Employee turnover is natural but still growing, and a properly prepared farewell process, while it may be difficult, is a very good investment in the long run.

It happens that employees leave feeling dissatisfied and disappointed, which are often shared outside. Stable and well-designed stages of parting with an employee will help avoid standard pitfalls that most companies commit.

What the company gains thanks to a properly planned:

• supports security – deals with closing the accounts of a former employee and recovering equipment entrusted to work
• allows you to avoid or mitigate disputes related to contracts, damages, and unfounded solutions
• helps to manage the transfer of responsibilities and/or a change in the structure of teams
• it builds a good atmosphere related to parting with the company

The Aberdeen Group has conducted research that shows that companies with well-planned offboarding process have reduced fluctuation

Good practices in creating the offboarding process

In the beginning, it is worth emphasizing that the process may differ depending on the size of the company, industry, or employee position, as well as the nature of leaving the company. However, I hope that this guide will be useful to you to create the most effective process in your company.

Stage 1: When the employee informs about the resignation, maybe not all is lost?

Sometimes, when an employee decides to notify their supervisor of their decision, not all is lost yet. The key in this first stage is an honest conversation and skillful finding out why the employee is leaving us. Many studies show that employees usually do not leave the company only from their superiors. Therefore, it is worth keeping statistics on individual departments and their rotation in order to be able to draw conclusions regarding the level of rotation. An honest conversation with an employee may result in keeping him in the company and only moving him to another department or project, which will increase his satisfaction with the performance of activities.

Stage 2: The final employee decision to leave has been made

Unfortunately, sometimes even the greatest efforts can fail. At this point, we should respect the employee’s decision and start the process of leaving the employee by the company.

Where to start?

1. First, reassure the employee that what happened happened. Prepare and sign relevant documents with the employee confirming his final decision.
2. First, reassure the employee that what happened happened. Prepare and sign relevant documents with the employee confirming his final decision.

Schedule a final interview with the employee right away. Thanks to such an interview, you will learn more about his role and experience in the company. This conversation will be one of his last interactions, so try to prepare for it so that it ends as positively as possible.

• Make sure that rumors do not overtake you. Notify teams cooperating with the employee about his departure. Provide your employees with comfort and make sure how it affects them, especially in terms of fulfilling their duties and morale.
• If the employee has had contact with customers, notify them of the changes and ensure a smooth customer transfer

Stage 3: Who will replace the employee when they leave?

Very demotivating for employees who remain in the team after someone leaves the company is the unequal distribution of duties among departing members. To ensure a safe situation, cooperate with the employee and his supervisor to fully secure the process in which he participated

1. Determine the appropriate replacement. Plan together who will replace the employee and whether any of his duties will be distributed among other team members
2. Take care of competencies. If you have already planned how you can the employment gap filled, check whether this plan has a chance of success. Whether the employee will train his deputy in an appropriate way, whether the deputy has all the necessary competencies or needs to undergo any additional training
3. Ask the employee for a list of accounts, clients, key files, and other items that will allow for a smooth handover

Stage 4: Take care of legal issues during offboarding process

Legal issues are especially important from the perspective of the company’s security. Therefore, it is very important to check that all documents are up-to-date, and in particular check:

1. Terms of the employee’s contract (what type of contract is valid for him and on what terms described in the contract is its termination)
2. Terms of the enterprise confidentiality agreement
3. Determine with the staff what is the situation regarding the benefits: a. Amount of paid leave remaining b. Loyalty agreements related to paid training – sometimes the employee will be required to return part of the money or bonus c. Order to issue documents confirming the termination of cooperation

Stage 5: Employee’s Checklist:

Ask the employee to go through the employee’s checklist (workflow list). What should be on the checklist?

1. Return of company equipment: passes, ID badges, computers, telephones, work clothes, keys, car, parking cards, credit cards
2. Personal belongings – the employee should pack and take all personal belongings

Stage 6: Reset Accounts

This will protect the company from security breaches. What should be on the list?

1. Removal of access to e-mail, internal systems, and platforms, intranet,
2. Changing passwords for any accounts
3. Email redirection
4. Updating the database on the company’s structure

Stage 7: Saying goodbye to the employee

Sometimes the process of leaving can be a bit dry, but you have an influence on how he finally remembers his last day at work. There is a lot you can do to make this last day more enjoyable. For example, consider writing a thank you letter, giving a personalized gift, or sending a goodbye card with employee signatures.

Summary

I hope that I managed to explain how important the offboarding process is for your company. Concern for safety issues, for the comfort of employees who stay, as well as caring for the good name of the company and a good impression – all this also contributes to your success. You can use the diagrams I created for free and freely change them so that your process can be best suited to your company.