Best Practices for Offboarding an Employee

One of your top performing employees just handed in their resignation. Before getting distracted by this immediate void and getting caught up in all your presumptions as to why they are leaving, it’s time you start planning a graceful offboarding.

Why a graceful employee offboarding affects your bottom line:

Employees, even in these times of AI and Machine Learning, are your business’ most valuable capital. Not only do employees keep the wheels turning, but they also play a huge role in word-of-mouth and evangelist branding efforts. These efforts, as most marketers will speak to, can have an exponential impact on your bottom line. Even after an employee moves on to new opportunities, they will continue to have an insider’s credibility when referring to your company, and the offboarding process can ensure that you either create a champion of your brand or an avid hater.

The good news is that most exiting employee don’t hold resentment for the organizations they are leaving, but rather for reasons related to management or personal/professional growth. Given the circumstances, you can at least be assured that you, the employer, have the upper hand in maintaining a positive perception of your company after the employee’s departure. Moreover, the offboarding process is the perfect time to make amends and ensure that any remaining conflict is deescalated.

How to see out a graceful employee offboarding

Unlike employee onboarding, the offboarding process is one companies tend to neglect. One way to ensure that every offboarding isn’t haphazardly executed is to create a structured process that can be carried out swiftly in case of immediate departures. The experience of an employee during off-boarding usually consists of the following:

• Formal communication of the resignation
• Letting other staff know of the departure
• Preparing a successor for new/temporary responsibilities
• Signing of paperwork and confirming details of the last paycheck
• Revoking access to all company systems (changing passwords if deemed necessary)
• Retrieving all company property
• Conducting an exit survey

Considering that employee offboarding could take place last minute or without two weeks notice, some procedures may go unperformed if the staff is not prepared. However, with the use of Pipefy’s free employee offboarding template, your HR team can manage the process promptly and leverage features like automation to speed things along.

Some best practices for a graceful exit

Besides conducting the typical offboarding process, your organization may want to consider going the extra mile to ensure that the exiting employee leaves on a positive note. Here are some best practices for running a superb offboarding.

Create an alumni page

Leaving the doors open for future communication can mean the difference between ex-employees looking back on fond memories or with a sour taste in their mouth. An alumni page is a great way to leave those doors open.

Get creative with your exit interview

If you really want to know how to improve your organization and reduce employee churn rate, then take the exit interview seriously. Most employees are warned to not be honest during exit interviews because of any potential repercussions from the employer. Consider conducting a written and formal exit survey that will go on the record coupled with a spoken off-the-record interview to get honest feedback.

Provide a proper farewell

If the employee is leaving on good terms, it couldn’t hurt to provide a proper farewell in the form of an office lunch or party. This could also give a sense of closure for those who admired the exiting employee.

All in all, it’s essential to address employees with respect all through the offboarding process. Regardless of whether or not this person is leaving on good terms, the respect you bestow on them can only do good for your branding efforts and employee churn rate. Although many companies don’t prioritize the offboarding process, the little effort can go a long way.