How warm is the reception for your new employees? Now, ask yourself how warm the reception is for your outgoing employees? New employees are welcomed aboard with well-thought-out processes in-place and lots of smiles and positivity. Yet many times outgoing employees don’t receive the same attention, especially when it comes to the offboarding processes. Implementing proper offboarding procedures not only secures your company from potential harm but secures an ongoing friendship that could produce valuable new hires.

Make the Offboarding Positive

An offboarding process should be just as positive as the employee’s onboarding; give a card, say thanks or even throw a farewell party. Keeping the relationship positive goes a long way towards securing new hires or even welcoming the employee back. An outgoing employee could be your company’s biggest champion, one who refers others to work for you. Referrals are one of the best ways to fill a position as they cut down on costs and timelines. And, referred employees typically stay with a company longer than traditional candidates. Plus, when an employee leaves happy, you won’t have to worry about negative reviews ending up on your company’s Facebook page or sites like Glassdoor.com

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Perform an Exit Interview

A quality exit interview is your best tool for understanding why employees leave so you can mitigate future exits. For example, if you have several outgoing employees that express a lack of career growth, provide opportunities for professional development and add some career planning. An exit interview should include:

  • An explanation of the purpose of the exit interview (to help improve your workplace and company culture)
  • A genuine commitment to listen without pretense
  • Questions that can be measured and tracked
  • An action plan for making needed improvements, if applicable

Download our interview checklist to use as a best practice guide for what to cover during the discussion.

Retrieve Physical Assets

Collect any company assets before the employee leaves to protect sensitive information and your company’s investment. Company devices include laptop, tablets, smartphones but also memory sticks, keys and security cards employees use to get inside your building. If your company has a BYOD policy, be sure to remove personal device access and network access.

Keep Detailed Records

It is essential to dot your i’s and cross your t’s in order to maintain compliance during the offboarding process, especially in cases where information could be stolen, sold or publicly distributed by employees with malicious intentions. You hope this never happens to you, but it’s better safe than sorry. Detailed logos can be used in the event of a compliance audit to prove you followed offboarding procedures correctly and also during any investigations if security or data is breached.

Prepare to Keep Productivity Level

When an employee leaves, it’s usually his or her co-workers who are most affected – mainly because they pick up the slack. During the offboarding process, ask the employee to compile a list of all the projects and tasks he or she is responsible for and assign them to someone else. If you utilize succession planning software, you can identify which employees can step in to fill their shoes. Having a succession plan helps identify any gaps left by offboarding employees.

With BirdDogHR Succession Planning software, you can review employee performance, competencies and employee development plans so you’re never left scrambling to fill the gap left by a vacationing employee.

Contact us today for a free demo or HR assessment.