Offboarding is the process during which an employee parts ways with the organization they worked for. It starts from the moment an employee hands in their resignation and ends the day they leave the company, but the effects of it extend long after the employee leaves.
Why is offboarding important?
- Former employees are ambassadors
- Former employees can become future employees
- Former employees are customers too
- Maintaining organizational knowledge
Offboarding process
1. Thank the leaving employee
Thank the employee for all their work and efforts during their time with you at the organization, and make it clear that they will be missed. If they are taking the next step in their career or their life, don’t forget to congratulate them.
2. Communicate about the departure
While it can be tempting to hold off on communicating about an employee’s departure until you’ve got all the details, it is wiser to share this information sooner rather than later to build trust and transparency and reduce company gossip. Communicate with the outgoing employee on how and when this news will be shared.
3. Ensure a knowledge transfer
Whether you hire a successor or not, it’s important to keep the leaving employee’s knowledge inside your company.
Make sure you have:
It’s always good to ask people to create a handover document or video with useful tips for whoever will take over their role. If you know who this will be, the handover can start immediately.
4. Recover company assets
It’s important to ask the leaving employee to hand in company equipment on their last day: company badges or lanyards, credit cards, uniforms, phones, laptops, or a company car.
It’s a good idea to create a checklist of all assets to ensure that you don’t miss anything.
Thank the employee for all their work and efforts during their time with you at the organization, and make it clear that they will be missed. If they are taking the next step in their career or their life, don’t forget to congratulate them.
2. Communicate about the departure
While it can be tempting to hold off on communicating about an employee’s departure until you’ve got all the details, it is wiser to share this information sooner rather than later to build trust and transparency and reduce company gossip. Communicate with the outgoing employee on how and when this news will be shared.
3. Ensure a knowledge transfer
Whether you hire a successor or not, it’s important to keep the leaving employee’s knowledge inside your company.
Make sure you have:
- A clear overview of the daily tasks they perform
- An understanding of tasks have priority
- Access rights to all the systems and files they use
- A list of people they work with, both inside and outside the organization
It’s always good to ask people to create a handover document or video with useful tips for whoever will take over their role. If you know who this will be, the handover can start immediately.
4. Recover company assets
It’s important to ask the leaving employee to hand in company equipment on their last day: company badges or lanyards, credit cards, uniforms, phones, laptops, or a company car.
It’s a good idea to create a checklist of all assets to ensure that you don’t miss anything.
👉🏻 Download Offboarding Checklist
5. Revoke systems access
Remember to revoke the employee’s access to all systems, including the internal company network and any other accounts and software to which they have access. For example, CRM systems, the company’s social media accounts, content databases, and access to sales dashboards. This is an important step to prevent any security risks.
6. Hold an exit interview
When done properly, an exit interview can provide you with a wealth of information, including insight into your organization’s strengths and weaknesses that you would not usually receive and how to improve the latter.
An exit interview will typically be a confidential meeting between someone from the HR team and the exiting employee. Take all feedback seriously, and remember that the exit interview will play a big part in how the leaving employee will remember you as an employer.
8. Arrange final payments and benefits
Just as some companies forget to revoke a leaving employee’s systems access, they sometimes forget to take them off their payroll.
Even though most payroll systems have this functionality built in, double-check that the final payment process is carried out by your Payroll or Finance department. To facilitate this, give them all the details they need, including the employee’s end date, notice period, possible holidays that need to be paid out, and anything else of importance.
9. Stay in touch
There are various ways to stay in touch with former employees, such as via a talent pool or an alumni group. Both options allow you to send former employees the latest company news (and vacancies) so that they remain in the loop if they want to be. Dedicated corporate alumni software providers like Aluminati and EnterpriseAlumni can be a great option.
But staying in touch has other benefits, too. As we briefly mentioned, it can be useful in case you’ve lost some knowledge only the leaving employee had or if their successor needs help with a specific task.
From the former employee’s perspective staying in touch has advantages too, for example, when they need a reference or a letter of recommendation, or if one day they see a vacancy that piques their interest and potentially want to return.
Remember to revoke the employee’s access to all systems, including the internal company network and any other accounts and software to which they have access. For example, CRM systems, the company’s social media accounts, content databases, and access to sales dashboards. This is an important step to prevent any security risks.
6. Hold an exit interview
When done properly, an exit interview can provide you with a wealth of information, including insight into your organization’s strengths and weaknesses that you would not usually receive and how to improve the latter.
An exit interview will typically be a confidential meeting between someone from the HR team and the exiting employee. Take all feedback seriously, and remember that the exit interview will play a big part in how the leaving employee will remember you as an employer.
8. Arrange final payments and benefits
Just as some companies forget to revoke a leaving employee’s systems access, they sometimes forget to take them off their payroll.
Even though most payroll systems have this functionality built in, double-check that the final payment process is carried out by your Payroll or Finance department. To facilitate this, give them all the details they need, including the employee’s end date, notice period, possible holidays that need to be paid out, and anything else of importance.
9. Stay in touch
There are various ways to stay in touch with former employees, such as via a talent pool or an alumni group. Both options allow you to send former employees the latest company news (and vacancies) so that they remain in the loop if they want to be. Dedicated corporate alumni software providers like Aluminati and EnterpriseAlumni can be a great option.
But staying in touch has other benefits, too. As we briefly mentioned, it can be useful in case you’ve lost some knowledge only the leaving employee had or if their successor needs help with a specific task.
From the former employee’s perspective staying in touch has advantages too, for example, when they need a reference or a letter of recommendation, or if one day they see a vacancy that piques their interest and potentially want to return.
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