Offboarding is the process of ending the working relationship between an employer and a departing employee. The offboarding process should be implemented both for employees voluntarily leaving their roles and for those who have been laid off.
The primary goals of creating an organized offboarding process are to:
To achieve those goals, the offboarding process should strive to:
An efficient offboarding process has recently become more crucial to an organization’s success than previously. Why? The Great Resignation.
We’re sure you’ve heard of this recent phenomenon. But, as a quick reminder, “The Great Resignation” refers to the higher-than-average number of employees leaving their jobs during and after the pandemic for a range of reasons, including the desire to continue working remotely, childcare issues, health concerns, and frustrating workplace conditions.
But even if “The Great Resignation” hasn’t directly affected your business, an efficient offboarding process is a must-have for your organization. Why? Because it can help to retain existing employees and recruit new talent. The offboarding process helps to achieve those goals when an employee quits or gets fired by systematizing the tasks required to:
Keep in mind that employees leaving en masse also creates problems for your IT and security teams who must review and terminate each former employee's access privileges to sensitive company data.
The longer these teams lack the direction to offboard employees, the longer your organization is vulnerable to security risks. For that reason, your HR team should collaborate with the IT and security teams to review and improve your organization’s existing offboarding process.
Regardless of the reason, leaving a job and workplace can be stressful and tedious. A smooth offboarding process helps establish a relationship of respect between your organization and departing employees. In turn, the offboarding process works to maintain and strengthen your company brand by making it more likely that:
Point 1 is relatively easy to understand. A happy ex-employee might refer other top talents to apply for open roles at your company. This type of employee is also likely to share reviews (online and offline) that have a positive impact on your company's brand.
Point 2 requires a thoughtful and strategic approach. Your offboarding process should include exit interviews that aim to discover just how productive your current work environment is. You can ask questions about how well departing employees worked with their managers and co-workers.
If you notice any troubling trends from various exit interviews, take action as soon as possible. These recurring issues are the ones that are most likely to tarnish your company’s brand over time. Making a plan to address them now can lead to higher retention of your remaining employees and strengthen your brand in the long run.
Point 3 shouldn’t be overlooked when revising your offboarding process. To retain your remaining employees, you must acknowledge and address the impact that the departure of a team member will have on their work routine. Schedule a meeting with the departing employee, their manager, and any key team members to discuss the best way to redistribute the leftover work.
We recommend using the following employee offboarding checklist to ensure the process runs as smoothly as possible:
SmartOnboard is a native solution delivering seamless experiences for both new hires and HR teams. New joiners can easily find and complete their to-dos, be introduced to their team, and familiarize themselves with their employer brand & culture, all through a slick new hire portal. At the same time, HR teams can standardize the onboarding process by region and role, keep their teams on track, and easily control all their data on one system.
With SmartOnboard, SmartRecruiters accelerates your new hires’ journey to a productive and engaged contribution.