The complete employee offboarding checklist to streamline exits
The offboarding process contains many steps - some common across companies, some specific to an industry, and a few that account for your company policy. Every item on the list must be checked to ensure a smooth offboarding process - one that is hassle free for you and for the employees.
You need a checklist to organize all the offboarding activities and formalities in a sequential order. This way, you can have a clear view of the tasks that have been accomplished and those that are pending. By using the right offboarding software, you can additionally identify the owner and the current task status.
Here are some themes that you should include in your employee offboarding checklist:
1. Attempt to retain the employee
Employee initiated exits can be for a variety of reasons. The employee may not necessarily want to leave the organization - she might want to change roles, try a new skill, get a salary hike, or any other goal which she believes can’t be achieved at your company.
But if the purpose is met within the organization, she might reconsider her decision. If her manager finds it fit, the employee can be given more options that will give the impetus to continue working for you. This one step can drastically improve your employee retention.
Task Owners: Direct Reporting Manager, Employee
2. Communicate the news of exit
An employee’s intent to exit must stay between her and the manager till the exit is finalized. But once the employee confirms that she wants to leave, the news must be conveyed to all the associated parties efficiently.
Even though the communication must account for the employees comfort, any delay in communications might result in rumors and misinformation.
The immediate team members can be communicated through an email, a mention in the meetings, or through any other means that fits your company policy. Sharing of any additional information must also align with your offboarding policy.
Task Owners: Direct Reporting Manager, Employee
3. Initiate action from all departments
After the last working date of the employee has been decided, the manager must communicate the news to all departments associated with offboarding - HR, IT, Admin, Transportation, etc.
They all must start checking the employee account to identify requirements that the employee needs to fulfill before she leaves.
For instance, if an employee holds another company asset that they should have returned earlier, the Admin department can ask her to do that immediately.
Task Owner: Direct Reporting Manager
4. Start with the documentation process
Offboarding documentation for an exiting employees is a cross-functional process. Companies must facilitate forms and portals for employees to submit information pertinent to their exit. Additionally, they must offer tools to generate letters of resignation, benefits documents, post-exit communication chains to all it’s departments.
The employee must fill in reimbursement requests pertinent to unused time offs, shift allowance, travel allowance, internet bills, and other benefits that align with the company policy. The reporting manager must ensure that they review the requests on priority. Any delay can impact the final settlement date.
Also, every document must be preserved to keep the employer and the employee safe from legal hassles in the future. It can get cumbersome to store data on common cloud platforms. It’s unsafe and difficult to retrieve. It’s ideal that you use an employee offboarding software for the purpose.
Task Owner: Employee, department representatives.
5. Initiate Knowledge Transfer
It is ideal if the manager can identify a replacement for the employee before she leaves. This way, both the employees can have some overlap - The new employee has wiggle room to get comfortable with the new responsibilities before the current employee leaves.
The new employee will learn the tricks of the trade that the existing training module may not cover. An effective knowledge transfer will reduce future escalations and the time spent in reworks.
The managers should also be involved in the process. They should take feedback from the new employee on their comfort with the new role and ensure that she has access to all the documents, tools, and software she needs to do the work effectively.
Managers must also communicate the successful completion of the process to clients while introducing them with the new resource.
Task Owners: Direct Reporting Manager, Current Employee, New Employee
6. Manage employee’s IT access
The company must revoke the exiting employee’s access to internal files. Access to any software, documents, or tools must be transferred to the replacing employee. Often, disabling the email account takes care of a lot of those items, but planning the date of disablement is essential.
The manager might choose to retain access for the exiting employee right until the last day, or can have it revoked earlier.
Task Owners: IT department representative
7. Conduct the Exit Interview
Exit interview is an important step of the offboarding process. By asking the right exit interview questions, you can get valuable information that reveals glaring gaps between what you perceive employees think about your company and what they really do.
The exiting employee might be hesitant in giving honest feedback through the one to one interview channel with HR or their manager. However, they can reveal their perception of your company through a detailed questionnaire. Additionally, if you assure that their response will be confidential and will not burn bridges, you might get more specific answers.
It’s worth noting that this exercise is futile if you do not act upon it. If, through an exit questionnaire, you discover that many employees raise a common concern, you must address it promptly to avoid more talent from exiting your organization.
Task Owners: HR manager or Direct Reporting Manager
8. Recover your assets
You must recover all the assets that your employee was provided to carry out her job effectively. This can include hardware - laptop, laptop accessories, hard-disks, etc. and access to software and tools.
The employee must also return her badge, keys, access cards, corporate credit cards, travel cards, meal cards, etc.
This step must be taken on or before the last working day of the employee.
Task Owners: Admin department or asset management department
9. Take care of the human side of offboarding
Beyond the formal side of the offboarding process, it’s important to cater to the human side of it. Exiting employees might have spent years with you. They made friends and have memories associated with the place and people they worked with.
Someone from the employee’s team should plan a farewell get together as the last working day approaches. It need not be a part of the offboarding policy, but this gesture bonds the employee to your company and leaves a positive imprint on her.
Task Owners: Exiting employees teammate
10. Collect employee information for post-exit formalities
Even after the exit, the employee might need documentation to be presented to a new employer or support regarding employee benefits. They should remain a part of your database and you should keep communication channels open with them.
For that, you need their contact information. You should collect their secondary contact details.
Task Owner: Admin department
