As with any relationship, the end of an employee’s time at your company can significantly impact their overall impression. It is true even when they voluntarily or involuntarily sever ties with the organization.
That is where offboarding comes into play. Here’s how to ensure employees leave on good terms and feel positive about their experience.
Onboarding Checklist
Whether your new hire is joining a team that works remotely or your company has an office. This template will suit their needs. It includes an overview of what to expect on day one and a breakdown of all the documentation they must collect for legal purposes.
Another great feature of this onboarding checklist template is that it includes a glossary of company jargon and a who’s who cheat sheet. That makes it easier for new hires to settle in and feel at home. It also helps to assign a buddy or mentor to help them get acquainted with the company’s structure, which can be overwhelming for many new employees.
Finally, make it a point to collect ongoing feedback from your new hires throughout the onboarding process. You can do this through surveys, one-to-one conversations, or anonymous feedback channels. It will help you spot areas for improvement quickly and easily. Then, you can take action to streamline your processes so that your onboarding process is a seamless journey for everyone involved.
Exit Interview
The exit interview is a crucial component of the onboarding and offboarding. It allows companies to collect feedback from departing employees and find out what is working and what is not. This information can be used to improve employee experience and retention strategies. It can also help identify any issues that need to be addressed, such as if employees feel there are too few opportunities for advancement or are not paid enough.
The exit interview should be conducted on neutral ground, such as a private conference room or meeting space. Typically, HR managers conduct the interviews, which helps to ensure that questions aren’t biased and that the employees are treated fairly. An interview questionnaire can guide the conversation and ensure that all relevant questions are being asked.
Employees should be reminded to keep their answers private and be urged to be sincere. However, it is vital to take any negative feedback seriously and follow standard investigation procedures if there are any complaints about harassment or discrimination.
Documentation
As employees move from stage to phase in your organization, it is essential to document their experiences along the way. It will help you understand why some people leave and what can be done to prevent them from doing so in the future. You can also use this information to improve your hiring and onboarding process.
Documentation can take many forms, from planning documents to reconciliations and work instructions. However, all documentation should have a consistent appearance, tone, and format to make it easier for readers to navigate and focus on the content. Additionally, documents should be concise to avoid confusing your audience.
To create your employee experience journey maps, identify your organization’s different personas and types of experiences they may need. Using existing data to inform the map may also be helpful, such as performance review outcomes and employee satisfaction survey results. Finally, finding an effective way to capture feedback at scale is crucial. Manually sending surveys to every new hire, promotion, or interaction can be expensive and inefficient.
Transfer of Responsibilities
While this article focuses on employee onboarding, it continues beyond there. Preparing your new hires for what happens when they are reassigned to a different position or resigning and entering your offboarding process would be best.
To help them transition to a new role, you can send a personalized email and letter to let them know they have been assigned a replacement due to knowing that their employment is secure. It also gives the new person a sense of belonging as they start their journey at your company.
Giving your employees a chance to provide feedback on their onboarding experience is essential, which can help you improve it. Use an employee satisfaction survey to gather this information, and include open-ended questions to get granular data from your teams. You can also use the responsibilities transfer report to reassign tasks from one employee to another. With the help of this tool, you may manage the assignment of new tasks when an employee quits or is transferred to another job within your company.
Follow-Up
While no one likes to see an employee depart, offboarding is an excellent opportunity to strengthen connections between the company and team members. It reinforces an organization’s commitment to professional development and career growth, even as ties are formally severed.
If an employee’s departure will impact a project deadline, deliverable, or other company milestone, it’s essential to communicate these changes early on. It will help alleviate tension and avoid any surprises down the line.
Ideally, an employee’s manager will be present throughout the offboarding process, just as during onboarding. It will ensure an effective transfer of knowledge, a critical goal of the offboarding process.
If a departing employee’s final review is scheduled soon after their last day, include an anonymous feedback request in the overall survey package. It will provide a great way to gauge an individual’s overall experience, including their feelings about transitioning out of their role.