‘Offboarding’ is the New Black

Created on December 11, 2015
Last updated on December 14th, 2021 at 8:26 am by Radian Antarikso


Written By: Curtis Weldon, Product Center of Excellence Manager, Onboarding

As we approach the Holiday Season we are once again faced with that perennial quandary – what to wear to the office holiday party?!

Black never goes out of style no matter the wardrobe or occasion. And, neither does employee retention. Black pairs well with anything, and so do best practices when it comes to ‘offboarding’ employees. There is a direct correlation between managing the offboarding process properly, documenting the feedback when an employee leaves and making improvements based on their feedback to directly link back to talent acquisition.

“The average tenure of an employee at a large technology company is one year” — Dr. Karie Willyerd, SR VP Learning & Social Adaptation at SuccessFactors in her recent Webinar with Aason on the “2020 Workplace”

WATCH IT HERE

In today’s rapidly changing, high-pressure work environment, it is more important than ever for companies to implement a formal offboarding process that is followed consistently. Taking data and queues from the end of the process will help HR and Recruitment teams build a new foundation from the very start of the employee life cycle.

Most organizations don’t manage the end of an employee’s tenure strategically (or gracefully for that matter). Some will conduct a brief exit interview, but the focus tends to be on collecting the employee’s entry badge, not on learning how the company can better attract and retain top talent in the future.

Those exit surveys are power tools. They are your best – and last – chance to capture actionable, honest and critical feedback from a departing employee. Your departing employees are the richest source of data on the causes of turnover. By asking them the right questions you can uncover flaws in your talent management process and determine the key drivers of turnover.

By taking both a tactical and strategic approach to the survey you can gauge the efficacy of the businesses everyday process to the leadership support while still gathering the true reason the employee is leaving.

Strategic Offboarding:

  • How strong is your organization’s leadership team?
    • What would the departing employee suggest changing about leadership team?
  • Do employees fit into the company culture?
    • Is decision making aligned with the company’s core values?
  • Are there things the company should change regarding compensation, succession planning, or work/life balance?
  • Would those changes have persuaded the employee to stay?

Tactical Offboarding:

  • Do employees have what they need to perform their job duties?
    • Does the structure of your leadership hierarchy support efficient decision-making?
  • Maybe they weren’t in the right role.
    • We as employers shouldn’t assume that fault is solely on the employee.
    • You want to get a sense of why things didn’t work out from the employee’s perspective
  • What are the strengths and weaknesses in your talent management processes?
    • Such as onboarding, performance reviews, goal management, on-the-job education or training
  • Did the company offer adequate employee development and opportunities for growth?

You can tune and tweak your exit interview to a point of perfection, but your data is only useful if you’ll actually do something with it. Find the common points, and trends. Then assign values to each one so you can gain the highest impact first.

Eventually, all employees leave a company for some reason. Regardless of why employee is leaving, following consistent strategic and tactical offboarding best practices never goes out of style.

Former employees sometimes come back and they all notice how they were treated when they were leaving. So, keep it simple, classy yet refined in the office and at the Holiday Party!

Talk to a Rizing Expert

Whether you’re just getting started or are well on your way, we can help.