Many organizations spend more time onboarding new employees than they do making plans for an employee’s departure. But an effective employee exit process can be just as important for employee engagement and retention. It helps you gain insights from departing employees and maintain positive relationships even after they leave.
The employee exit process involves more than just a survey or exit interview. Here are the key components of the employee offboarding process, and how to use automation to provide a positive offboarding experience and streamline the employee lifecycle.
What Is the Employee Exit Process?
The employee exit process, or offboarding process, is a standardized set of policies and procedures that your organization follows every time an employee leaves the company. It may involve an exit survey or interview, as well as a handover of company property and removal of access to internal data and IT systems.
The exit process is coordinated by the HR department, but may require the participation of other team members, such as your finance team and IT department.
The complexity and timeline of the offboarding process will depend on additional factors such as the nature of the departure — i.e., resignation or termination — as well as the employee’s role in major projects and length of time working at the company.
Benefits of an Employee Offboarding Process
On the surface, it may seem less important to spend time offboarding employees than it is to onboard new hires. But the employee onboarding process is just one component of a strong company culture. Here’s why the employee offboarding process matters too.
Improves employee retention
A positive offboarding process ensures that employees leave with a good impression of your company. After all, former employees are likely to spread the word about what it was like to work at your organization — for better or for worse.
By ensuring that they have a smooth transition into the next stage of their career, you show that you care about your team members and want them to succeed. They’ll be more likely to refer their network to you and boost your reputation as an employer.
Provides valuable insights
One of the key objectives of the employee exit process is to find out why the employee is leaving and whether you could have done anything differently to retain them. Was it because of low pay, lack of promotional opportunities, or a poor work environment?
By understanding the reasons for employee turnover, your human resources team can develop more effective talent acquisition and retention strategies. You can also use the insights provided by departing employees to improve processes and workflows.
Ensures data security and continuity
Finally, a thorough exit process protects company assets from loss, theft, or misuse — which can be especially important if the employee is leaving on less-than-favorable terms. If you don’t take stock of the sensitive information or company systems an employee has access to, they may retain access to these resources.
Even if malicious behavior isn’t a concern, it’s important for employees to hand over resources before their last day so future employees have access to them.
Key Components of the Employee Exit Process
The order and timeline of the employee exit process can vary depending on the reason for the departure. A team member who’s been terminated due to employee misconduct may have their access revoked immediately, while an employee who announces their intention to retire may play an active role in onboarding their successor.
In general, the employee offboarding process includes these core components.
Exit interview
An exit interview is a sit-down conversation with the departing employee, usually with a member of your HR team. The employee’s manager, coworkers, and other stakeholders should not be present, that way the employee can speak freely about any concerns. In some cases, you can deliver an exit survey in place of an exit interview.
The exit interview might include questions like “What did you like or dislike about your job?” and “What can we do to improve the work environment?” Responses should be kept confidential and can be used to update the job description and hiring process.
Knowledge transfer
Knowledge transfer refers to the passing on of knowledge and expertise related to the employee’s role at the company. Ideally, the departing employee will be available to help train your new hire, but this isn’t always the case, especially if they leave before you’ve had time to recruit and hire a replacement.
Another component of knowledge transfer is documentation. The employee might create a list of all of the tasks they perform on a regular basis, and which accounts they use to perform them. If you use a cloud-based project manager or document manager, it can be easier to hand over access to documentation electronically.
Final paycheck
Your accounting team will need to calculate the employee’s final paycheck and how long they’ll have access to employee benefits. In some states, employees may be entitled to cash out any unused PTO (paid-time off) as part of their final payment.
By tracking employee attendance and absences in a leave management system, you’ll be able to calculate these numbers accurately and ensure HR compliance.
Security review
Before the employee’s last day on the job, take inventory of any company assets they possess and retrieve them. This might include laptops and mobile devices, as well as keys, ID cards, and badges that grant access to your physical premises.
Your IT department will need to revoke access to company systems and ensure that sensitive information is removed from personal devices.
Best Practices for Managing the Employee Exit Process
An employee’s departure can be a sad, celebratory, or stressful occasion. Follow these best practices to ensure a smooth transition for everyone involved.
Create an employee offboarding checklist
One of the most important aspects of a successful offboarding process is consistency. If you leave it up to individual team members, they may miss key steps, like collecting an employee’s laptop or documenting information for efficient knowledge transfer.
Follow an employee exit process checklist to standardize the process and treat all of your departing employees equally. Use a platform like Pulpstream to create a digital template that team members can access electronically and customize online.
Collect (and provide) the appropriate paperwork
Documenting the onboarding process helps you comply with your legal obligations and avoid accusations of wrongful termination. Keep records of any termination letters you send to your employee or resignation letters that they provide to you, as well as any non-compete or non-disclosure agreements you’ve asked them to sign.
You may also be required to provide information about their healthcare options under COBRA, their retirement plan or stock options, and other employee benefits.
You can use Pulpstream to generate offboarding documents automatically, collect e-signatures, and store them securely in a cloud-based database.
Use employee offboarding automation software
It isn’t always practical to walk every employee through the exit process individually, especially if you have a high turnover rate or a large workforce. With HR automation software, you can send out automated reminders to guide employees through each step, and even administer exit surveys or conduct exit interviews virtually.
Pulpstream’s no-code platform makes it easy to customize the offboarding process, while our self-service portal allows employees to log in and sign forms digitally. Get notified when someone on your HR team needs to take action.
Streamline the Offboarding Process with Pulpstream
The employee exit process isn’t just a formality: It’s an opportunity to obtain valuable insights from departing employees and maintain positive relationships with them. HR professionals can standardize the exit process by creating an onboarding checklist, generating documents automatically, and administering exit surveys online.
Pulpstream’s cloud-based platform allows you to digitize and transform countless HR processes, from onboarding to offboarding. Streamline recruitment, leave of absence management, employee disciplinary action, and more, all in one place.
Request a demo today to see how Pulpstream can transform HR management!
