After recently offboarding from nearly two decades with a Fortune 15 company, I reflected on my offboarding experience and the experience of others. I’m a little embarrassed to say that it has taken me all these years to realize that offboarding is just as important as onboarding.

You might ask, why would I invest in offboarding like onboarding? When someone is leaving, the employment relationship often moves to transactional to-dos and exit checklists. There might be mental moving on by both sides, the manager preparing for change and the unknown, and the employee planning for the future. This is understandable considering the circumstance, but my positive experience has created a shift in how to think about offboarding.

With all the movements in the labor market, the employee offboarding experience is a way for employers to differentiate themselves as an employer of choice.

The benefits of enhancing the employee offboarding experience are:

1. Customer Experience – Productivity and work transition will be maximized, which will either directly or indirectly impact the customer experience.

2. Employment Brand & Reputation – Past employees will be advocates who recommend your company for attracting future talent. You’re influencing the employment reputation that will be reflected on social media as individuals announce job changes. 

3. Employee Engagement & Retention – Employees are affected by the way their departing colleagues are treated. They are more likely to contribute and stay when they see everyone treated with respect and kindness.

4. Boomerang Hires - If you want to rehire departing talent, they are more likely to come back if they have a positive offboarding experience. Think about all the work you have put into attracting and retaining diverse talent, if they leave, they may accept a future call to come back.

   
   

The most common thing that gets in the way of a better offboarding experience is, leaders not knowing how to handle what might be an uncomfortable change. Here's leadership advice regardless of the departure circumstances:

1. Ask, Don’t Assume – Ask the employee, “how can I support you in your offboarding experience?”  Listen, and partner on what’s possible. Be direct on what’s not possible. Clarity is kindness.

2. Extend Compassion & Empathy - Everyone has a need to be treated with respect, compassion, and empathy.  Tone and body language are 93% of communication.

3. Appreciation - No one wants to be treated like a number, or a transaction. More than a thank you for your service, be specific on sharing what you appreciate about the departing individual’s contributions.

   
   

“How” an employee is offboarded is what will be remembered. As a previous HR leader, when offboarding employees under difficult circumstances, I came up with “The Grocery Store Test.” I would ask myself, “If I ran into this former employee in the grocery store, could I walk down the same isle and greet them being proud of the way they were treated.” I have had that happen several times, not always in the grocery store, but the airport, a conference, or some other place. Instead of looking the other way or going down a different isle, I smile and say, “Hello. How are you?”

The reason I share this is, the human offboarding experience lingers impacting lives and communities. I believe this is an untapped way for companies to differentiate themselves in today’s employment marketplace. This is an invitation, a call to leadership to invest in the employee offboarding experience. The tangible benefits are real, more than that, your leadership footprint will be remembered.  Good Leadership is Inclusive Leadership.  

WaveLeader: One who thrives in adversity, change and the unknown. A WaveLeader is intentional about how others experience them.