we consider issuing letters along with emails highlighting their performance issues?

I kindly request your advice on how to address this situation effectively and enhance organizational productivity.

Regards,

Dear Sunil,

When an employee is put on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP), you should have given him/her an official letter stating why it was done and what the consequences would be if he/she fails to improve performance even after the PIP.

For those who were under a PIP and did not show improvement in their performance, issue a show cause notice. If the reply is unsatisfactory, give them a three-month period along with a warning letter. If performance remains unsatisfactory even after this period, instruct them to submit their resignation.

Regards,
Dinesh V Divekar

Thank you for your input. In my company, we give the Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) for a particular duration depending on the output, and then we take action accordingly. During the PIP, their performance was satisfactory, so we did not have any reason to take action. However, after 2 months, we are facing the same performance issue. Therefore, we are considering giving them a notice clearly stating that we are giving them a final 2-month period, which essentially serves as a notice from the company. The last day of the notice period will be their last day with the company. If we ask them to leave immediately, we will have to pay them 2 months' notice pay. In this scenario, we will have some time to recruit new employees.

Kind regards,
Regards

Respected all,

I am working in an automobile company. I faced a problem regarding the PMS. The workers are not agreeing to perform the work and provide the output as per the requirement and plan. To address this issue, we have provided training to bridge the gap and have counseled and motivated them to help us achieve our targets. However, after some time, we encounter the same problem. We prefer not to issue any official letters for this matter. Therefore, please suggest alternative methods that we can use to maintain the PMS in the company and achieve our targets.

Best regards,
Naveen Kumar Phougat

Caution Before Issuing Notices

Please be careful before issuing any notice to an employee. The government is planning to bring IT companies under the INDUSTRIAL EMPLOYMENT (STANDING ORDERS) ACT. Therefore, any notice you issue or any action you take should be technically correct, i.e., foolproof. Please go through the Act and only then take action.

Regards.