Employee Offboarding Checklist: 8 Actions Businesses Must Take

When an employee leaves an organization, HR professionals should use an employee offboarding checklist to address loose ends before departure. Offboarding — the counterpart to employee onboarding — includes steps such as revoking access to data and technology and processing the employee’s final payroll, among other things. The offboarding process benefits the employer, the employee leaving the organization and coworkers who may take on the departing employee’s responsibilities.

A well-structured employee offboarding process helps maintain organizational security, comply with regulations and leave departing employees with a positive impression of the business. It also creates a smooth transition, so customers don’t feel any disruption in their service.

This article outlines eight essential steps for a successful employee offboarding process.

8 Steps Businesses Should Take When Offboarding an Employee

Employee offboarding processes vary by company and even within organizations, depending on the reason for an employee’s departure. For instance, offboarding an employee terminated for cause differs greatly from offboarding a retiring employee.

The following steps provide a solid foundation for an employee offboarding checklist but should be customized to fit your organization. This may involve adding steps or adjusting items to address your own organization’s specific needs.

1. Assess and Remove Employee Access to Data and Systems

Identify and document all access points the employee has to company data and systems. This can include login and passwords to internal systems, email accounts and third-party accounts.
To protect the organization’s data and assets, restrict access on the day of the employee’s departure date. This is especially true in more hostile situations, including terminations and layoffs. Coordinating the timing for access restrictions requires collaboration between human resources and IT teams.

2. Secure Physical Company Assets

The employee may have physical company assets, such as laptops, phones, badges, credit cards, keys, cars and more. As part of your employee offboarding checklist, plan for securing each asset to the company.

3. Communicate Effectively

A successful offboarding process requires open, transparent communication among all stakeholders. Notify internal teams — such as finance, IT, management and other departments — of the employee’s departure. Share the departure date to help teams create a smooth transition.

Notify external stakeholders, including partners, vendors and clients about the departure. Communicate strategically to protect the company’s interests and maintain continuity in relationships.

Communicate clearly with the employee, outlining the next steps in their departure plan. Consider this: if they are resigning with two weeks’ notice, they might need to train their replacement or prepare documentation outlining key responsibilities.

4. Schedule a Knowledge Transfer Session

For many organizations, an essential part of offboarding is conducting a knowledge transfer session between the departing employee and their successor. However, this step may not be possible in some situations such as immediate termination. In these cases, make sure you have job descriptions that are up-to-date and represent an accurate summary of the employee’s duties.

In this session, ask the employee to outline their key tasks, prioritize those tasks, explain how to access specific systems and data and a list of colleagues who can support the new employee in their role.

Record the knowledge transfer session to keep important business details on file for future reference. This alone benefits any future employees who may take over the departing employee’s role.

5. Conduct an Exit Interview

Set aside time for an exit interview with the employee. This gives your organization a chance to gather valuable feedback about their experience. What did they love about the company culture, or do they have any suggestions for improving the work environment? These types of questions can help improve retention and reduce turnover.

An exit interview also allows the employee to explain their reasons for leaving, which provide useful insights. For instance, if they cite limited career growth, it may prompt your organization to consider career paths, professional development plans and other ways to support employee success.

6. Process Final Payroll and Benefits

Complete administrative tasks such as issuing the employee’s final payment, addressing unused paid vacation days or managing benefits like healthcare or retirement accounts. These aspects of the offboarding process can take time, require pre-planning and may involve compliance obligations.

Check state, city and county regulations — both for your company’s location and the employee’s, especially if they work remotely. In particular, the state of California mandates that an organization provide a departing employee with their final paycheck on their last day of work.

7. Maintain Documentation

Documenting the offboarding process is key to protecting your organization. This documentation should include:

• Employee access logins and passwords recovered and revoked
• Physical assets recovered
• Communications sent to internal and external stakeholders
• Recordings from the knowledge transfer session
• Insights from the exit interview
• Administrative details such as payments and benefits

8. End on a Positive Note

Regardless of why or how an employee is leaving, it’s always wise to end the relationship on a positive note — or at least as amicable as possible. A harmonious relationship benefits both your organization and the employee. For example, the employee may refer top talent to your company, or you may provide the employee with a glowing reference for future opportunities.

In cases of involuntary termination, empathy and compassion during offboarding can make a significant difference. While it may be difficult, ending with the right note emphasizes mutual respect.

Build a Better Employee Offboarding Process with James Moore

A structured and comprehensive offboarding process is important whether an employee is resigning, retiring, being laid off or terminated. It helps secure the organization’s data and assets, maintains compliance with industry regulations and keeps operations running smoothly. Additionally, a well-executed offboarding process promotes satisfaction for both employees and customers.

Wondering how to develop your organization’s offboarding process? Our team of experienced HR consultants with James Moore HR Solutions can help. We’ll work with your team to develop an offboarding process tailored to your company and provide the necessary tools and resources for a smooth employee offboarding experience. Contact us to get started today.

All content provided in this article is for informational purposes only. Matters discussed in this article are subject to change. For up-to-date information on this subject please contact a James Moore professional. James Moore will not be held responsible for any claim, loss, damage or inconvenience caused as a result of any information within these pages or any information accessed through this site.