Employee offboarding just as important as onboarding

There is a lot of discussion these days about new hire onboarding. Most managers and HR personnel agree that how an employee is brought into the organization determines the employee’s success with the organization. If the employee is warmly welcomed, instructed, and guided, the organization will likely get a glowing review. If not, word can spread quickly and, perhaps, jeopardize chances with future prospective employees. But just as a company’s onboarding practices can elevate or diminish organizational reputations, so can their offboarding practices.

Of course, there are tales of wild employee firings and resignations in which HR staff and managers are caught off-guard and have little time to react but those separations are the exception. In today’s mobile workforce, employees leaving a company are commonplace so that companies have no excuse for not being prepared when an employee leaves.

While many employers understand that offboarding an employee generally entails retrieving company property and issuing COBRA and HIPPA forms, few take this as an opportunity for the company to learn why an employee wants to leave. After all, if an employee is satisfied with their company, they wouldn’t leave. This means there is a deficiency somewhere in the organization and a carefully executed offboarding plan can help uncover this information.

There will be times that no matter how fantastic an organization, an employee wants or needs another challenge, more money, or to just try something new. These situations cannot always be remedied. It is when an employee is leaving because they are dissatisfied – with management, conditions, lack of opportunity – that a good offboarding plan can help the organization learn.

To learn more about effective offboarding practices, read Elizabeth Galatine’s, Off-boarding market opportunities grow as more employees are let go.