Goodbye... Managing Employee Offboarding

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Goodbye... Managing Employee Offboarding

Organizations spend a lot of time, effort and money on onboarding new employees. Just think of creating an attractive corporate reputation and image, employer branding, pre-employment screening and recruitment, and employee induction, orientation and onboarding (in a narrow sense) among other things.

What is offboarding? Definition

Employee offboarding describes the opposite process of onboarding, dealing with employees leaving the company. Offboarding might involve various sub-processes, like a phased transfer of knowledge from the departing employee to a new or existing employee; an exit interview; return of any company property; various HR, IT and legal processes and in many cases also a ceremony and / or party.

According to research explained by Wade, "HR leaders spend 8x more time creating, implementing, and administering onboarding programs compared to offboarding programs. While onboarding programs are essential to an employee's ramp time and continued success at the company, offboarding is an area that should not be overlooked. Organizations with formal offboarding programs reported higher retention rates and greater percentages of 'highly engaged' employees."

Importance of formal offboarding programs

Wade provides 5 main reasons why formal offboarding programs are important:

1. Ensure the departing employee's knowledge is transferred to other members of the organization.
2. Understand organizational strengths and weaknesses, and determine how they can be improved.
3. Identify turnover issues early to implement corrective measures when possible.
4. Gauge former employee brand perception and the impact that their views may have on the market.
5. Leave the door open for "boomerang" employees who may wish to return to your company in the future.

Recommendations for offboarding programs

Recently, Professors Dachner and Makarius argue similarly that - depending on a company's strategy, culture, and industry - it might make sense to spend more attention, effort and money on offboarding employees when they resign and decide to leave the company in good standing. More specifically, they recommend organizations in today's fierce battle for top talent to:

• Go beyond legal obligations.
• Recognize individual differences between employees.
• Prepare well before employees actually resign (nothing lasts forever).
• Recognize the contributions the employee made at the time he/she leaves.
• Always conduct a professional exit interview.
• Provide support for a successful start in the new job.
• Carefully design a holistic program to keep alumni connected to the organization.

⇨ Is your firm very professional in offboarding? What are your practical observations and experiences with resignations of employees?
Sources:
Wade E. (2019), "Driving Team Performance: Why Offboarding is Just as Important as Onboarding", SBI Research
Dachner A.M., Makarius E.E., "Turn Departing Employees into Loyal Alumni: A holistic approach to offboarding", HBR Mar-Apr 2021, pp. 88-97

		Comments by date▼ Comments by rating Rating
		2 Gregory Johnson Coach, United States
	Employee Off Boarding An EXCELLENT topical area that should be promoted to every organization/company whether large or small. When exiting staff / employees really leave, they take with them a tremendous amount of baseline information and strategies yet to be explored which could be valuable quality cues for the future of the organization. In the old days, we would often refer to this absence of knowledge and enthusiasm as Organizational Alzheimer disease. GREAT information piece EVERY internal organizational person SHOULD embrace - NOW!

		1 Dr. Alan Williams Professor, Thailand
	Off Boarding @Gregory Johnson: QUOTE: "When exiting staff / employees really leave they take a tremendous amount of baseline information and strategies yet to be explored which could be valuable quality cues for the future of the organization. In the old days, we would often refer to this absence of knowledge and enthusiasm as Organizational Alzheimer disease." Excellent point, in fact I suggest this point needs expanding to gaining information/feelings of current employees, at all levels, regularly, through individual discussions and small group discussions. I instituted such activities in several companies. From experience I learned that the 'interviewer' should be an outsider, and that a HR person (or any other employee) should NOT be present. Also I created a rule that when it was a small group discussion no managers/supervisors were allowed to be present. Plus the activity had to be small groups from within the same team / within the same department / and from different department especially where there was regular work based need for regular contact. And the activity had to be less than 90 minutes. The outsider who conducted these sessions was well known to me in terms of classic organizational knowledge but not aware of internal dynamics within the company and well balanced in terms of getting people to talk. The outside person reported direct to me (CEO) and nobody else in the company. When it was a group discussion the outsider ensured that there was cross discussion / follow up comment etc. I also conducted small group sessions myself, especially with very junior employees (their m'gers/s'visors not allowed to attend). The company was a 24h operation (both m'fcturing & mark'ting), I went on evening/late night shift to talk to the junior staff which gained their trust and (overall) I gained incredible insight into my own company and discovered many valuable ideas from juniors. The outsider also conducted the exit interviews with individual employees who were leaving (HR not allowed to attend).

		2 hirsh elchonen ICT Consultant, United States
	Celebrate Those Who Leave in Offboarding I would propose a 6th reason for formal off boarding, and that is 6. To celebrate those who leave as individuals who made a difference. It is done for the benefit the company will get from those empl...

		2 martin Anih Management Consultant, Nigeria
	Offboarding is an Emerging Topic It's interesting to learn that organizations spend resources on the exit of their staff. This is not only nice, but as you said, the views of these outgone staff may play a big role in the public perc...

		1 Tendekai Dzinamarira Manager, Zimbabwe
	Offboarding and Organizational Culture Normally employees who leave an organization through normal retirement age and voluntary retrenchment are given a befitting farewell treatment while those who resign due to personal endeavors like car...

		1 Graham Williams Management Consultant, South Africa
	Merit of Offboarding? Employees leaving an organisation (for whatever reason) can: - Be advocates to potential customers and employees. - Willingly transfer tacit knowledge. - Share insights regarding culture, strategie...

		2 Ginford Dzimati Director, Zimbabwe
	Employees are a Company's Most Valuable Asset Companies that want to build a competitive advantage over their competitors should try by all means to hold on to their workers, because they are the best tools to gain that competitive advantage. Eve...

		2 Saju Mannarath Consultant, India
	Off Boarding is Relevant in the Social Sector Too Small social development organizations often see their employees leave helplessly when it becomes unaffordable for the organisation to retain them. At the best, they may be given a decent farewell wit...

		2 Glen Mitchell Manager, Australia
	Boomerang Power of the Follow Up Call in Offboarding A simple phone call 6 months after I had left my long term employer from my previous manager intrigued me. 5 years later, when I saw the same manager promoted to a new role I knew the people culture w...

		2 Paul Newman Director, Canada
	Coming or Going, There is a Lot to Learn Someone leaving can be one of the best opportunities for learning what can be improved in the company, or highlight how you have been left behind by other employers in the area or field. This is a poi...

		1 Dr. Alan Williams Professor, Thailand
	Coming or Going, There is a Lot to Learn @Paul Newman: This is why I encourage my consulting client companies to reorganize their HR roles and make a senior HR person (with a 1 junior) report direct to an operational (line; direct value adde...