In every organisation, there comes a time when, for various reasons, one of its members leaves the company. Regardless of whether this occurs at the employee's or the employer's initiative, an employee's departure can be equally stressful for both parties. It might involve the loss of a key talent or a significant staffing gap for the company, and from the employee's perspective, the loss of a position they highly valued. While the circumstances of an employee's departure can vary greatly, in many cases, the company faces the risk of weakening its employer branding, triggering further resignations, or damaging team morale. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure the employee's departure is handled properly, or more specifically, that the offboarding process is well-planned.

Table of Contents:

Offboarding – what is it and why is it so important?

What is offboarding? It is a planned process for an employee's departure from an organisation, encompassing all activities from the decision to terminate cooperation until both parties have fully settled their affairs. Every company reaches a point when an employee leaves – either voluntarily, moving to a new job, or at the employer's initiative. A properly conducted, effective employee offboarding process can transform a potentially negative experience into a positive conclusion to a professional relationship.

Recent studies show that only 29% of organisations worldwide have formal offboarding processes (Newployee, 2025), even though improper execution of this process costs companies an average of $23,000 for each departing employee (PwC, 2024). These costs primarily stem from data recovery, company equipment, and potential security breaches.

The importance of employee offboarding

The significance of offboarding for a positive company image cannot be overstated. According to Gallup research, employees who experienced a positive offboarding process are 2.9 times more likely to recommend the company as an employer and 45% more likely to refer other candidates to the organisation. Furthermore, 62% of employees state they would consider returning to a previous employer if the separation process was positive.

Only 31% of companies treat offboarding as equally important as onboarding.

However, there are certain characteristics that every employee offboarding process should share to be considered effective. These stem from the goal of offboarding: to write a good conclusion to an individual's employment story. The reasons for an employee's departure can be truly varied and often unpleasant for one or both parties; a properly designed and implemented offboarding process should effectively transform any negative emotions into good memories.

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Remote offboarding – can it be effective?

Hiring employees remotely presents many obstacles to building good relationships and, consequently, employer branding. Individuals working in such a system are deprived of seemingly insignificant, but in reality highly integrating, opportunities to meet and talk during coffee breaks, lunch, or a cigarette, or to arrange relaxing outings after work – and so on. Just as difficult as properly building a relationship with a remote employee is ending it remotely in such a way that the former employee feels properly cared for and leaves the company with the feeling that they were an important part of it.

Alarming statistics:

Remote employees need 30% more time to complete the process,
49% of HR teams have problems recovering equipment from remote employees

Although it's a difficult process, it's not impossible to carry out effectively. Appropriately conducted remote employee offboarding can yield equally good results as in-person offboarding. Its most important element will be ensuring the utmost comfort for the former employee during discussions about ending cooperation, such as the exit conversation or exit interview.

When planning remote offboarding, you should therefore remember to:

organise 1-on-1 meetings via video call,
conduct the online conversation in appropriate conditions – ensure you have a quiet, intimate space so that no noise disturbs the meeting, and the employee doesn't feel cornered or constrained by the presence of others (even visible/audible in the background),
ensure the employee will have comfortable conditions for the conversation at the appointed time,
be transparent in conveying information – a remote conversation can be a source of various misunderstandings that cannot be simply "ironed out" with an additional exchange of words at a desk. Therefore, it is crucial to carefully weigh and consider what you want to say to the former employee,
ensure meeting titles are friendly,
don't be afraid to ask about the employee's emotions – maintaining a poker face during a video conference can be very easy for many people, which doesn't mean they calmly accept the information they hear. It is therefore worth remembering to try to find out how the employee feels during the conversation, thereby avoiding misunderstandings or weakening employer branding, for example, due to not addressing the employee's grievances against the company or clarifying their doubts.

Best practices for remote offboarding:

Technology and communication:

Using video platforms for exit conversations and exit interviews
Digital document signing
Automated systems for equipment return management

Security:

Immediate deactivation of remote access
Using MDM tools for remote device wiping
Monitoring system activity during the grace period

Human aspect:

Virtual team goodbyes
Farewell gift package
Maintaining contact through alumni programmes

Elements of the offboarding process – what should it include?

How to conduct offboarding effectively? Pay attention to the following elements that condition effective offboarding.

Exit conversation

The exit conversation is the step that initiates every employee offboarding process. It is simply the moment when one party informs the other of their desire to terminate cooperation. When the separation occurs at the employer's initiative, they have the opportunity to thoroughly prepare for the exit conversation – however, the situation is completely different when the employee tenders their resignation. Managers must therefore be well-trained in properly reacting to information about a planned departure or sudden contract termination, and prepared for the conversation to be highly emotional.

It is very important that the exit conversation does not end with one party accepting the resignation. It should be a conversation, and thus, a dialogue. When the company terminates cooperation, it should ensure that the employee has no doubts about the reason for such a decision. It is worth discussing immediately the benefits due to the dismissed person, such as severance pay, outplacement support, or guaranteeing the employee additional days to calmly find new employment. This is also the moment to try and establish formal terms of separation, such as deciding on taking any remaining annual leave due to the employee.

Key elements of a good exit conversation

Clearly communicating the reasons for separation.
Discussing benefits due to the employee (severance, entitlements).
Establishing terms of departure (annual leave, garden leave).
Providing outplacement support (if applicable).

Informing the team about personnel changes

Regardless of the degree of familiarity between the departing employee and the team, other employees should be informed of upcoming personnel changes as soon as possible. Leaving a cooperation termination without any comment, or even failing to inform other employees about it, can have many negative consequences, such as:

the spread of rumours,
a decrease in team trust in the manager and the entire company,
instilling fear in employees related to suspicion of the company implementing redundancies,
weakening team morale,
obtaining untruthful information from the departing person about the reasons or atmosphere of the separation, which paints a specific manager or the entire company in a bad light,
weakening employer branding,
and in extreme cases – even a domino effect, leading to the loss of further talents.

What information regarding planned personnel changes should be conveyed to the team? Above all:

The reason for separation – after first confirming with the employee that they agree to its open disclosure, especially in sensitive matters. If they do not want the reasons to be presented to the team, the manager should communicate them in an appropriately general way that does not give rise to too many rumours (e.g., "due to personal reasons").
The date of the person's last day of work – if the meeting, for any justified reason, takes place without the employee concerned, the topic of organising a gift or a festive farewell gathering can be raised.
What will happen next – the employer should inform the team how and to whom the duties of the person leaving the organisation will be transferred, whether the company plans to hire a new employee in their place, etc.

Crucially, during the exit conversation with the employee leaving the organisation, it is worth discussing with them whether they want to initiate the topic themselves, for example, during a convened team meeting. For some people, personally communicating such a significant change in their lives to colleagues can be extremely important.

This particularly applies to individuals who are deeply connected with the team and may feel that they "owe" it to their colleagues to inform them of the situation before they learn of their departure through official channels. The main thing is that the manager should also be present at the meeting and ready to clarify any doubts. The employee may also wish to communicate the change, for example, via a farewell email; in this case, the meeting should take place shortly after the team receives it.

Handover of duties

The topic of duty handover is often completely overlooked in companies with high turnover rates, for example, due to the nature of the position (temporary work, etc.) – unjustly so. It's a practice that in every case significantly facilitates the smooth operation of the organisation despite the loss of a pair (or many pairs) of hands. Therefore, upon an employee's departure, it's worth presenting them with a checklist of tasks they should complete as part of handing over their duties to others; such as:

documenting ongoing projects in which they were involved,
listing assigned tasks they have not managed to complete,
prioritising the above tasks,
explaining the operation of systems, software, or machinery that only this employee managed,
explaining the procedures for duties that only this employee performed,
transferring documents or administrative access/permissions.

Data security in the offboarding process

Data security during offboarding is a critical element that most organisations neglect. 76% of IT directors consider offboarding a significant security threat (Torii, 2024), and data confirms these concerns.

When and how to revoke employee access?

Best practices indicate the need for immediate action:

On the day of employment termination:

Deactivation of the main user account (Active Directory/LDAP).
Blocking email access.
Removal of building access cards.
Logging out from all company devices.

Within 24 hours:

Review and removal of access to SaaS applications.
Changing passwords for shared accounts (if used).
Removal from distribution lists and project groups.
Blocking VPN access.

Within 72 hours:

Auditing all systems for remaining access.
Archiving employee data in accordance with retention policy.
Handover of duties and change of document ownership.

Alarming security statistics during offboarding

Reality significantly deviates from best practices:

89% of former employees can still access corporate applications after leaving (Osterman Research).
48% of organisations have former employees with active access to the company network.
50% of IT leaders admit that accounts remain active for longer than one day.
20% need a month or more.
25% do not track deactivation time at all.

48% of HR departments plan investments in offboarding automation tools in 2024. Employees whose offboarding was managed through digital platforms rate their experience 18% higher than those handled manually.

Exit interview

An exit interview is another extremely important conversation with a person leaving the organisation. Its purpose is to understand the factors that led the employee to leave the company or their attitude towards the organisation after receiving notice. It is an interview through which the employer can obtain valuable information, such as:

mistakes made by managers regarding team management,
the emergence of a significant competitor in the employer market,
a significant deterioration of the atmosphere within the team,

thus finding out if something is wrong with the company, or if the resignation is solely due to personal matters (e.g., a desire to fully dedicate oneself to raising a child). In the former case, obtaining an honest confession from the employee about what they dislike in the company's functioning can allow for a sufficiently quick reaction, thereby avoiding further turnover.

Conducting an exit interview with a dismissed employee is more difficult, but no less important. The employer gains an additional opportunity to improve the employee's attitude towards the organisation, because although job loss is often a blow for the employee, if they understand the reasons for this decision, it will be easier for them in their future career.

The exit interview can take place, for example, a day or two after the exit conversation, when the initial emotions have subsided, and the former employee begins to form their final opinion of the company. This is therefore an ideal moment to try and understand the individual's current attitude towards the organisational culture, management, or company rules, and to get a last chance to potentially change that attitude if it is negative.

Employee's departure from the company – the last day of work

Well-planned offboarding cannot do without designing the course of an individual's last day at work. Importantly, the “last day” does not necessarily have to be the effective date of the contract termination – it refers to the hours the employee actually spends with colleagues, collecting personal belongings from the office, or cleaning the company computer's hard drive. And if the person leaving the company decided to take their due holiday during the notice period, this day might occur long before the employee's formal termination of employment.

When considering how the last day at work for individuals leaving the organisation should look, it is crucial to remember to ensure their complete comfort. For employees deeply connected to the team, it can be extremely important to be able to spend at least part of this time saying goodbye to colleagues. Others may primarily want to attract as little attention as possible and, for example, perform their duties in exactly the same way as on any other day. Therefore, it is worth preparing for different employee needs and learning to recognise them correctly.

It is good practice to give a gift or memento to the departing employee from the company or team. This is a nice way to say goodbye to an employee and maintain good relations, though remember that even the best gift will not improve a company's employer branding if the employee's dismissal process was handled dramatically.

The last day of work also involves caring for the employee – guiding them through the process of returning equipment and performing other administrative tasks. These may include tasks such as returning access cards, vacating an employee locker, restoring and returning a company phone to factory settings, filling out equipment return documents, or collecting personal items from the kitchen. At this stage of offboarding, the employee should also be informed exactly when they will lose the ability to use benefits such as private healthcare or a Multisport card.

What needs to be remembered when planning each stage of employee offboarding is to implement all individual steps with respect for the person leaving the company and with empathy. It is worth keeping in mind the emotions they might be experiencing and thinking not only about the company's well-being, i.e., taking care of its PR, but also about the actual well-being of the employee – and the entire team.

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Offboarding