Employee onboarding is a fairly well-known concept: the set of activities that get an employee up to speed and ready to perform effectively when he or she joins an organization. Onboarding has many components that most of us are well versed in, but what about employee offboarding? Does your organization have a formal employee offboarding program? If yes, what do you include?
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For those of us who do not have an employee offboarding program, let’s look at the basics. Employee offboarding is the set of actions taken when an employee leaves an organization. It can have a lot of goals, such as:
- Reducing the risk of litigation if something was not handled well during the employee’s tenure or his or her departure.
- Gathering information about what factors caused the employee to leave (if it was voluntary). This can help provide the necessary information to make changes to prevent others from leaving for similar reasons.
- Increasing the chance that a top-performing employee who leaves will consider coming back in the future.
- Covering all aspects of the employee’s departure systematically.
Possible Things to Include in Employee Offboarding
With the above goals in mind, here are some things employers choose to include in an employee offboarding checklist:
- Formal or informal exit interview with the employee who is leaving. Consider having someone who is not in the employee’s direct line of supervision conduct this to increase the chances of getting candid feedback.
- Discussion of severance details, if applicable.
- Discussion of final pay. This discussion should include when it will be provided (which varies by state and local laws) and what it will or will not include if it differs from regular pay. For example, accrued vacation pay may be included in many cases.
- Discussion of how to settle any amounts owed, which typically cannot simply be deducted from final pay.
- Return of employer-owned items, such as phone, uniform, tools, computer, car, keys to the premises, security cards, company credit cards, etc.
- Completion of signed termination form, which outlines the reason for the termination if the employee is not leaving voluntarily.
- Completion of signed resignation letter if the employee is leaving voluntarily.
- Discussion of continuation of benefits, such as Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) health insurance continuation, when applicable. Include discussion of how any retirement plans can be transferred or other options.
- Communication with the remaining staff about when the employee is leaving and how the transition will be handled. For example, who will handle this person’s job responsibilities until a replacement is found?
- Communication with customers/clients if appropriate. Let them know the individual is leaving and how their situation will be affected during the transition and what to expect.
- Reminder of nondisclosure/confidentiality, noncompete, and any other applicable ongoing obligations for the employee.
- Confirmation that other employees have access to information about any and all work left ongoing or incomplete so they can pick up where the departing employee left off.
- Removal of any access to software or company systems, including security access card deactivation, etc. Change or deactivate login details for all employee accounts.
- Removal of sensitive data from the devices the employee used. Be sure to first save any information that will be needed to continue the job. If an employee is keeping a device that was used for the job, such as a personal phone, then company data and apps will need to be removed from it.
- Assignment of someone to receive the employee’s e-mail temporarily after his or her departure to be able to provide responses should outside parties contact the employee.
- Farewell party, when appropriate. Consider whether it is appropriate to have a going-away or farewell party, especially for a retiring employee or someone who is departing on good terms after long service.
- Change of company documents as needed, such as organizational charts, company directories, website areas that list employees, etc.
- Receipt of forwarding information for the employee, such as any new or different address, phone number, employer, etc., to be able to contact him or her if need be.
If your company has a formal offboarding process, it may be known by other names. What else do you have on your offboarding or employee departure checklist?