Offboarding
Offboarding is the opposite of onboarding and describes the departure of an employee from a company.
This process is also known as exit management and the aim is to create a positive atmosphere for the employee. After all, it’s not just the first impression that counts, but also the last one.
Types of offboarding
A distinction can be made between 2 types of offboarding:
- the technical or systematic process
- the socio-emotional process
Offboarding: Tasks
When it comes to offboarding, both the manager and the HR department have a number of tasks to complete. Here is a small checklist for both positions:
Offboarding tasks of the manager:
- Early communication of the departure
- Prepare technical process
- Ensuring knowledge transfer: writing the handover
- Planning the farewell
- Conduct a farewell interview
HR tasks:
- Handing over the confirmation of termination
- Calculating the last working day
- Check financial entitlements & remaining vacation days
- Job reference
- Conducting an exit interview
- Organizing the replacement
A professional exit process can be beneficial for the company. If the departing colleague continues to value the company, they will be more inclined to leave all their knowledge there in the form of a handover. In addition, there will be fewer negative reviews on review platforms afterwards.
Why did offboarding happen?
There are many different reasons for leaving a company. We present a few scenarios below:
- After 7 years, a team member resigns. He seeks an open discussion, is honest about it and simply wants to use his skills elsewhere.
- It also happens that employees have to be made redundant for financial reasons. This sometimes happens even if a colleague has been with the same company for 10 or 20 years.
- Conflicts can have a long-term negative impact on the working atmosphere and create a bad mood. This can lead to colleagues resigning even without personal discussions.
- When a team member reaches retirement age, this is also a reason for leaving. Of course, saying goodbye is certainly not easy, but the colleague is now facing a new chapter in their life.
