Employee offboarding is an essential practice for organizations of all sizes. Through an effective employee offboarding process, you can help new employees seamlessly transition into their new roles while ensuring the departing employee is able to transition smoothly out of the organization. However, employee offboarding can be a stressful and challenging time for companies, so implementing a smooth employee exit process is important. In this guide, we’ll walk through what employee offboarding is, how to create a strong employee offboarding process and more.
What Is Employee Offboarding?
Employee offboarding, which can also be referred to as employee exit or employee departure, refers to managing when an employee leaves a company, whether voluntarily or involuntarily. The employee offboarding process requires various administrative and human resources tasks to ensure a smooth and organized transition for the departing employee. Your employee exit process also plays a vital role in protecting your company’s interests.
Why Is the Employee Offboarding Process Important?
The employee offboarding process is important for several reasons, such as ensuring a smooth transition and keeping team morale and engagement high. With an effective employee offboarding process in place, you can enjoy several key benefits, including:
Maintain a Good Relationship With Former Employees
Regardless of the reason for their departure, maintaining a strong relationship with former employees is an added benefit of having a strong employee offboarding process in place. Treating departing employees with respect can create a strong reputation as an employer. Additionally, having a positive offboarding experience can increase the likelihood of boomerang employees, who depart and then return. Boomerang employees can bring back valuable experience, knowledge and fresh perspectives to help your organization grow. Boomerang employees are more familiar with your organization and the roles they’re qualified for compared to traditional job applicants, which can help shorten the onboarding process.
Protect Your Brand
Another reason why employee offboarding is important is because it’s a way to protect and safeguard your brand. By treating departing employees well, such as hosting an exit interview and providing support during the transition, you can leave a positive impression on departing employees, who might refer qualified applicants to your organization.
Know Your Employees’ Pain Points
While departing employees can pose challenges and stress, one benefit is having the opportunity to better understand your employee’s pain points. When an employee has decided to leave, they are often more willing to be open about their feelings and experiences, providing you detailed information on what’s working well within the company and what’s not.
During your exit interview, you can gather insightful information on your work environment, company culture and more to better understand how employees feel and where they might be struggling. Your HR team should view the offboarding process as a time to gather feedback to create an action plan to improve areas of the business that aren’t working.
An Employee Offboarding Checklist
Now that you understand the importance of employee offboarding understanding how to create an effective offboarding process is crucial. In the employee offboarding checklist below, you’ll learn the steps to take to ensure a smooth transition:
- Resignation or termination: This step initiates the offboarding process and involves either the employee submitting a resignation letter or the company terminating the employee. During this stage, it’s crucial to document the contract termination and ensure a formal resignation or termination letter is signed.
- Exit interview: An important step of offboarding is hosting an exit interview, where employers gather feedback on the reasons for the employee’s departure, their experience with the company and suggestions for improvement.
- Team notification: Rather than an employee’s departure being spread through word of mouth, it’s important to notify the team promptly to ensure they’re prepared for the transition. During this step, gather feedback from the group to understand how the departure will impact their workflow.
- Client notification: If the employee is in a client-facing role, make sure a plan is in place to notify their clients about who will take over their role, who to contact and other relevant information the client might need.
- Retrieve company property: When an employee departs, make sure to retrieve all company property, including laptops, keys, access cards, uniforms, credit cards, other equipment and documents in their possession.
- Knowledge transfer: Another crucial component of the employee offboarding process is knowledge transfer. If a knowledge gap is expected to open when an employee leaves, make sure arrangements are made to allow them to transfer their knowledge and responsibilities to other colleagues or their successor.
- Prepare benefits and final payments: Make sure to settle the employee’s outstanding benefits, accrued vacation days, bonuses and other final payments they might be entitled to, as well as to prepare tax and benefits documents.
- Review NDAs and other documents: During the exit interview, walk through NDAs and other documents to ensure employees know their responsibilities and any legal implications.
- Create a training plan: After identifying a replacement, create a training plan to provide the new employee with the information and resources they need to quickly transition into the role.
- Ensure final projects are complete: Before the employee departs, make sure they wrap up all outstanding projects and deliverables they are responsible for or create a plan to ensure these projects can be completed after their departure.
- Reset accounts: As you wrap up the employee offboarding process, reset all digital accounts by working with your IT department. Examples include terminating email accounts, changing passwords and eliminating access to software, platforms, etc.
- Update HR records: Make sure to update the employee’s record in your HR system to document their departure to remain compliant with labor laws and regulations.
- Host a goodbye celebration: To make a positive lasting impression, host a goodbye celebration, if appropriate, to show your appreciation for their contributions.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
There are a lot of boxes to check on the employee offboarding checklist, which can be stressful. However, failing to plan for when employees depart can pose various consequences that hurt your brand, reputation and bottom line. Here are some common mistakes to avoid during the employee exit process:
- Failing to communicate: Not having effective communication channels can make the departing employee feel undervalued and disengaged.
- Mishandling knowledge transfer: Failing to properly transfer the knowledge the departing employee holds to their successor can create a knowledge gap that can disrupt operations.
- Insensitive treatment: Offboarding isn’t always easy, and treating the situation with sensitivity and empathy is important. Treating departing employees poorly can lead to negative reviews and a poor reputation.
- Overlooking company property: Forgetting to collect company property can pose security risks and cause financial losses.
- Disregarding compliance regulations: Employers must comply with offboarding regulations and laws, such as final payments, benefits and adhering to labor laws. Failing to do so can cause legal issues and tarnish your reputation.
Streamlining Your Employee Offboarding With Experian Employer Services
At Experian Employer Services, our workforce management solutions can help your HR and payroll teams streamline your employee offboarding process. From unemployment management to pay statement services, our solutions can help automate time-consuming processes and ensure compliance to create an efficient employee exit process.