How to react when your star employees resign

"I Quit" two simple words can make a big change in the lives of many people.

Talking about the professional world, these words can create a drastic effect on the company, and when it is coming from someone people look at as their mentor or are the star performers on which company relays for its most of the work, it's jaw-dropping news that's hard for your employees to digest.
It is very obvious that when it's your top employees resigning, the news will be spread among the employees like fire, everyone's eyes on how would you react to this resignation and what would be the final outcome.
In order to keep everything at the normal pace and to see if none of your other employees gets affected by this news, it's important you keep a check on your response towards the situation and handle it with care.
Confused how? Read further to get into details...

Don't burst-out, allow them to talk freely

Resignation from a very loyal and talented employee might give you a shock of life, but don't be very quick to show your reaction as this might create a negative impact on your employee's mind. Take your time to process and digest your employee's decision to leave.
Ask them why they think they can't continue to work with them more, listen to the reasons they give and try to understand their concerns. This could help you know where you lacked or what kind of issue be the cause of the loss of a loyal employee.

Take his feedback with a negotiation technique

Once you are done with the listening part, try to negotiate by understanding their concerns and changing the terms of the agreement.
Most of the employers try to negotiate on the salary part to get ready to continue with the firm.
But be very careful with whom you try the negotiation approach, as many employees use this as a strategy to increase their salary. Think if his reason is valid, and you really can do anything about it to retain your other employees. Finally, if you both can not get on the same page to agree on the negotiation, try to end the conversation by accepting his/her decision.
Ask them for feedback, what they think should be improved as they have had a very good time working with the company. Discuss the pain points that the employees feel and try to figure out how to overcome them.

Be positive in your actions

You are the leader of your organization, the way you take the negatives of the company will decide how your employees will look at the situation.
There would be a great effect on the team working with the person who is leaving the company, so if you want them not to think negatively about you or the decision, try to be positive when you communicate this news in your office.
Show them that you respect the decision and acknowledge the loss that the company has in terms of a person and his talent, appreciate him for his efforts and the years he has given for the company growth and bade a happy goodbye.
Make sure you pass a consistent message among your employees to keep the trust intact.

Let the transition process flow naturally

Your employee is working with your organization and the team from a very long time, there might be many dependencies on him in terms of work and responsibilities.
Don't overburden them in their last two weeks, make the transition process smooth and let him/her make a flow where the team and the work don't suffer in his absence. Make the relieving documents ready before his final day at the office. Plan a celebratory farewell to make the departure a happy ending instead of an emotional, unrecognized leave.

Reevaluate your employee management tactics

You have just lost a very valuable asset to your organization. Take this as a lesson, in order to make sure that the rate of this loss doesn't increase in number, start thinking about the reasons mentioned by your employee for his decision.
Think about what can you change in your existing policies to keep your employees happy. Start focusing on employee merriment by implementing some corporate team building activities. Have a one-to-one conversation with your employees if possible once a month to know what and how they feel about their work and their workplace. This could surely help you for retaining your employees before they get burned-out to leave.

Summing Up

Changes are part of nature, but how you react to this change will increase or decrease the value of it. A resignation by your most talented employee will affect the work process of your company but if you see it just as a small bump in the road, it will not stop you from progressing.
So always be calm and poised to face such a situation, yes the process is daunting but your reaction decides how respectfully you handle it without disturbing your company environment.