Strategies for Building a Caring and Productive Offboarding Process

Protecting Brand Reputation and Nurturing Alumni Networks

The Neglected Offboarding Process

Businesses spend a great deal of time and resources bringing new hires aboard and retaining employees, but little effort and few resources go toward offboarding. Employees who leave may receive a cursory exit interview, instructions for handing off assignments, and a sheet of postemployment benefits and resources—but that may be, about it.

The lack of attention to the exit process can be damaging to a company’s brand. Management advisors as well as law firms lead the way in protecting their clients regarding encouraging them to treat exiting employees in much the same way that a university handles its graduating students—assisting in the transition, setting up graduates for future success.  That may be one of the reasons you see buildings that are named after their alumni on the campuses.

Aligning Offboarding with Company Values

The best offboarding plans incorporate the company’s mission, vision, core values and culture. The way that organizations treat exiting employees sends a clear message about whether the company lives up to its championed commitments and values.

Impact of Poorly Handled Offboarding

Employees may pay more attention to how companies manage exits than to how they welcome new hires—and goodwill between a departing employee and an employer can instantly be undone by a poorly handled offboarding. When people leave, they are going to talk about the company and the way they were treated on the way out. You want them and your current employees to realize that people are treated well even when they leave.

The Role of Alumni Network

A good practice for an employer is for new employees to be enrolled in the alumni network as soon as they join the firm, rather than when they leave.  This protects and enhances the brand of the employer. Brand protection is important in today’s marketplace.

Fostering a Company of Caring

Companies cannot retain every single employee but need to treat people with respect and dignity, do what is best for them, and in the process, keep morale and productivity high to create a company of caring.

Harmonious separations depend on offboarding practices that acknowledge departing employees for their contributions to the firm, support them by providing training and other resources to assist in their transition, and help the employer capture and integrate feedback from the existing employees.

Providing Career Transition Assistance

Most companies see the value of offering career transition assistance services to terminated employees: These can include job-search coaching, career assessment, assistance with individual brand development (such as help with LinkedIn profiles and résumés), and financial planning. The most progressive offboarding programs offer counseling and other types of psychological support to help manage the emotions associated with being displaced. Tom Rath the author of Well Being says that losing a job is one of, if not the most difficult time in an employee’s life.

When employees leave, some employers ask them to sign nondisclosure agreements as a condition for accessing severance pay and other benefits. Best practices are increasingly recommending against using such contracts for anything other than protecting intellectual capital and proprietary information, to avoid signaling a lack of trust.

Cultivating a Strong Alumni Program

A strong alumni program exhibits an ongoing commitment to employees’ careers and well-being even when they leave.  Employees who are involved in alumni programs are more likely to act as referral sources and references of good will to their former employer.

Offboarding must not be a cookie cutter solution.  Not all departing employees will have the same needs, nor the same appetite for engaging in their professional needs.   Ask your outplacement provider about the levels of programs and services available for different levels of employee’s responsibilities.

The Importance of a Thoughtful Offboarding Strategy

Departures can be emotional events, but a holistic, well-designed offboarding program can ensure that heightened emotions do not prevent an orderly transition. Putting such a program in place will minimize the cost of turnover and create long-term value for both the company and those leaving. One of our legal firms sees it this way – “The relationship with an employee is complex; it does not end just because the employment relationship is coming to an end.” Employee offboarding should therefore not be an addendum; it should be a well-thought-out element of the strategic plan, using data and information from employees to drive decisions. In today’s work environment—where people frequently move from one company to the next—thoughtful offboarding has become a strategic necessity.

For a free copy of “A Compassionate Way to let Some Go” just email travis@cdpartnersinc.com