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Published 27/11/2021

Offboarding Checklist: What to include in an Offboarding checklist

Off-boarding is the last stage of the employment lifecycle. In most companies, it is the most underrated process by the human resource team. Offboarding is the formal process for voluntary or involuntary termination of an employment contract due to personal or company reasons. Offboarding is important as onboarding, induction, orientation, and training. It caters to the company's reputation in the outside world since the ongoing employees must share their experience with the former company.

List of must-dos for offboarding new employees
An ideal offboarding must be a happy and understandable process where the outgoing employees are appreciated for the work done despite being voluntary or involuntary. I'll zoom into the must-do processes when offboarding employees.

Appreciate the outgoing employee
Whether leaving at their peril or laid off by the company, hiring managers and employers must make the process as serious as onboarding by thanking the employees for their time and dedication towards serving the company. It should be a formal process that involves interviewing the outgoing employee on the experience and challenges they have gone through during their career time within the company. At the end of the interview, a thank you pack should be offered.

Communicate about the departure
It is a great mistake for hiring managers to wait until the last day of quitting the job to communicate about an employee's departure. Whether voluntary or involuntary, it turns to be firing and causes irritation in the entire workplace. To avoid such gossip, managers should communicate to the entire team as soon as the information reaches their desk.

Knowledgeable succession
Outgoing employees should be treated like ambassadors of their former companies and thus must be retained until the last day of succession. Let them interact with new hires who assume their positions, give an overview of their daily routine, and orient them. If the outgoing employees cannot attend the succession day, let the record handover videos or handouts for incoming employees.

Recover company assets
It seems to be the cruelest part of offboarding but very critical. Collect all company equipment that was handed over during onboarding. They include; badges, phones, laptops, passwords, emails, database information, etc.

Revoke systems access
Out all the processes, revoking access to the company systems should be the first thing to be done immediately after the outgoing employees sign the termination of contract form. The outgoing employees may turn to be enemies of the company and start violating the company resources.

Prepare for an exit interview.
Exit interviews are a source of wealth of information. The interview should be in the form of breakfast or lunch organized by the employer. The employer is in a position to retrieve the strengths and weaknesses of the company, the quality of management, and opportunities the employees could have identified. If the employees leave for other companies, let them reveal their interest to the companies and what makes their current companies better than the former. Let them suggest what could be done to better the former companies.

Update organizational charts
Avoiding organizational confusion by pinning the details of incoming successors is important. Make sure charts and directories are up to date, and everyone within the company acknowledges it.

Update the payroll
It is not a secret. Employers forget to revoke the payroll and end up paying ghost workers. When the last payment is made, i.e., holiday packages, thank you packs, service, and any other relevant payment, their names should be immediately removed from the payroll system.

Keep in touch
The employer should remain in a close relationship with outgoing employees for reference. It can be in the form of time to time meeting for coffee and interviewing them on the progress of their current companies. Let them suggest what is being done in their current companies and lacks is their former companies. Also, staying in touch allows them to come back.

Successful offboarding has a lot of benefits to the employer and outgoing employees. It should be conducted peacefully despite being voluntary or involuntary. Employees who are treated well at the time of leaving are happy and want to return or refer their friends.

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