The departure of an employee, whether planned or unplanned, can be a disruptive and costly experience if not handled properly. And while every company experiences offboarding (for better or for worse), a recent study found that nearly 70% of organizational leaders experienced unwanted impacts from poor offboarding.
That's why implementing strategic offboarding processes is crucial for any organization. Offboarding, also known as exit management, refers to the steps a company takes when an employee leaves their job permanently. This transition period is just as important as onboarding a new hire.
While many companies spend hours and resources perfecting their onboarding process, offboarding often gets overlooked. To ensure a successful transition and protect the interests of your company, you must look at this crucial part of the employee lifecycle and ensure all steps are taken to make it as smooth and efficient as possible.
In this guide to proper offboarding, we will provide 5 best practices for offboarding employees smoothly and professionally. From documenting procedures to conducting insightful exit interviews, we will outline strategies to protect company knowledge, maintain team productivity, and enhance your employer brand. With nearly 4 million Americans quitting their jobs each month in 2022, thoughtful offboarding is a must for retaining top talent and intellectual capital when valued team members move on.
By the end of this article, you will have actionable steps for creating offboarding processes that benefit both the employee and the company. Let's get started with the first essential strategy: developing a standardized and thorough offboarding checklist.
A documented offboarding process provides a standardized roadmap for the actions and tasks that need to be completed when an employee leaves. Yet, for many companies, this process is often lacking, as time restraints and competing priorities get in the way of thorough offboarding.
However, investing the time to develop an offboarding checklist and process is essential for ensuring that all tasks are completed before an employee departs. While every organization's process will be unique, an effective offboarding checklist often includes:
Conducting exit interviews to gather feedback
Completing necessary paperwork like handbooks to be returned and final pay information
Canceling access to company accounts, systems, and tools
Securing company property, including laptops, keys, and badges
Making introductions between the departing employee and the individual(s) assuming their responsibilities
Announcing the employee's departure and transition plan
Answering questions from clients or vendors about the change
Having these procedural steps documented brings several advantages:
Consistency
A standardized process applied to every scenario ensures all bases are covered each time. Rather than relying on a new manager to remember every detail of offboarding, having it spelled out makes sure nothing falls through the cracks.
Efficiency
Without written instructions on handling employee separations, onboarding staff may spend valuable time and energy figuring out what needs to be done. Having an offboarding process expedites the process so the team can move forward quickly.
Compliance
No organization wants to be found on the wrong side of labor laws or tax regulations. A well-documented, compliant offboarding process helps protect against legal issues now and in the future.
Preparedness
Advance documentation means offboarding tasks won't be missed. For instance, if a manager or HR person is unavailable, another team member can take over the duties. This ensures all employees are treated fairly and with respect when they leave.
Efficiency
Offboarding should be conducted as quickly and efficiently as possible. With a streamlined set of processes, every step of the way can be tracked and accounted for, eliminating potential delays or oversights. This helps ensure an organized transition to a new team member or position in a timely manner.
Exit interviews present a valuable opportunity to gather insights from departing employees that can lead to organizational improvements. During these discussions, managers aim to understand the employee's reasons for leaving, their overall experience, and honest feedback. Successful offboarding demands that these valuable insights are implemented within company data for future hiring.
What should your exit interview questions include? It will depend on the situation, but often include targeted questions regarding the role, the reason for leaving, and how the manager and HR team can better prepare the next role.
Well-run exit interviews allow companies to gain valuable feedback, such as:
Identify issues causing turnover, like low compensation or lack of advancement opportunities
Gather constructive criticism of policies, tools, or workflows that aren't working optimally
Learn about strengths, weaknesses, and pain points from an insider's view
Develop action plans for enhancing retention and company culture
When conducting interviews, avoid getting defensive if feedback is critical. Ask probing questions to fully understand the root causes behind the employee's input. Key topics to cover include:
Reasons for resigning and assessments of job duties
Opinions of management styles, team dynamics, and corporate values
Experience with onboarding, training, technology, and resources provided
Suggestions for improvements to policy, culture, or workload
Document all responses thoroughly to uncover actionable patterns. Then develop plans for implementing changes based on constructive feedback. While exit interviews require effort and self-reflection, they provide invaluable insights from talented employees before they move on. This helps enhance processes for current and future team members.
When an employee leaves an organization, they take with them institutional knowledge that is difficult to replace. This intellectual capital and deep understanding of internal processes, client history, and technical systems are built over years of service.
That's why it's critical to capture this knowledge before the employee departs through structured knowledge transfer. Effective strategies for sharing knowledge during the employee offboarding process include:
Have the departing employee train an existing team member over a period of weeks. They can review key responsibilities, systems, and contacts together. This not only allows for knowledge transfer but also helps the new team member understand the full scope of the role. Human resources should work closely with new employees to determine if the onboarding process may benefit from better cross-training.
Before the offboarding process, have the departing employee document their existing processes and workflows. This can be as simple as written checklists or detailed process diagrams with supporting documents. In situations where the separation process is not immediate, small changes can be documented over time.
With modern video conferencing technology, employees can quickly record videos demonstrating their work processes and share them with the team. This is especially helpful in cases where there are complex tasks that need to be demonstrated step by step. Co-workers can often help one another by watching the videos and providing guidance.
Maintaining an internal knowledge base or Google doc for reference can help ensure that key information isn’t lost at the time of an employee exit Encourage employees to document frequently asked questions, troubleshooting guides, and product information. Regularly review the repository to make sure it’s up-to-date and accurate.
As you create the knowledge repository, it’s likely that you’ll discover gaps in knowledge that need to be filled. Communicate with employees and identify which areas could use more information. Then, create a plan for how you will fill those gaps - ensuring that the employee experience for both the old and new hire end on good terms.
All of the above isn’t beneficial without a plan for knowledge sharing. Create times and spaces for employees to get together and share what they know—this could be during regular team meetings, through small group breakouts, or online via video conferencing. Let your team choose which strategies work best for them.
Without conscious efforts to capture knowledge, organizational continuity is at risk when an employee leaves. However, by facilitating comprehensive knowledge sharing, their unique contributions and intellectual capital will continue benefiting your company long after their last day.
When an employee leaves, it creates uncertainty and questions among remaining staff. Without clear communication, rumors and confusion may lower morale and productivity. That's why it's important to get ahead of the situation by promptly informing all stakeholders.
If you want to help ensure an effective offboarding process without drama, make sure to communicate with existing employees regarding the situation involving the exiting employee. This often involved the HR department, and could involve the following:
Require a letter of resignation, unless the exit is due to a layoff
Send a company-wide email from leadership briefly explaining the employee's decision, thanking them for their service, and outlining the transition plan.
Schedule a team meeting to make the announcement in person. Answer questions transparently while remaining positive.
Immediately reassign the departing employee's responsibilities and introduce their replacement to clients and colleagues.
If the employee left on difficult terms, avoid sharing details and making disparaging comments that could damage team cohesion or company reputation.
Express confidence in the company's future and the remaining team's ability to maintain excellence.
Clear, direct, and respectful communication ensures the team stays focused on priorities rather than gossip. It also reinforces professionalism in the offboarding process. Being thoughtful, honest, and solutions-oriented when announcing departures enables smooth transitions.
Here is an example email template communicating an employee departure:
Subject: Team Update - Eric Miller's Departure
Dear Team,
I'm writing to share that Eric Miller, our Senior Project Manager, has resigned from his role effective at the end of this month.
Over the past 5 years, Eric has been an invaluable contributor and leader within our department. He has spearheaded major initiatives that have significantly benefitted our clients and moved the company forward. I know you all join me in thanking Eric for his positive impact and wishing him the very best in his future endeavors.
Moving forward, Anu Singh will be taking over Eric's project management responsibilities. Anu has been shadowing Eric and learning about his key accounts these past few weeks to ensure a seamless transition. Please join me in welcoming Anu into this new role and supporting her however you can during this period.
While Eric's contributions will be missed, I'm confident that Anu has the experience and expertise to excel as our new Senior Project Manager. This transition exemplifies our team's dedication to collaboration and commitment to our clients' success.
Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns about these changes. I appreciate everyone's flexibility amidst this transition. Let's continue working together to deliver outstanding results.
Best,
[Manager Name]
As an employee's last day approaches, one of HR's most critical offboarding responsibilities is overseeing their transition off company systems and premises. This involves:
Disabling ID badges, access cards, logins, email, servers, databases, and other technology resources. Make sure to revoke access to protect proprietary information and intellectual property.
Collecting company property, including laptops, mobile devices, uniforms, keys, corporate credit cards, and identification badges. Keep thorough records of all use of company equipment.
Closing out financial relationships and accounts like expense reporting, stipends, memberships, and subscriptions.
Reminding about non-compete, IP, and non-disclosure obligations - including and aspects involving social media use.
Notify the individual of the details regarding their final paycheck.
Follow a checklist to ensure all loose ends are covered regarding employee access to sensitive information or data.
HR should complete these offboarding steps on the employee's final workday. Sudden loss of access helps reinforce that the individual no longer represents the company. Rigorous offboarding also reduces security risks from unauthorized access, theft of property, or misuse of funds.
While uncomfortable, strong controls around system access, facilities, and assets are necessary. Establish procedures and timelines for rapidly removing departing employees from the company's infrastructure. This ensures a clean break that protects the interests of both parties.
Offboarding refers to the process of transitioning an employee out of a company. It involves completing documentation, conducting exit interviews, and removing access to company systems and property. Onboarding is bringing a new hire into the organization through training, orientation and providing resources to get started.
A strong offboarding process is standardized, thorough, and well-documented. It covers knowledge transfer, introductions, paperwork, disabling access, rounding up company property, announcements, and exit interviews. Following a clear checklist ensures all bases are covered - and that the offboarding experience is positive for everyone involved.
Sometimes termination isn’t due to a new job. For involuntary terminations, it's best to disable access immediately and have a manager collect company property on the spot. Conduct a quick exit interview, cover severance details, and escort the individual off the premises. Treat the process with discretion and sensitivity.
A complete offboarding process starts with giving proper notice and setting transition plans. It continues through the last day with collecting company assets, knowledge transfer, introductions, access removal, and the exit interview. Follow-up steps include announcing the departure, answering questions, and analyzing exit interview feedback.
Sometimes, current employees will come and go, or “boomerang” back to the company. Boomerang employees are individuals who have left the organization but later return for a new role as a rehiring option. To prepare for boomerang employee scenarios, it’s important to document employee onboarding and offboarding processes, ensure that your organization’s data security protocols are updated when employees leave the company, and consider alumni programs.
The offboarding process for employees not only sets the tone for the last days but also lays the groundwork for future onboarding and talent management. It helps ensure a smooth transition, preserves knowledge, supports compliance, and minimizes risk.
The right offboarding style will vary depending on your company’s particular needs and culture, but it should always be handled with respect and professionalism. When you get this crucial part of the exit process right, you create a positive experience for current and former employees.