Employee Offboarding Checklist

Offboarding, or the process of managing employee departures, refers to the process of separation between an employee and an employer, when an employee leaves an organization. The process includes the steps to be followed until the planned end of the working relationship between the two parties.

Offboarding is an important stage in an employee’s career. Implementing an offboarding process to manage the departure of an employee has several advantages:

• Contributes to employer brand
• Reduces oversight and wasted time
• Increases employee loyalty
• Enhances data security and protection
• Maintains good relationships with departing employees
• Retains corporate knowledge
• Eases transition

For successful offboarding, it is a good practice to rely on a checklist to manage all the stages of an employee’s departure. It’s important to attach as much importance to this as to onboarding.

When managers deal with an employee’s departure in a prepared manner, that employee is more likely to speak positively about the company, and even to join it again. In this way, managing employee departures contributes positively to the employer brand.

When an employee quits, having an exit interview is key to understanding the reasons they are leaving. The interview can be held on the employee’s last day of work. This practice is beneficial for all companies, whatever their size or industry.

The questions asked during an exit interview provide information on what the company can do better to retain employees and attract new talent.

Exit interview guides are available to guide the manager during this meeting.

Whereas offboarding refers to the departure of an employee, onboarding is the process of welcoming and integrating a new employee.

Also known as the integration process, onboarding covers the steps to be taken before, during and after a new employee’s arrival at an organization, to help them quickly adapt to their new work environment and reinforce their sense of belonging.