All you need to know about employee off-boarding
Tags: Employee Engagement, Exit Interview, Offboarding, Human Resources, Employees

Employee Off-boarding is just as important as Employee Onboarding. Here’s how to have efficient exit formalities for employee off-boarding…

Just as welcoming a new employee is important, it is essential to bid them a good farewell. Bidding farewell to friends and relatives has numerous ways, but what about when it comes to employers and employees? This is where Employee Offboarding comes into the picture. You welcome an employee into your organization with an Onboarding process, and hence it is equally important to have an employee off-boarding process for them. Do you know the right things to say and to give goodbye to someone when they are leaving your organization? A well-planned off-boarding process works a long way in favor of the interests and reputation of the organization. This blog helps you design an efficient employee off-boarding process so that none of the exit formalities are missed out!

So what is Employee Off-Boarding?

Off-boarding is the process of separation of an employee from the organization, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, using the respective exit formalities that follow including letting other employees know, organizing a farewell, training their replacements, and various other policies and procedures.

Why is it so important?

Employee offboarding and exit formalities are equally important for both employers and employees alike. According to research by Aberdeen, it is found that only 29% of the organizations have a formal employee exit process. The remaining 71% of them who don’t have it are missing out on some important benefits of having a well-crafted process. It is also found that employee exit processes can be associated with greater growth, performance, retention, and employee engagement process.

Exit formalities also help an organization in the following areas:

It helps prevent legal and security problems for both the parties

It helps transfer exiting employees’ knowledge to their replacements

Based on the exiting employees’ feedback in their exit interview, changes can be made to the processes of the organization

It helps maintain relationships with the departing employees, which increases their chances of returning in the future, also known as boomerang employees.

What exit formalities to include in the employee Off-Boarding process?

Here are some of the exit formalities companies can include in their employee offboarding process so as to make it fruitful and memorable

Make everyone in the organization aware of who is leaving the organization and who will be taking their place

Document their departure with a letter of termination or resignation, as per the situation

Make the separating employees provide a report of the projects and deadlines undertaken during their course of employment

Have the departing employees train their counterparts well in advance, preferably in person so that they are ready to take over as soon as they leave

Collect any company equipment that was provided to them such as phones, laptops, etc.

Always make sure to change the passwords and deny them access to the systems they have been working on

Make arrangements for their final paycheck and severance pay, and remove their names from the payroll system

Conduct an exit interview

Here are some tips to conduct an effective exit interview

The exit interview is a very crucial part of the offboarding process. It helps the firm to benefit from the exiting employees’ experience while helping them to move on fruitfully in their lives. Think of the exit interview as a chance to learn things about your organization that you might never hear otherwise. A departing employee is free to say what they have seen and experienced on the job without fear of reprisal. So, they are often willing to offer frank, constructive, and insightful feedback that you can act on to improve your organization. An exit interview is also an ideal opportunity to thank the employee for their contributions to the organization’s progress and express interest in maintaining a relationship, perhaps by inviting them to join your employee alumni network.

Some of the important exit interview questions are

What made you begin looking for another job? What was the best part about working here? What did you like the least while working here? What, according to you, can be improved in this organization to make it a better place for work? Would you recommend your friend to work here? Why or why not?

Final implementation of exit formalities

Every HR professional and manager who touches any part of the employee exit process needs to be trained on what to do and how and when to do it. That includes keeping them up to date with refresher training as the organization and its exit formalities evolve over time. Develop a written plan for this, and stick to it. Great offboarding doesn’t just happen because somebody made a list.

Bidding adieu to your colleagues and friends from work is a difficult task. You are so used to them being around that their absence feels a little awkward for a few days, even weeks at times. It’s only natural to miss them, but we still wish them well in the next steps of their journey. As you do so, a well-executed employee exit process can leave both your firm and your friends poised for a brighter future.