Dealing with departing employees is an inevitable consequence of working in human resources. HR professionals must be able to deal with the myriad of issues that emerge when it happens.
The best way to do anything complex is through a process. In this case, that process is known as employee offboarding.
What is Employee Offboarding?
Employee offboarding describes the process of separation between an employer and employee. It encompasses several processes that must take place when someone leaves an organization. A good offboarding process is planned out in advance. Employers can use offboarding for any role at an organization.
The reason for the employee leaving is mostly immaterial. The offboarding process must take place. That's whether the employee is leaving voluntarily or not. Indeed, it may be vital if it’s an involuntary termination. There are security implications if there’s an unhappy parting of ways. Also, if there’s a talent shortage, that loss of skills can be disruptive.
Who is Responsible for Employee Offboarding?
There are many people who have a part to play in the employee offboarding process. This will depend on the role of the employee that’s leaving. Managers and the leaving employee’s colleagues all have a role. The IT department may have some tasks as part of the process like removing the employee’s access from the organization’s systems. For the most part, however, human resources professionals take the lead on how the process plays out. For example they are responsible for removing the employee from payroll.
Employee Offboarding and Onboarding: What's the difference?
Onboarding is the process of bringing a new employee into an organization and getting the new starter onto payroll. The best HR professionals use it to introduce employees to an organization’s culture and acclimatize them to their new workplace.
Offboarding, on the other hand, is the opposite. Depending on the circumstances, it’s about giving a fond farewell to an employee. Or, at the very least, handling their exit professionally. It’s also the process of removing the employee’s access to systems and company property.
The HR department has to take the individual off the payroll and may need to begin finding a replacement, while managers need to distribute the leaving employee’s responsibilities amongst those remaining.
Importance of Offboarding
The offboarding process is vital for security, and 76% of IT leaders think so too[1]. It’s also important for the exiting employee’s well-being and company-wide morale. The process is designed to ensure that there’s limited disruption to the organization.
Goodbye and thank you
In the event that an employee is leaving on good terms or retiring, offboarding is an opportunity for the organization to show appreciation for their service. It also provides a window for the employee to share their knowledge with their replacement.
Security
Employers exercise a tremendous amount of trust by allowing employees access to systems. Those systems could contain confidential information, sensitive data, or intellectual property. When an employee leaves, it represents a security risk. The offboarding process should bar ex-employees from the organizations’ systems.
Brand impact
When employees leave a company with a bad taste in their mouth, they’ll let others know. Websites such as Glassdoor allow employees to review businesses as employers. A bad reputation can make it harder to hire good talent. A well-planned offboarding process can help to fend off this potential damage.
Employee Offboarding Checklist
Everyone likes a checklist; there’s something so satisfying about ticking off tasks as and when they’re completed. It can be used for offboarding to ensure HR processes are followed correctly and nothing is missed out.
The following employee offboarding checklist is free to use and can be altered if required.
The exact employee offboarding checklist will vary from business to business. Different HR departments will have their own processes they need to follow. Nonetheless, this is a good starter guide for how to make a checklist. Click here to get it.
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Step-by-step Process for Offboarding Employees
1. Documentation
The departing employee must submit a letter of resignation. It should include the date the employee wishes to leave. HR must file it appropriately.
Once the notice period has begun, HR must review the employee’s file and examine the paperwork therein. They’re looking for anything relevant to the employee leaving. This could include healthcare benefits, non-compete documents, or other agreements. HR may need to liaise with the legal department to ensure everything is in order.
Where necessary, the organization must supply the employee with copies of important documents.
2. Inform Relevant Parties
It’s now time to inform the relevant parties of the employee’s intentions, voluntary or otherwise. In the case of a dismissal, HR should not divulge the reasons for the employee's departure. And if it’s voluntary, details should only be shared with the employee’s consent.
HR should inform the employee’s direct manager first. The manager can then inform the departing employee’s colleagues, and HR should give notice up the hierarchy. This may depend on the structure and size of the organization—it doesn’t necessarily have to reach CEO level.
For employees that work directly with regular clients, clients should also be informed. However, the employee may have built a good relationship with them and wish to handle this themselves. That’s fine as long as the organization has some insight about what the employee is saying about the next steps, as the organization will want to continue working with the clients in question.
3. Determine Who Will Cover Leaving Employee’s Tasks
When the employee leaves, their ongoing responsibilities will also need fulfilling. This can be done by spreading them out amongst remaining employees. If not, then HR will need to begin the recruitment process.
If possible, HR and management can arrange peer-to-peer training and the departing employee can coach their replacement. It can be helpful to get an idea about what might be required for different departments.
This will help you to feel confident when deciding the best course of action and will be useful knowledge if it comes to hiring a replacement.
4. Organize Relinquishment of Company Property
Organizations often provide their employees with necessary equipment. This can include items such as laptops, cell phones, or company cars. In fact, 27% of companies reported losing 10% of their technology assets due to a lackluster offboarding process[2].
HR should have a document listing company property the leaving employee possesses. They need to write to the employee with a date by which company property must be returned.
5. Schedule and Conduct an Exit Interview
An exit interview is vital in the case of a voluntary exit from an organization. This is an opportunity for the organization to learn some lessons.
An HR professional should conduct the interview, as they wouldn’t have worked directly with the departing employee. They can ask the questions in an impartial way, uncolored by an existing relationship.
The purpose of the exit interview is to gather feedback. Ex-employee feedback helps organizations to improve many aspects of the business, including employee morale, productivity, and efficiency.
6. Remove Employee’s Systems Access
The IT department must remove the employee’s systems access, including deleting logins for social media, auditing software, and the CRM, to protect sensitive data and ensure compliance with security measures.
7. Review Security
Companies often use shared logins for a variety of software and systems. In these cases, the organization should change all passwords. This ensures that the leaving employee can’t access anything once they’ve left. This is especially important if the employee left involuntarily.
8. Resolve Outstanding Financial Commitments
Any outstanding monies owed must be paid to the employee. This could include a number of items.
- Final salary payment
- Outstanding expense payments
- Bonuses
- Severance payment
Once all financial issues are resolved, HR should delete the employee’s details from the payroll system.
9. Bid a Fond Farewell
When an employee is leaving on good terms, companies should take the time to show they appreciate them, and thank them for their contribution. This makes employees feel valued and keeps the door open for future collaboration.
A leaving party is a good way to bid farewell to an employee. It’s also an opportunity for the employee’s colleagues to give their best wishes. Many workers develop close relationships in their careers. They’re not only losing a colleague, they may also be losing a friend.
10. Follow-up (Optional)
Organizations change over time. People come and go. Businesses grow and find new opportunities. Sometimes, a role may emerge in an organization for which the ex-employee is perfect. By keeping lines of communication open, organizations build a network of former employees from which to draw from.
Employee Offboarding Best Practices
Professionalism and Understanding
Organizations should endeavor to approach employee offboarding in a professional and understanding way. This should be the goal, regardless of the reasons for the employee’s departure.
Leaving a job, regardless of the reason, can have an impact on employee mental health. Thus, offboarding must be approached with sensitivity.
Learning Lessons From the Departure
The exit interview provides companies with valuable feedback. The reasons for someone to leave a position will vary. Nevertheless, there’s always something to learn from any circumstance.
Keeping Security in Mind
Whether an employee is fired or leaving of their own volition, organizations must consider security. That means setting up a process for removing access to confidential data and systems. It also means ensuring access codes to buildings are changed and keys are returned. Once an employee has left, they should be treated like anybody else outside of the organization.
Holding on to Skills
It's the people and the skills they possess that make a business succeed. Therefore, when an employee leaves, it's vital that organizations find a way to hold on to those skills.
In the run-up to an employee's departure, companies must find ways to hold onto their skills. Organizing mentorship between the leaving employee and their replacement is one such way. This will require robust recruiting strategies if the employee is to be replaced during their notice period. The departing worker can train up their replacement to deliver for the organization as they themselves did.
Preparation and Planning
With a plan ready to go, HR and management can minimize disruption when an employee leaves. Streamlining employee offboarding works best with preparation.
It can be useful to adapt your approach to the industry you’re in, and look for specific guides such as guide to offboarding for sales teams or workforce management resource. Information like this will help you to create a plan that's efficient and fit for purpose that allows business as usual to continue unimpeded.
The Benefits of Doing Employee Offboarding Right
- It’s good for the departing employee’s wellbeing.
- It keeps workplace disruption to a minimum.
- Through good planning and preparation, organizations can streamline the employee offboarding process.
- The process can boost the morale of remaining employees.
- Businesses can retain vital skills through peer-to-peer mentoring.
- It makes a data or premises security breach less likely.
- The organization can more easily recover its owned assets.
- It can positively impact brand reputation.
- It leaves the door open for the employee to return or collaborate in the future.
Summing up
Organizations can streamline employee offboarding through collaboration. Managers, legal, and HR all have roles to play. The benefits are numerous. From employee wellbeing to brand reputation, employee offboarding has far reaching effects. Every business should take the time to assess their employee offboarding process and make improvements where they are needed.
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