Who said anything about treating anyone poorly. We treat them great!
Firing is actually what draws lawsuits where I work. Voluntary resignation because the employee wants to pursue other things is risk free.
Then how on earth are you enticing people to quit by treating them great??? How, in particular, are you managing to entice only the employees you want to actually fire?
I'm so confused.
I think I'm a little bit aware of how this is done. There has to be some preliminary attempt to salvage the employee: perhaps a couple years of poor ratings using whatever passes as an objective standard. Maybe there's some kind of performance problem related to attendance or quantifiable results. Maybe the employee is engaged in harassment or substance abuse. If it's anything short of a crash-and-burn offense (such as industrial espionage or timecard fraud), you document the problem. You counsel the employee. You give the employee the chance to straighten up and fly right. You give the employee the same access to the great benefits other people have, right up to the point where you have to pull the plug. In short you give the employee just enough rope to hang himself or herself.
After the employee has identified himself or herself as someone whose shortcomings cannot be corrected, you set up a meeting with the employee and some objective witness such as a HR representative. You present the case and assert that the company has more than enough reason to fire that person immediately, without notice or pay in lieu of notice. But because you're a compassionate person, you're willing to let that person resign, immediately, and to pack up his or her desk under the supervision of security. Yet there's going to be an administrative fiction that he or she is retiring early, or quitting to pursue other options. Why? Because of the x weeks' worth of leave the company is willing to pay, instead of the zero the employee would otherwise be entitled to get.
Basically the "quitting" option is to save face, to avoid a lawsuit, and to give the soon-to-be-former employee a paycheck for a few weeks in a way that will hopefully leave the employee eligible for unemployment benefits. Depending on where you live, an employee who quits can sometimes still qualify for unemployment insurance and other state benefits.