Offboarding

What Does Offboarding Mean?

Offboarding is a formal process of separating an employee from the organization they work for. Employee offboarding can happen due to resignation, termination, or retirement. 

A thorough offboarding process requires many steps to ensure there are no loose ends after the employee leaves. So every organization needs to design their offboarding process that will protect the interest of both parties.

Purpose of Employee Offboarding

The main purpose of Offboarding is to ease the transition while safeguarding the interests of both the departing employee and the employer.

When employees are offboarding, the company may face several risks and crises, including loss of communication with clients, incomplete projects, compliance risks, security risks, and other factors. That’s why an employee offboarding process is designed to reduce risks and potential losses in the separation process.

A well-designed offboarding includes exit interviews where employers can collect feedback from the existing employee about their experience in the organization and suggestions for possible improvements to its culture. 

As for departing employees, they receive a lot of benefits from cordial offboarding.

Steps in Offboarding

To make employee offboarding perfect, there are some common steps and procedures for HR and managers to follow. However, not all steps are relevant to every organization. So employers must tailor their offboarding procedure as needed. Here are some common steps of offboarding.

• Documentation of the employee’s exit using a letter of resignation or termination.
• Transferring knowledge, including contact lists, record and file locations, and status reports on ongoing projects and tasks and their deadline.
• Software removal
• Termination of accounts such as bank accounts and logging from phones, and email addresses, with redirection to a new responsible party
• Collecting all of their company equipment, such as a laptop, phone, security badge, and others
• Finalizing paperwork for Non-Disclosure Agreements, Non-compete agreements, health and retirement benefits, tax documents, outstanding salary, and every other documentation necessary for compliance, particularly in a regulated business.
• Removal from the company’s social media profiles, website,  org charts, and other active publications
• Ensuring that departing employees will provide training to their replacements or other employees who will assume their duties. 
• Final settlement and removal from the payroll.
• Providing information about their benefits, such as COBRA health insurance coverage or 401(k) retirement account
• Providing a letter of reference to the employee upon their request and if the company policy permits.
• Taking an exit interview.
• Telling the rest of the team who is leaving and who will assume the departing employee’s duties.

Employers may use well-designed offboarding software to go through the process. It will save time and effort, ensuring that all the details are taken care of. 

If you want to leave a better final impression on the exiting employee, you need to make sure they have a better offboarding experience. Remember that word of mouth is a powerful branding tool that will attract a pool of new candidates.

What Are the Benefits of Offboarding?

For Employers

When employers follow a well-designed offboarding process, they can receive a lot of benefits. Such as

• Keeping confidential and essential information from departing employees
• Preventing legal and security issues
• Getting feedback from employee exit interviews may help to identify areas that require improvements 
• Being in a cordial relationship with top talented former employees that they may work for the employer again

For Employees

Employees also get a lot of benefits and coverage from an amicable offboarding, including:

• Final settlement
• Paid time off balance
• Unemployment benefits
• Company retirement account
• Health insurance coverage
• Reference letters and Recommendations

If an employee leaves the organization on good terms, the employer should take offboarding steps to make the departing worker feel appreciated for contributing to the company’s success. A sincere appreciation from the employer and colleagues will be enough to end the journey on a good note.