In the UK, an employee is required to provide their employer with a specified period of notice. This will usually be set out under the terms of the contract of employment, which may also provide that notice must be in writing.
Upon receipt of resignation, it is good practice to acknowledge the resignation promptly and in writing. This will assure the employee that their resignation has been accepted.
The employer should also consider how it intends to deal with the employee’s notice period. Subject to the terms of the employment contract, the employer may (i) require the employee to work their notice period as normal and undertake a handover, or (ii) place the employee on garden leave, or (iii) pay the employee in lieu of notice so their employment ends immediately.
When an employee resigns, they must be paid any money owed to them, including but not limited to:
The employer should have standard offboarding processes in place, including with respect to the collection of company property in the employee’s possession. The employer should retain the written resignation correspondence for its files, include the details in the next Full Payment Submission made to HMRC and give the employee a P45 (this should ideally be given to them on their last working day, or with their final payslip).
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