š« Offboarding
Offboarding (or alighting) isn't hard, but I don't think we pay it enough attention.
You're receiving this email as you're a member of the #people slack channel, if you'd rather not receive it, please hit the unsubscribe link at the bottom. Thanks, Mike.
Apologies for this episode being a bit late. Iāve spent most of this week packing up and cleaning my house so I can move from Australia back to the UK. Itās been bonkers! Normal service will resume ⦠soon?
Reading time: 3mins_
š Listen to this newsletter as a podcast. š§
Also, leave me a message (if you like: https://anchor.fm/the-peoplepost/message)
The idea of off-boarding (or, #alighting) isn't particularly new: negotiate an exit, communicate the exit, cancel user accounts, return hardware etc. I don't believe that there is as much focus on offboarding as there is around onboarding and this, frankly, is a serious problem.
Thereās lots of talk about Onboarding. Wikipedia has this to say:
Onboarding, also known as organizational socialization, refers to the mechanism through which new employees acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and behaviors to become effective organizational members and insiders.
I love this idea that carefully curating and designing a process for new starters to get up-to-speed and be better integrated into your company can bring nothing but sunshine and unicorns, create better bonds, lower attrition and more engaged staff.
But what about when someone leaves? Itās usually a short process: leave is negotiated in private (either a jump or a push), itās communicated to the wider team, some handover, perhaps thereās an exit interview, āclean out your deskā, eat a bit of cake, say goodbye down the pub and Mondays arenāt the same every again.
For everyone else in the company.
The leaver will be enjoying the delights of the next company and their unicorn based onboarding process, but the people at the old company? Mourning the loss of an ally, a compatriot and a peer.
And this is where I wonder whether we shouldnāt be paying more attention to the people around the leaver as they work out their notice period. There are thought processes:
The leaver was happy, werenāt they? Why would they choose to leave? Maybe I should leave? Is it better elsewhere
Or maybe
Why were they sacked? Could I be sacked? Maybe I should look for another job?
Or even
Who is going to do their job? Am I doing it now? How will I know I like the new person? Will we get on? Will they be able to do everything the leaver can do?
These thoughts all lead to a risk that those around the leaver, the peers (and perhaps the reports) will be feeling adrift, unsure, unsteady, things have changed and itās resulted in someone I like/respect/admire/fear not being a such a big part of my life anymore.
Communicating the change of status quo to the team members and wider is a step that is often missed usually for some silly or political reasons and, if someone is leaving and it isn't communicated why, how and that they're leaving with your best wishes, it will fester and people will fill in the blanks themselves.
Exit interviews, hardware return and cancelling user accounts are, for the most part, easy, reproducible and low-risk activities. What we do miss is the opportunity to help your employees grow and learn from the situation.
Explaining the process that you went through, the steps you took to try and retain the leaver and, ultimately, the decisions and actions that led to letting them go should be high on your agenda.
Offboarding an employee is an opportunity for you to engage more deeply with your remaining employees, grow trust through transparency and give them a window into how the often difficult and contentious process of someone leaving is managed with honesty, integrity and with compassion.
šŖ End #post
Thanks for reading. Any feedback is warmly received, hit me up mike@hashtagpeople.co.uk.
In the meantime, tell your friends about the email and the slack channel: http://hashtagpeople.co.uk/.
Create your profile
Only paid subscribers can comment on this post
Check your email
For your security, we need to re-authenticate you.
Click the link we sent to , or click here to sign in.