Offboarding is the combination of two concepts: first of all, it is the period that precedes the departure of an employee, it is also the set of tasks that must be carried out before his departure (by the manager, by Human Resources or by the employee himself).
Offboarding is the combination of two concepts: it is first and foremost The period preceding the departure of an employee, it is also all tasks which must be completed before departure (by the manager, by Human Resources or by the employee himself).
The terms”Onboarding“and”Offboarding“understand each other even better when you use them in English. In the first case the objective is toGet the employee on board and to get him on board (of the company). In the second you have to Get him off the edge, in serenity and efficiency. In both cases, a notion of movement is implicit. It is logical, during these two key phases of the employee experience, the company continues to operate at cruising speed and the time window to address these topics is not infinite.
To put it simply, this period is beginning from the moment when the departure of an employee is confirmed and becomes unavoidable. Most often, this period starts after a discussion between the manager and his collaborator.
The origin of this discussion may be the anticipated end of the employee's internship, apprenticeship or fixed-term contract, but it may also be a notification of resignation for example.
As part of an internship, this discussion can take place 6 weeks or even 10 days before the end of the contract. On the other hand, the framework for a resignation is standardized since the duration of notice must be respected (1 to 3 months most often).
Like The time horizon is different depending on the type of contract, summarizing offboarding to the concept of the period before departure is not enough.
Since the concept of period is not sufficient to define offboarding, it is also defined by operational tasks which must be implemented before the employee leaves.
This employee offboarding checklist includes actions that are responsible (examples are not exhaustive):
➡️ Human Resources: organization of the exit interview (HR focus), delivery of the balance of any account, the work certificate or the Pôle Emploi certificate in certain cases
➡️ of the collaborator: preparation of your application document/knowledge transfer, training of colleagues
➡️ from the manager: organization of the exit interview (operational focus), internal communication (announcement of departure, organization of a departure event)
Offboarding is therefore not a period of inactivity., neither for the employee nor for Human Resources or the manager. These tasks allow the company to meet its legal obligations and the company's need for operational continuity. As soon as the departure of the employee becomes inevitable, a fundamental challenge is to define the schedule for the execution of these tasks, or “offboarding retroplanning”.
The role of Human Resources is at the forefront, in particular to ensure that legal obligations, for example in terms of deadlines, are respected.
With regard to more operational tasks, it is the manager who must set his expectations for the collaborator, in terms of expected results, pace and schedule. He must make sure to keep the “offboardee” motivated until the last day, and how he organizes the workload will be key.
If the manager ever asks the offboardee to prepare his transfer of knowledge too early, then he risks that the information is only partially up to date and that the offboardee exhausts himself on a “marathon task” of which he cannot see the end. If it is done 1 week before the employee leaves, the manager is liable to have the content prepared hastily, and the handover will not be usable, for himself and for The onboardee (following on from theOffboardee).
Our recommendation is first and foremost to ensure compliance with legal deadlines. Then, we recommend that our customers do not start the offboarding process by their employees only 4 to 6 weeks before their effective departure date. It is a deadline that makes it possible to combine the employee's day-to-day job and the production of tasks related to the transfer of knowledge. It is essential that the manager and the offboarder define deadlines together to monitor the progress of offboarding, whether it is carried out via the Komin offboarding solution or by another means. Before addressing this discussion, the manager can anticipate what will be the behavior of his collaborator during offboarding.
Earlier than 4 to 6 weeks before D-Day, the offboardee still considers her departure to be “far away”, as the countdown has not really begun. The best condition for producing a transfer of knowledge is “to be a bit under tension” (which has nothing to do with pressure). To do this, the manager must set a final deadline and 1 or 2 moments of formal “intermediate” exchanges during the 4 to 6 weeks of offboarding.
Komin is specialized in supporting companies that want to reinvent their employee experience, from offboarding to onboarding. Yes, in that sense, because great onboarding starts with great offboarding.
“With Komin, we documented our operating procedures 10x faster than with paper”
- J. Cerruti (Methods & Industrialization Manager)
