Employee Offboarding: The Ultimate Guide for 2025

Whether an employee leaves voluntarily or not, a thoughtfully designed employee offboarding process helps ensure a respectful and efficient transition, benefiting both the organization and the departing individual. This ultimate guide for 2025 will walk you through the key steps and best practices to offboard employees with professionalism and care.

What Is Employee Offboarding?

Employee offboarding is the process of managing an employee’s exit from an organization.  It is the final stage in the talent management life cycle. The exit in question could happen for a variety of reasons, including resignation, retirement, or termination. 

Contrary to popular belief, employee offboarding is not just about returning company property or deactivating accounts. Offboarding is about wrapping up responsibilities, transferring knowledge, and creating a professional experience that respects the existing relationship between the company and the employee.

If handled well, the offboarding process leaves a positive impression, even during challenging situations. From safeguarding company information, parting ways respectfully and promoting advocacy, all the way to ensuring a smooth succession process, offboarding is a crucial step in the employee lifecycle.

Never forget that the way an employee’s time with a company ends can say just as much about the organization as the way it begins.

What Is An Offboarding Policy?

As is the case with an effective onboarding process, ensuring a smooth employee offboarding experience requires a structured and standardized employee offboarding policy.

• An employee offboarding policy is a set of guidelines that outlines how an organization manages the employee offboarding process. 
• It defines every step, from the initial notification of departure to the final exit interview to guarantee consistency and professionalism from start to finish.
• A well-structured offboarding policy should include procedures for knowledge transfer, the return of company property, and the revocation of access to sensitive systems. 
• It should also address critical aspects like conducting exit interviews, handling final paychecks, and updating organizational records.

Types of Employee Offboarding (Voluntary vs. Involuntary)

Employee offboarding falls into two main categories: voluntary and involuntary.  Each type presents unique challenges and requires tailored steps to handle effectively.  Let’s take a closer look at the most common scenarios within each category:

Voluntary Offboarding

Voluntary offboarding occurs when the employee decides to leave on their own terms.Voluntary offboarding can be a result of multiple different scenarios such as:

• Resignation: The employee chooses to leave, often for new opportunities, personal reasons, or dissatisfaction with their current role.
• Retirement: The employee exits the workforce, whether at the standard retirement age or earlier. Retirement often involves long-term planning and requires special attention to knowledge transfer and proper recognition.
• Completion of Temporary Work: Contractors, freelancers, or employees with defined end dates complete their assignments and leave when their term expires.

‍Voluntary offboarding is a form of employee turnover that offers opportunities to part ways on good terms, gather feedback, and strengthen your employer brand through.

Involuntary Offboarding

Involuntary offboarding happens when the organization decides to end the employment relationship. Common scenarios include:

• Company Restructuring: The employee’s role is eliminated due to changes in the business, such as mergers, acquisitions, or financial constraints.
• Termination: The organization terminates the employee’s contract, typically for performance issues, misconduct, or breaches of company policy.

In 2024, over 500 major tech companies, including Intel, collectively laid off more than 140,000 employees, highlighting the need for a strong employee offboarding process even more so for involuntary offboarding. It often requires extra care to minimize disruption, protect the company’s reputation, and handle sensitive situations with professionalism and compliance.

Onboarding vs Offboarding

In organizational management, onboarding and offboarding represent critical junctures in the employee lifecycle. Onboarding marks the beginning, aiming to integrate new hires seamlessly into the company culture and operational framework, while offboarding signifies the end, ensuring a smooth transition for departing employees and safeguarding organizational integrity. Both processes, as highlighted in recent industry insights, are pivotal for fostering a positive employee experience and reinforcing employer brand, especially in today's competitive talent market.

To better understand the interplay between onboarding and offboarding, here is an overview:

Both processes share similarities, such as being structured and involving key stakeholders like HR and managers, with a shared focus on enhancing employee experience. However, their purposes diverge, with onboarding emphasizing starting anew and offboarding focusing on ending on a positive note.

What are the best practices for employee offboarding?

If not managed thoughtfully, employee offboarding can be awkward and uncomfortable both for you and your former employees. Here is an offboarding guide that you can implement to create a graceful and successful employee offboarding process:

1. Ensure Fairness and Respect

Treat departing employees with kindness and gratitude to uphold goodwill and reduce risks.

• Thank employees for their contributions.
• Maintain fairness to avoid legal issues and data breaches.
• Foster ongoing positive relationships for brand advocacy.

2. Tailor Offboarding to the Reason for Leaving

Customize your approach based on why the employee is leaving.

• Focus on celebration and knowledge transfer for retirees.
• Collect feedback from resigning employees to improve.
• Use sensitivity and extra security measures for involuntary separations.

3. Communicate Transparently with the Team

Inform your team early to prevent rumors and maintain trust.

• Share honest reasons for departure (voluntary or involuntary).
• Avoid gossip to keep professionalism intact.

4. Secure Company Assets and Revoke Access

Protect company property and data by collecting assets and disabling access.

• Retrieve keys, badges, electronics, documents, and vehicles.
• Revoke access to email, CRM, systems, and social media.
• For remote employees, confirm secure return of equipment and data.
• Allow time for employees to transfer personal files securely.

5. Conduct Thoughtful Exit Interviews

Use exit interviews to gain valuable insights for improvement.

• Ask about job satisfaction and expectations.
• Discuss relationships with managers and coworkers.
• Request suggestions for company improvements and highlight strengths.

What should be included in your employee offboarding process?

A well-structured employee offboarding process is essential to ensure a smooth and professional transition when employees leave your organization. It helps protect company assets, maintain data security, preserve positive relationships, and capture valuable feedback to improve your workplace continuously. Including clear steps and responsibilities in your offboarding plan creates consistency and minimizes potential risks.

1. Relay the news

Communicating an employee’s departure respectfully and professionally is crucial for maintaining morale and transparency during the employee offboarding process. How you relay this news can significantly impact employee engagement and the overall workplace atmosphere, especially with trends and developments in the workplace such as remote employee offboarding.

• Schedule a private meeting with the departing employee to discuss their exit openly.
• Be transparent about the reason for leaving and sincerely thank them for their contributions.
• Invite the employee to share any questions or concerns and offer your support for a smooth transition.
• Inform relevant colleagues and stakeholders promptly to ensure clarity and avoid rumors.
• Decide on the appropriate communication method—whether a team meeting or company-wide email—to announce the departure.
• Maintain a clear, consistent message about the departure to prevent confusion.
• Express genuine gratitude and wish the employee well in their future endeavors.
• When appropriate, encourage keeping in touch to foster ongoing professional relationships.

2. Training a successor

Ensuring a smooth and efficient transition is essential during the employee offboarding process. Effective knowledge transfer to the successor helps maintain continuity and supports the new employee’s success in their role.

• Identify a suitable successor who has the necessary skills and experience for the position.
• Schedule a knowledge transfer session involving the departing employee and their successor.
• Prepare a clear agenda to cover key duties, responsibilities, and ongoing projects.
• Have the departing employee explain their role, important workflows, and best practices.
• Even internal successors familiar with the company should receive guidance on specific procedures related to the role.
• Provide additional training or resources if the departing employee possessed unique skills critical to the position.
• Use this employee offboarding step to minimize disruption and ensure the smooth continuation of work.

3. Taking back any company assets

Effective employee offboarding requires careful management of company assets, both physical and digital, to protect organizational security and ensure a smooth separation—much like a respectful breakup where belongings are returned thoughtfully.

• Create a detailed inventory of all company assets the departing employee has, including:
  
  • Physical items such as keys, security cards, company vehicles, laptops, and other equipment.
  • Digital assets like email accounts, social media profiles, and access to databases or internal platforms.
• Communicate clearly with the employee about the process and timing for returning physical assets.
• For local employees, schedule an in-person return of items whenever possible.
• For remote or otherwise unavailable employees, provide clear instructions and support for securely shipping company property back.
• Confirm that all access credentials are revoked promptly once assets are returned or access is no longer needed.
• This step in the employee offboarding process helps prevent data breaches and loss of company property.

4. Update your org charts and company directory

Once you’ve completed the physical and digital separation in the employee offboarding process, it’s important to update your internal documentation to reflect the change and keep company records accurate and current.

• Review all organizational materials where the employee’s name appears, such as:
  
  • Org charts
  • Company directories
  • Project documentation and team lists
• Change the employee’s status to “terminated” or “inactive” in relevant systems.
• Remove or archive references to the employee’s role, responsibilities, and access privileges.
• Ensure these updates are consistent across all departments to avoid confusion.
• This step helps maintain a clear and organized record of personnel changes and supports compliance and communication.

5. Manage systems access

In the employee offboarding process, revoking system access promptly is crucial to safeguard your organization’s sensitive data and prevent unauthorized entry. Digital security is a top priority since most company operations rely on protected systems and applications.

• Compile a comprehensive list of all systems, applications, and databases the departing employee used.
• Disable or revoke their access credentials immediately upon or before departure.
• Identify any shared passwords or group credentials the employee knew and update them to block unauthorized usage.
• Confirm removal of access to email accounts, cloud services, CRM platforms, social media accounts, and internal tools.
• Coordinate with IT and security teams to ensure all access points are secured without delay.
• Consider multi-factor authentication changes as part of the security update during employee offboarding.
• Swift and thorough access revocation helps protect company information and supports a secure offboarding process.

If you have any questions regarding Microsoft Teams app security or employee monitoring, please refer to these articles.

6. The final pay

Making sure that the departing employee receives their final pay on time is just might be the single most important part of the employee offboarding process. You want to make sure that the employee is paid for all the work they have done and that there are no outstanding payments. You’ll need to calculate:

• Any unpaid wages
• Holiday pay
• Other outstanding payments

Once you have all the necessary information, process the final payment through your payroll system. Make sure to deduct any taxes, social security contributions, or other withholdings as required by law.

Completing the final payment process promptly and accurately guarantees a positive and smooth offboarding experience for the departing employee.

7. Conduct an exit interview

Conducting an effective exit interview provides valuable insights into why the employee is leaving and offers an opportunity to improve the workplace. Scheduling and conducting the interview thoughtfully helps you gather honest feedback while showing appreciation for the employee’s contributions.

• Schedule a meeting with the departing employee, either in person, by phone, or via video conference, at a convenient time before their last day.
• Explain the purpose of the exit interview and reassure confidentiality to encourage honest and open communication.
• Ask a mix of open-ended and closed-ended questions tailored to understand their reasons for leaving, what they liked and disliked about working at the company, and any suggestions for improvement.
• Listen actively and take detailed notes to capture valuable feedback accurately.
• Thank the employee sincerely for their time and insights to maintain goodwill and leave the door open for future positive relations.
• Use the collected feedback to identify areas of improvement in your employee offboarding process and overall workplace environment.

A Digitized Solution

Exit interviews, alongside stay interviews and employee engagement surveys, provide leaders with extremely helpful data that they can use to improve their retention rates or other key performance metrics. 

That is why using performance review templates in order to conduct these interviews and surveys is the right way to go.

This is where Teamflect comes in. Teamflect is an all-in-one performance management solution that provides users with access to some of the best customizable performance review/employee interview templates available in the Microsoft Teams ecosystem.

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With Teamflect, you can conduct your exit interviews, then see Power BI reports that provide you with further insight.

An official Microsoft partner, Teamflect allows you to fulfill all of your performance review and management needs, including exit reviews, in Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

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8. Provide letters of reference

A helpful resource for the departing employee, as they start their job search, can be letters of recommendation and other outgoing documentation. These records can both assist the employee in finding their next position and act as proof of their time spent working for your business.

Reach out to the employee’s manager or supervisor and ask them to compose a letter outlining the employee’s accomplishments and skills in order to supply letters of reference. Make sure to find out from the employee what kind of reference they’re wanting (generic or one that focuses on their particular skills). 

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, employee offboarding is far more than just closing a chapter; it’s about building a lasting legacy of respect, professionalism, and strategic foresight. By following a structured employee offboarding process, optimizing your offboarding with performance review software and adhering to a clear employee offboarding policy, organizations can ensure that every departure is handled with care and consistency.