Five things to integrate into your offboarding program:
1. Treat departing employees like graduating university students.
Maintaining relationships encourages former employees to become future clients, suppliers, mentors to current employees, brand ambassadors and boomerang employees. Experts say it can also promote referrals for new hires.
2. Create offboarding objectives.
The process sends a message as to whether the company lives up to the mission and culture it strives to project. Research shows that employees judge a workplace by their impression of it as its peak. A poor process can unravel years of goodwill.
3. Plan for exits.
If managers can speak openly about their employees’ career goals, they can preemptively plan for employee departure. Acknowledging that most employees will not stay at the company for their entire career can create a safe atmosphere and prevents managers from being blindsided by employee departure.
4. Discourage sentiments that departing employees are disloyal.
Most Americans don’t create a lifelong career with one employer, with the average tenure being 4.1 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Experts say to acknowledge this and refrain from disgracing former employees.
5. Create exit interviews.
Use the experience to learn more about the internal affairs in a company. Create standardized questionnaires on the offboarding process and about working for the company.
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