Offboarding meaning

Onboarding refers to the process of getting your new employee familiar with the processes of their new workplace, as well as assigning them an ID or information such as a username or password for accessing your systems. Offboarding involves almost the complete opposite. Some offboarding processes are simple. However, for businesses that handle a lot of sensitive data or transferring of resources to a new employee, their offboarding process might be more complex.

When an employee retires, resigns or when you have terminated their contract, it is useful to make sure that the separation is efficient and well organised. You might already have an employee termination process in place, but the offboarding process goes beyond this. 

Not only can a solid offboarding process make leaving less stressful for a departing employee, it also makes it easier for the rest of your team to handle the transitionary period. After all, this employee might be replaced by a new hire or another member of staff who is planning to take on their previous responsibilities. Other benefits of having an effective offboarding process include:

• making sure that an employee’s equipment is given back to the employer before they leave, including ID;
• making sure that any previous access to data, passwords or usernames are deactivated so that person can no longer use sensitive information;
• making a note, guide or handbook of unwritten processes that the departing employee was responsible for;
• determining their responsibilities within a workflow and who needs to take over;
• creating an exit process whereby an employer can find out more about why an employee is leaving as well as their overall experience of working for their company.

Benefits of a successful HR offboarding process

While having an offboarding process might seem time consuming, it can be helpful to view an employee’s leaving as an important transitionary period for your business. 

While you might want your whole team involved with the offboarding process, it is a good idea for managers to take the lead throughout. This is because managers have often built a close relationship with the departing employee and have likely gained a picture of their personal and professional goals through one-on-one meetings or performance reviews.

Helping your team to take over from where the employee has left off

When an employee leaves your company, they will be leaving their duties and responsibilities behind. This is especially important to consider if you have not yet found a replacement in the form of a new hire or another employee to take on these responsibilities. The offboarding process might also involve finding the right person to take over from your ex-employee’s duties. 

This might involve creating a recruitment process. It might also involve asking the employee who is leaving to create some resources that might help the next person in their role to perform their duties better. That employee might create a handbook for using certain systems, including usernames and passwords for accessing them. They might also be able to tell you whether someone already within your team might be a suitable fit for these responsibilities or whether you might need to look at hiring someone from outside your business. 

Helping to maintain a positive business reputation

Employees who leave a business might spread the word about their time working for you, which depending on their experience could be positive or negative. If your offboarding process makes this employee feel valued even on leaving, they are perhaps more likely to recommend working for you to their peers. Having an exit process that involves a one-on-one meeting with this employee can be useful if you need to talk to them about any potential misunderstandings. This could be crucial if you have terminated an employee’s contract, perhaps making them redundant. 

Diplomatic conversations with the rest of the team about an employee’s departure

If you let the rest of the team know about an employee’s departure as soon as possible, this can also be beneficial to your business’s reputation. If your current employees are not sure why an employee is leaving, there is a chance that they could spread rumours or misinformation about their reasons for leaving. This could damage your team’s morale, particularly if they are unsure if an employee is leaving of their own accord or has been fired. 

Keeping your entire team in the loop with an effective HR communication strategy can help to keep the peace and make the rest of the team feel supported. This might also be a good time to find out how employees feel about taking on the responsibilities that the employee is leaving behind. 

Talking through employee experience and performance

Offboarding gives you a chance to look at a departing employee’s overall experience of working for you, as well as their performance from day one. You might discuss this in an organised exit interview with them. Exit interview questions you might want to ask can include:

• What made you choose a role with a different company?
• How was your overall experience of working for us?
• Did your co-workers create a positive working environment?
• Did you feel like you were supported well by your managers?
• What experiences did you enjoy most and least about working for us?
• What do you wish you could have known about the role when starting on day one, but did not at the time?
• Could you have been encouraged to stay if there were certain perks, promotions or career opportunities?

Whether this employee provides negative or positive feedback on their experience of working for you, this is invaluable in helping you to address any issues facing your team. You might be able to use this feedback to improve retention, particularly if you need to address employee satisfaction overall.

However, if your employee provides mostly positive feedback during their offboarding process, it is worth creating a record of this to help you inform future HR strategies for employee engagement. 

Administration during the HR offboarding process and what to look out for

Offboarding a departing employee comes with some administrative responsibilities for your HR department as well. This might include making sure that an employee gets paid their final paycheck. Offboarding also often requires a formal letter stating an employee’s resignation and the termination of their contract with your business.

Other administrative responsibilities during the termination period might include revisiting NDAs or handling benefits documentation. You might also want to factor in a good time for their exit interview, making sure that the right management staff are available to attend. 

What to do if there is no replacement employee

If an employee has left before you have been able to successfully recruit a replacement, it is a good idea to have a plan in place to make sure that their tasks are still being competed.

If your leaving employee has an integral role within a particular workflow, it is worth considering who might be able to step in on a temporary basis to cover these responsibilities. This might be a co-worker with similar duties or experience to the departing employee. With a temporary plan in place, you may start to look at creating a recruitment selection plan for a new employee as soon as possible. 

Creating an offboarding process can be just as useful as an onboarding process. This is especially the case if your departing employee needs to hand over complex information about their responsibilities or return equipment. Offboarding also provides an opportunity for an exit interview during which employers can find out about a departing employee’s overall experience of the company. This can aid decision making when it comes to future employee engagement and retention strategies. Finally, offboarding can be a diplomatic way of maintaining good relationships with ex-employees even once they have left the company.