We are all familiar with some version of an employee onboarding process. You know the drill – cue checklists, forms, log-ins, signatures, email introductions, FYI’s, contracts, instructions, buddy programs & FAQs, all leading to a lengthy induction of a new employee. However, what about the opposite end of the relationship? What do you do when an employee leaves your organization?

Employee offboarding is often an afterthought for most businesses. After all, the employee is leaving any way… so why bother ensuring a smooth exit and successful offboarding?

This article dives in to just some of the reasons why a clear offboarding process is vital, particularly for businesses looking to learn, grow and separate themselves from the pack.

want to learn more about handling employee termination?

Register to attend our free webinar: Steps Towards a Fair and Lawful Termination

Learn more

What is an Offboarding process?

Let’s go back to basics for a moment and explore what an ‘offboarding process’ is.

Where ‘onboarding’ starts when a new employee joins your company, ‘offboarding’ begins when an employee leaves your company, either through resignation, retirement or termination.

The offboarding process assists with ensuring a smooth separation between the employee and your business, and when managed correctly, can be a great contributor to growth and success (as we’ll explore in more detail below).

There are plenty of different strategies/checklists when it comes to executing an offboarding process, which we’ll delve into during another blog post. For now, it’s important to understand that some of the key offboarding elements can include:

Transfer of knowledge – typically in the form of a handover to minimize disruption to projects once the employee leaves
Deactivating/closing employee accounts – to remove the risk of security breach
Hardware/equipment returns – including retrieval of company laptops, security passes, phones etc.
Exit interview/exit survey – a great way to gather insights about your workplace

As you can imagine, this process takes time and resources – so why should you bother? We’ll explore these core reasons below.

Need to make a new hire?

Read our ‘Ultimate Guide to Recruiting for SMEs’.

Read blog

Why is an Employee Offboarding process important?

While the offboarding process may not have the same glamour and excitement as bringing onboard a new team member, it is just as critical to your organisation’s success.

With a smooth offboarding process, you can:

Minimise disruption
Gain priceless insight into business operations
Earn a positive reputation as an employer of choice

Minimal Disruption

First and foremost, a proper handover ensures all remaining staff can pick up where the past employee stopped. Customers and clients expect great service and a quality product - this can only be achieved by a seamless transition. Clear communication, recovering company property, updating organisational charts, restricting access, a correct final pay and thanking the employee for their service are all core steps to help minimize disruption in the workplace, and maintain a positive environment.

Feedback

When employees leave, they do not just part with your business physically, they take all their knowledge, expertise, insights and trade secrets with them. In some cases, this can be years of priceless knowledge that is often just walking out the door… for good.

Conducting an exit interview and engaging with the departing employee helps establish a structure for feedback to be given. All feedback helps you identify strengths and weaknesses within your business. Exit interviews in particular are great ways to gain insight, as employees often don’t hold back and are willing to share-all.

While the type of questions you ask during an exit interview (or exit survey) may vary depending on the circumstances, some examples you may wish to include are:

Why did you start looking for a new job / Why are you leaving?
How would you describe the culture here at X?
Is there anything we could do better? What would you change about the company, or your role?
Did you feel supported by management during your time here at X?
Would you ever consider returning?

Reputation

Any employee that leaves your business either becomes an advocate or critic of the company and its brand. Like it or not, exiting employees hold considerable value in their recommendations and thoughts. In fact, Glassdoor reports that 66% of Glassdoor users would recommend their employer to a friend. And in a similar vein, 65% of users read at least 5 reviews before forming an opinion of a company.

This means that disgruntled employees can cause considerable damage to your business’s reputation. The alternative? A happy ex-employee who highly recommends your business and personally testifies to your practices for years to come. The type of marketing money can’t buy.

Any exiting employee has contributed to your business and is a part of its story, whether big or small. Ensuring employees are respected, even as they leave your business, is integral to building a positive culture amongst those who remain. After all, those ex-employees are going to speak about your business for years to come. What will they say? Well, that is up to you.

Having a comprehensive offboarding process for departing employees is the key to minimizing workplace disruption and maximizing business growth through positive reputation and constructive feedback.

If you need assistance managing this process, or have any questions about how to implement an offboarding process, contact Melbourne HR for a free consultation and quote.

Speak with a hr advisor

Phone: 1300 784 687

Sean Johnson is a Full-Time HR Advisor who is now into his fourth year with Melbourne HR.

Edited by Nicole Torrington, Marketing Manager at Melbourne HR.

Employee Offboarding: Why you need to have a process in place