18 of February, 2025

Just as we hire new employees, others leave us. The reasons can vary immensely, but in every case, it’s necessary to have a robust offboarding process.

Having a robust employee exit plan will assist us in Human Resources management to facilitate the transition for another person to take their place. Bear in mind that any employee might leave the company at any time.

What is offboarding?

We could define offboarding as the set of activities aimed at satisfactorily terminating the employment relationship. This process spans from the moment the employee’s departure is communicated until it actually occurs.

The main goal is to make the employee’s departure as satisfying as possible for both parties. This can be an uncomfortable situation. A successful departure allows us to maintain a good relationship with the employee and will not harm our reputation.

To get an idea of its importance, onboarding, and offboarding go hand in hand. It is as crucial to give a good welcome as a good farewell.

If first impressions are key, so are the last ones. Thus, we should try to ensure the employee leaves on a good note.

What’s the difference between onboarding and offboarding?

The main difference between onboarding and offboarding lies in when they occur within an employee’s lifecycle at a company.

Onboarding: integrating new employees

Onboarding is the process of welcoming and integrating a new employee into the company. Its purpose is to facilitate their incorporation, accelerate their productivity, and ensure a positive experience from the start. Key elements of onboarding include:

Signing documents and contracts.
Training on the company, culture, and values.
Assignment of tools and accesses.
Introduction to the team and initial accompaniment.
Follow-up to evaluate adaptation.

A good onboarding process can improve talent retention and employee engagement.

Offboarding: employees’ departure

Offboarding is the process of disengaging an employee when they leave the company, whether by resignation, dismissal, or retirement. Its purpose is to ensure a smooth transition, preserve organizational knowledge, and maintain a good relationship with the employee. Key elements of offboarding include:

Formal notification of departure.
Delivery of settlement documentation.
Return of equipment and deactivation of accesses.
Exit interview to understand their experience and reasons.
Internal communication to inform the team.

A well-managed offboarding process protects the company’s reputation and can transform former employees into brand ambassadors or facilitate future rehires.

Why is it important to perform a good offboarding?

Conducting proper offboarding is key to ensure a smooth employee departure, protect the company’s reputation, and maintain a positive work environment. Although many organizations focus more on incorporating new talents, managing an employee’s proper exit is just as important.

It protects the company’s reputation

An employee who leaves with a positive experience might become a brand ambassador, recommending the company to future talents or clients. Conversely, a bad departure might generate negative comments affecting the company’s image.

Facilitates work transition and continuity

When an employee leaves, it is fundamental to ensure their knowledge and responsibilities get properly transferred to their replacement or the team. A well-structured offboarding process avoids interruptions in the workflow.

Limits security risks

Disabling access to systems, recovering devices, and securing sensitive data is essential. An organized process prevents data leaks and security risks.

Enhances the employee experience to the end

Offboarding is the last impression an employee gets from the company. A respectful and well-managed process strengthens a positive professional relationship and leaves the door open for future collaborations.

Provides valuable information to the company

Exit interviews can reveal internal problems, areas for improvement, and reasons why employees decide to leave. This input helps to reinforce the talent retention strategy.

Facilitates talent return

Satisfied former employees may consider returning to the company in the future with more experience and new skills, reducing hiring and training costs.

How to conduct an effective offboarding?

The key to properly manage the offboarding process is planning the disengagement from a company. Just as you have preboarding for new hires, you will have to design an offboarding plan.

On one hand, the offboarding plan includes reassigning tasks until a replacement is found. If one is found sooner, it may include the transition, the collaboration between the departing employee and the new hire.

But also, it will serve to expedite departures. Prolonging the process harms everyone, as the employee will feel uncomfortable, brand image and work environment will worsen.

It’s always advisable to have an offboarding checklist that includes all issues to be resolved before the farewell.

Signing paperwork, final pay, resolution of pending tasks, the return of the company car or phone… These are issues we must not leave to chance. The same goes for access to the company’s intranet or the employee portal. When the time comes, it must be cut off.

Another action we can include in the exit plan is a satisfaction survey. It can ask for the reasons for their departure and also about their experience within the organization.

Advantages of digital offboarding

The best way to develop the offboarding process is to have a dedicated HR software solution. Tools like Sesame HR allow you to develop a complete and efficient digital offboarding.

One key aspect of offboarding is understanding why our employees leave. A high turnover rate is undesirable. Knowing the causes of talent leakage will help us design the appropriate strategy to retain it. It also serves to improve the company’s day-to-day operations.

The document manager tool can also assist in successfully completing the employee’s departure. We can even sign documents remotely. In this way, we streamline the departure process and avoid future legal issues.

Why have an exit plan?

We’ve seen how to bid farewell to an employee and it’s clear there are many advantages to doing so.

Here are the 5 reasons to have an offboarding plan in the company:

Organized transition. Knowing when an employee is leaving facilitates the transition. They can provide key information to the organization or work for a while alongside their future replacement.
Work environment. A disgruntled employee about to leave the company is a ticking time bomb. Measuring the work environment is always important.
Preserves the relationship. What today is a goodbye might be a reunion in the future. That’s why it’s essential to maintain good relations with former employees.
Gathers key information for the company. We’ve seen that the offboarding process allows us to gather information about the company’s operation. We identify areas for improvement and use the employee’s experience to introduce relevant changes.
Improves talent retention. Offboarding is not at odds with talent retention. In fact, we should reinforce our strategy to prevent its escape based on the information it provides us.

After understanding the importance of implementing proper offboarding in the company, I encourage you to try Sesame HR software. Just register, and you’ll receive a 14-day free trial of the tool.

Optimize your company’s onboarding and offboarding processes, increase employee retention, and maintain a good work environment.

Customer-oriented, both internally and externally, specializing in the definition and implementation of HR policies, as well as talent management, recruitment, and retention. Strong leadership, communication, negotiation, organization, and team coordination skills. Over 12 years of experience in Human Resources.

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iriserrador

HR Content Specialist

Offboarding: what is it and why is it important?