7 December 2021

The correct management of offboarding

man holds a cardboard box filled with office items, such as papers and a mug, in a work environment.

The entries (Onboarding) and outlets (Offboarding) of employees in the company are two critical moments that are often not managed correctly by companies and can lead to various operational problems.

Many companies neglect the process of terminating an employee's employment until the employee leaves the company. It is very common for HR departments to focus only on employee care when the employee is an employee, but to stop doing so in the moment before the employee leaves the company. 

However, without considering the Offboarding as a fundamental aspect of any company's relationship with a worker, In this case, the exit process could be carried out erroneously and therefore the company could make a serious mistake.

The exit process of an employee or Offboarding must always facilitate the employee's departure and ensure that the company does not blame the employee for his or her absence, and come out stronger for it. Anticipation and goodwill on both sides are fundamental to the success of this process.

Let's take a look at what exactly the Offboarding, Why is it so important and what are the steps to follow in order to carry out this process correctly?.

Table of contents

What is the Offboarding

The Offboarding is the Employee dismissal process and all measures taken by the company to carry out this process. This procedure is divided into several stages in which the company focuses on specific aspects.

The ultimate objective of the Offboarding is evto ensure traumatic outlets are prevented and normal activity is guaranteed of the company while this is happening.

La main difference between Onboarding and Offboarding is that, in the first case, when an employee joins a company, there's a tendency to prioritise their satisfaction.

While in the second case, the company's future is prioritised and given more importance, regardless of what the departing employee may think or feel. 

The Offboarding is an essential tool when an employee leaves the company, both voluntarily and involuntarily. Unfortunately, many HR departments still do not understand the importance of proper Offboarding.

Importance and benefits

  • Maintains a good working climate. A departing employee who does not feel well treated in the company can be a source of tensions that can negatively affect the working climate.
  • It facilitates an orderly transition. It is very important that the employee who is leaving the company collaborates in the transition process. This means that they should provide the company with any necessary information or train their future replacement.
  • Improve talent retention. A correct Offboarding improve its employer brand, which helps to strengthen its talent retention capacity.
  • Help maintain a good relationship with former employees. Maintaining a good relationship with a former employee is very important to facilitate future operations and eventual re-hiring.
  • Help to gather valuable information for the company. The Offboarding Help to gather information on how the company operates and identify potential areas for improvement. 
  • Avoid potential financial losses. Avoid making mistakes, such as continuing to pay benefits to employees who are no longer part of the workforce.
  • Improve logistics. A plan to Offboarding You must provide answers regarding how the responsibilities of the employee who has left the company will be carried out, how the team will be coordinated until the position is filled, who will replace the employee leaving the company, etc.

Key aspects to manage it

There are a number of fundamental aspects that must be taken into account in order to correctly manage a process of Offboarding. Let's look at it next some of the most important ones:

  • Planning. The success of an optimal process Offboarding It is rooted in anticipating and planning the measures the company will take. To this end, it is very important to have up-to-date information on all employees, which is usually done with specialised software. Thanks to this software, it will be possible to establish a retirement schedule, check the expiry dates of current employment contracts, etc.
  • Talent retention. Although a plan to Offboarding is aimed at managing employee departures, and this is not incompatible with talent retention. For this reason, if an employee is highly valuable to a company, part of the plan Offboarding You must indicate how to try to keep that worker in the company, for example, with Flexible remuneration. In this case, performance evaluation software is a very useful tool for carrying out this task as it allows you to have concrete and reliable data on the employee's work performance.
  • Avoid dysfunctions and reallocate all tasks. One of the main problems any company suffers after an employee leaves is the need to reorganise the department and reassign tasks until a new worker is hired. Thanks to Offboarding We can forecast this problem so that it doesn't affect the company's operations when the time comes. To achieve this, software can also be used to make the job easier for team leaders when assigning tasks that will be vacant for a certain period of time. 
  • Speeding up departures. An agile employee exit process is fundamental, as delaying timelines can cause disruption to the company and leave a negative impression on the worker. Furthermore, all procedures must be concluded with the necessary guarantees to avoid future problems.
  • Taking care of every stage of the employee's life cycle. An employee's opinion of a company is influenced by the relationship they've had throughout their entire tenure with it. Leaving the company is just another stage in that cycle. Cordiality is always highly valued when ending an employment relationship, and it highlights that the company's commitment to employee wellbeing is sincere, right up until the end of their cycle. 

Discover all the possibilities Edenred offers companies to help optimally manage Offboarding. Ask for information without obligation.

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