It doesn’t matter how successful your MSP company is, those who started out with you likely won’t remain on staff or in leadership throughout the totality of your MSP’s lifespan. Some of the core, foundational members may quit, pure and simple.
You need to be prepared for this eventuality. Following, we’ll briefly explore three key best practices to help you handle such situations when they crop up–because they will crop up; the question is one of frequency rather than eventuality. With that in mind, consider the following:
See if You Can Change Anything to Keep Them
The person who is about to leave your MSP might be doing so for a better job, a change in their life’s situation, or any of a dozen things. However, sometimes they’re leaving over an issue that’s extremely simple to fix. Before the paperwork is finalized, and they have officially left your business, probe them to see what could be done to forestall or prevent them from quitting.
If You Can’t Talk Them Out of It, Keep Lines of Communication Open
As an MSP company, core members will likely have information access that could be problematic in the future. For security reasons, you want the split to be as amicable as possible. Also, especially if the employee has been with your MSP since the beginning, you want to keep the friendship alive.
There are plenty of situations where the person quitting is doing so for reasons that are beyond your or their control, and there’s no hard feelings. If there are hard feelings, you want to find ways of assuaging those feelings so they don’t come back to haunt you later.
They Could Come Back to Your Company, So Prepare Just in Case
There are lots of situations where someone leaves for an unofficial sabbatical, or family issues. Maybe someone in the family got injured and your core employee needs to be with them through the recovery process. Maybe they follow after a better job opportunity that doesn’t work out. Whatever the case, don’t completely write them off. Keep your options open for their potential return.
Mitigating Core Staff Issues
When you’re running an MSP company, there’s a high likelihood you’ll experience some turnover. If you’re about to lose one of your core employees, maybe even someone in upper management, you want to first see if you can talk them out of leaving. If you can’t, be sure to keep lines of communication open, and plan for the possibility of their return. You want to be secure as well, but when you’re in contact with the person who has left, and things are amicable, security issues are truncated.
