Top 5 Tips to Ensure Better Employee Offboarding

Nothing is more stressful for a company than to give an employee that most daunting news: “We’re going to have to let you go.” As if dealing with gross inefficiency was not enough, now the administration is faced with the challenge of confronting the energy of sheer shock, disappointment and fear in that most dreaded office boardroom.

The employee may leave the company feeling embittered, which may, in turn, cause great disrepute and an even higher attrition rate for the company. Rather than making the last few moments bitter and sour for the employee, the company can try to leave a better impression on the outgoing employee by improving their offboarding process.

This blog discusses the five best practices of employee offboarding that a company can implement for their outgoing employees.

1. Understand the reason for the exit

The offboarding process has its share of intricacies and complications. Highlight and celebrate the employee’s accomplishments, and express your sincere gratitude for their efforts. The general processes involved in the offboarding process differ as per their types, such as contractual, retirement, layoff, and resignation.

The employee may not fit into the long term vision of the company, the employee may have received a better opportunity, or the employee couldn’t handle the growth and expansion of the company.

There could be various reasons for them leaving the organisation. Therefore, it is important to find the exact nature of their exit from the company. This allows you to customise the offboarding process to try to create a pleasant parting experience.

2. Make the offboarding memorable

The most important part of a great employee offboarding procedure is to behave with the outgoing employee warmly, irrespective of the reasons that led to their exit from the company.

Highlight and celebrate the achievements of the employee and sincerely appreciate their efforts. It leaves a positive imprint on the employee about the company and helps to end things on a happy note.

A memorable offboarding or farewell makes the employee talk positively about the company and their past experiences, which will increase your brand value and build a positive reputation for the company.

3. Retrieve insights

Retrieving insights from an exiting employee can be a valuable information resource for the company. More often, the departing employees provide honest and unbiased feedback about the management and the organisation.

This information can help find the loopholes or necessary changes required to stop employees from leaving the company for the same cause.

A simple exit plan for the employee in the offboarding process could uncover the reasons why the employees leave the company. If more employees are leaving the company for the same cause, then the insights help the management address the sticking issue to prevent further churn for the same issue.

4. Ensure compliance

You need to ensure proper compliance with the complex rules and policies, especially during the employee offboarding procedure. An improper process and result in a security risk for the organisation or can drag the company into legal trouble later.

For instance, if the employee has left the company but still has access to the account and other sensitive areas. Then it could pose a huge risk to the security of the company. A disgruntled employee may compromise sensitive data of the company which may result in huge losses.

Also, not following proper compliance can result in legal issues. Therefore, the company needs to follow compliance despite the unpleasant experiences with the employee or the circumstances that lead to the ouster of the employee.

5. Protect assets

Any employee resigning from the company or being terminated is an unpleasant situation that nobody wants to be in. Various negative emotions fly in the air. During these times, it is crucial to protect your vital assets from any possible attempts of vengeance from the departing employee.

Especially during massive layoffs and workplace conflicts, the employer needs to be very careful about their assets and protect them from any possible malicious attempts of seeking revenge for the actions of the company.

The best way to protect your assets and brand is to take proactive measures to reduce the chances of compliance breaches. This could be achieved with effective automation of the physical assets of the company and streamlining the processes to make the process more cordial and involving for the departing employees.

During these critical times, it is important to ensure that there is no drop in the productivity of other employees. And the exit of one employee should not impact the morale or efficiency of other employees. By taking proactive steps and following the best offboarding practices, the company can ensure a smooth and cordial offboarding process.

Offboarding an employee is never easy. However, it is a bitter pill that every company must swallow at some point or the other, for the greater good of the organisation. Approaching the issue with empathy and reserve is the key to ensuring better company relationships.

If you want to seek assistance with letting an employee go or any other aspect of hiring, you must visit BetterPlace today. Our onboarding and offboarding specialists will be happy to help.