In 2014, I spent a good portion of my year talking to organisations about their employee onboarding practices.
A lot of those companies have since signed up for HROnboard – employee onboarding software – with our customer base growing by over 100% resulting in some great customer success stories.
While automating the employee onboarding experience continues in popularity we’ve identified another key focus that requires the same attention.
Do you do employee offboarding?
It’s probably one of the most common questions I encountered last year. I hate saying no, but I had to say it a lot last year on this particular topic.
HR professionals understand onboarding and the best practices for onboarding a new hire, but what really is employee offboarding?
When an employee leaves the organisation, typical activities include:
- Collect assets from the leaver (phones, laptops etc.)
- Notify IT to remove employees from internal systems and network access
- File their official resignation letter or send a termination letter
- Send details of final pay (both internally and to the now former employee)
- Produce a certificate of service
- Produce a separation certificate if requested by the employee
- Encourage the former employee to stay in touch through alumni and other networks (if they are leaving on good terms)
Looking at the list, you can probably tell it’s a very manual, time-consuming process. It’s also a very awkward situation to handle if the employee isn’t leaving on good terms.
If employee offboarding is not performed correctly, it can lead to systems being hacked or legal action for unfair dismissal – both very serious issues for any organisation.
For voluntary resignations, a poor employee offboarding experience leaves a bad view of your organisation, making it unlikely that they would ever return or recommend you to their network.
In 2014 when people asked me if we do employee offboarding, I said no.
But I like solving your problems, and I should have a different answer for you very soon…
Stay tuned!