As a business owner, you would like your employees to give you two weeks’ notice before they quit. This way, you can take steps to plan for the transition. You may need to shift duties around, have other employees cover for them or start the interview process as you look to replace the employee who is leaving.
While you certainly can request employees to provide two weeks’ notice, can you require it? Is it possible to make this mandatory so that you always have advance notice before someone leaves?
Only if you use an employment contract
To do so, you’d have to use an employment contract. Under the law itself, there is no requirement for employees to give any notice. If you have workers who are at-will employees and earning an hourly wage, for example, they could simply stop coming into work tomorrow, and there would be nothing illegal about it. They don’t owe you an explanation or any warning.
That said, employment contracts can be written to make this a requirement. For example, executives often have contracts stating that they need to give a certain amount of notice before quitting—and it could be far more than two weeks. The company needs time to transition and hire a new CFO or CEO. Once an executive signs this contract, they do have an obligation to follow it if they decide to quit their job.
In some cases, employees may violate standing employment contracts. If this happens, it can lead to disputes and legal complications, so be sure you know what steps to take.