When an employee resigns, is terminated or retires, the offboarding process starts. Depending on the arrangement this period could be very
Make the experience positive for all parties. This is because former employeees can easily become future employees again, you never know. In addition they work as your brand ambassador and could promote both your services and company for other potential candidates. They might easily also become a future customer.
First days
After you've potentially tried to convince them to stay, but their decision is final and there is no turning back, here is a suggestion of things to do.
- Congratulate them and be happy on their behalf. Maybe there is a potential for a cooperation in their new role in another company. Thank them for all the effort they've put in.
- Discuss their new role in the new company - will this have effect on their non-compete and non-disclosure agreement?
- Agree when their last day should be
- Make a plan for the exit and a transitional solution: Who should take over and be in charge of the knowledge transfer and tasks. When should the departure be announced and how.
- Do you need to start recruiting? Make a plan.
The period until the last working day
- Communicate to the company about the departure, dates, and how the transition will work, who will cover and if there will be a replacement/recruitment process. This should not be delayed unnecessarily as rumours travel fast.
- Ensure knowledge transfer and handover of tasks runs smoothly according to the plan you've made.
- Consider of email should be forwarded to successor in order to receive important mails.
- Employee should make sure also to handover and prepare all documents and files that will be relevant in the shared drive. This belongs to the company and is potential important intellectual property.
- Make a list of company assets that employee needs to hand in. This could be laptops, tablets, mobile phones, peripherals etc.
- Good exit interviews are important. Consider to have several in case the employee have been reporting to different managers. Try to learn as much as possible during these sessions.
- Prepare departure event, write small speech, buy cards, gifts etc.
- Prepare letter of recommendation if relevant
- Coordinate with payroll about last payouts.
Last day of work
- Revoke system and software access, email etc, hand in keys and access cards.
- Make sure all company assets are handed over.
- Hold farewell event with speech and send appreciation email from management
After the employee has departed
- Update organization charts with new structure
- Cancel phone subscription if relevant
- Ensure payroll and benefit systems are updated. Also any other reports related to tax and public records should be taken care of.
- Remove from email lists and recurring meetings
- Update employment records
- Delete sensitive employee files and data where necessary (GDPR)
- Double check that all access has been revoked.
- Stay in touch!
