Why Developing an Effective (Remote) Offboarding Process is Important

Remotely onboarding and offboarding employees are becoming the norm across organisations globally. These practices are revealing new challenges and opportunities in these new and established practices. While we explored some of these opportunities in our past article about onboarding, this article is focused on current practices around remote offboarding. The article will explore how people practices around offboarding are being adapted to meet the virtual digital landscape many employees are currently navigating.

What is Offboarding and Why is it Important?

Offboarding, which is the process when an employee parts ways with the organisation they have worked for, is often overlooked as much of the focus usually falls on onboarding processes. But offboarding should not be forgotten.

Offboarding is likely neglected because many often see offboarding as a necessary process for returning company equipment and deactivating company access to various systems. They forget the way the process of offboarding affects the transferring of responsibilities and knowledge, feedback from employees and the last impression they have of the company.

Let’s take a moment to look at some of the reasons why having a good offboarding process is important and should be on the HR agenda

• Past employees can become future employees – The reason that employees leave companies is not always because they do not enjoy working at the company. There is a multitude of reasons why employees leave. They might leave for personal family reasons, because they are relocating, or because they feel that they may be challenged more at another organisation. In the future, it could become advantageous for both parties to work together. When employees leave on a sour note this possibility is diminished.

• Past employees impact a company’s employer brand – The impressions of an organisation that an employee leaves with are built over the length of their employee journey. And the final days of their employment can cement their feelings about the organisation. While they may not work for the organisation anymore, if asked, they will likely report positive feelings. And as employer branding moves higher on the agenda, this good feeling can funnel into social posts and other word of mouth stories that help the business attract new employees.

• Past employees can aid in assisting new employees – One of the more pertinent reasons for properly offboarding staff is the need for a smooth handover process between them and the new employee. When there is a well organised and empathetic offboarding process former employees are more likely to be willing to smooth the transition of knowledge and expertise to the next person.

How Offboarding has Gone Remote

While the larger shift to remote offboarding, like remote onboarding, was increased due to the global pandemic and with many jobs continuing to operate remotely it is sure to be a practice that not only stays but innovates to better suit the needs of the organisation and its workforce.

To create seamless and effective remote offboarding processes HR departments need to work closely with their Digital and IT departments to find the right digital process that helps to create an empathetic work environment that leaves employees feeling empowered and included in making their steps out of the organisation. The support of digital systems can lead to the creation of a well-thought-out dashboard or portal that can make the transitionary process seamless.

The portal could include a guide to how employees can return their equipment to the employer, best practices for virtually handing off responsibilities and other tasks that aid the offboarding process. The HR department leads in the knowledge and experience around what is needed in the process and the IT department aid in making this process a digital reality. Working together to tackle the challenges of offboarding remotely is eased when these two departments work together.

One of the best ways to make the offboarding process an easier procedure is to have it operate in an environment that is already adaptable and empathetic to its workforce. While how a business can do this work cannot be covered, even briefly in this article, we have many other articles on our insights page that can lead you in understanding how that environment.

Companies and leaders that are more kneen to listen to employee insights and are open to it empathetically will be able to make sure that as their former employees leave on happier notes.

Concluding Thoughts on Offboarding

The need to have a successful offboarding process is supported by HR and IT departments. As remote work becomes the standard, or at least an option, in many organisations creating processes that support these workers is integral.

Are you curious of Offboarding best practise? By joining Top Employers Insitute programme you will have access to an immense library of best practise that will help your company grow. 

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People Strategy: from talent management to strategic workforce planning

What do HR leaders need to consider when creating, or recreating, their people strategy?

Leading organisations across the globe are forced to transform rapidly – and continuously – in order to remain purposeful, relevant and stay ahead of competition. This in turn means that the very definition of people strategy is itself evolving at pace. The role of HR leaders is changing too, and the number of challenges they are asked to solve is increasing. Most likely, when answers are found, the questions themselves will change.

Despite these complexities, it’s worth unpacking the concept of people strategy in terms of definitions, roles and challenges a little better.

People strategy: three definition that you need to look at

People strategy has a myriad of different definitions – it depends what you read and where you look. Top Employers Institute’s HR experts and auditors propose three broad lense

1. Invest in talent

Let’s first look at people strategy through an investment lens. In this sense, it is seen as a battles for talents. If an organisation matches its investment in talent to business objectives, it is more likely to get the right people with the right skills focused on the right initiatives. The return on investment that this then creates will drive the business forward and accelerate results.

2. Align hr strategy with business strategy

The second lens defines people strategy in relation to its alignment with business strategy. To think in terms of alignment allows us to ask important questions, such as “What capabilities do we need?” and “Where do we need them?” This simple approach sharpens our understanding of the gaps (or overlaps) in aligning our strategic workforce planning and other HR strategies to the business needs.

Our research shows that 97% Top Employers demonstrate the importance of aligning their people strategy with their business strategy. Yet it is worth noting that only 77% of Top Employers translate their people strategy into key HR metrics and related targets.

3. People strategy is the business strategy

The final lens moves beyond alignment to the complete integration of a people strategy within the business. By this definition, your people strategy IS the business strategy. Here, forward-looking leadership teams explicitly reject thinking about their people as assets.

Rather, it is the employees who are the “investors”: they call the shots and choose to invest their precious time, energy and talent. It is the organisation that needs to work hard to keep them engaged and motivated.

Leadership cannot take their talented employees’ hard work and commitment for granted.

A strategic role for the HR leader

The definition of people strategy vary greatly across organisations of different shapes and sizes, but research from the Top Employers Institute global survey shows that HR leaders are taking on a more strategic role. In the past, business strategy has been driven largely by the CEO and the CFO. This has been because the twin drivers of organisational success were firmly rooted in strategy and finance.

Now, however, organisations are increasingly moving from this “Dynamic Duo” to a “Transformative Trio”. According to the Harvard Business Review (HBR), the CEO and CFO are being joined more and more regularly by a CHRO who together need “to fuse the strategic, financial and people issues into business strategy”.

Challenges and priorities in people strategy

To play their full role in the triangular alliance with CEO and CFO, there are four challenges that the CHRO needs to meet:

1. Being able to look ahead and identify strategic workforce challenges that will come about as a result of the changing business world.
2. Creating talent supply chains that can support innovation and growth.
3. Developing the talent management skills of business leaders.
4. Provide insights through greater use of metrics and analytics to show the effectiveness of their people strategy.

Significat data obtained from 1.679 certified Top Employers organisations globally, closely resembles the challenges set out in the HBR. When asked to rank their Top HR priorities the majority of Top Employers indicated:

1. Supporting cultural and organisational change;
2. The development of talent strategy;
3. Leadership development;

And the role of technology in providing metrics and analytics within all HR disciplines is, according to Top Employers Institute research, moving up the priority list for HR leaders as way of underpinning significant  changes in people strategy that we are seeing within so many of our Top Employer organisations. Amid the changing HR landscape, the need and the consequent move towards a broader and more holistic scope of people strategy is obvious.

It is no longer something that only focuses on talent management but encompasses strategic workforce planning to future-proof the skills and capabilities gaps and is supported by concrete metrics and the likes of predictive analytics.

As a result, HR leaders are also expected to devise and execute people strategies that align with the current and future business needs.