Employee Offboarding: 7 Best Practices for a Positive Exit Experience
In today’s competitive job market, the offboarding process is more than just a formality—it’s an opportunity to strengthen your organization’s reputation. Industry leaders share actionable strategies to ensure every employee leaves with a positive impression. From launching innovative initiatives like a “Knowledge Legacy Program” to facilitating seamless LinkedIn updates, this article covers seven expert-recommended practices to transform your offboarding process. Discover how these insights can help you create lasting goodwill and elevate your employer brand.
- Implement a Knowledge Legacy Program
- Hold Stay Conversations
- Create a Personalized Feedback Loop
- Offer Tailored Outplacement Services
- Celebrate Employee Departures
- Plan for Knowledge Transfer
- Ensure Smooth LinkedIn Update Process
Implement a Knowledge Legacy Program
Implementing a “Knowledge Legacy Program” transformed our offboarding process. Instead of traditional exit interviews, departing employees created detailed video tutorials of their innovative sustainability practices and process improvements. For example, when our senior packaging designer left, she documented her technique for developing mushroom-based packaging alternatives, including failed experiments and successful breakthroughs. This approach delivered remarkable results.
New employees reached full productivity 40% faster than before, using these first-hand insights from their predecessors. The program achieved an 85% participation rate among departing employees, with 92% reporting feeling valued for their contributions until their last day. Most significantly, 73% of former employees maintained positive connections with the company, leading to valuable partnership opportunities.
Three former employees later became sustainability consultants for our new product launches. The success stemmed from treating departing employees as valuable knowledge contributors rather than just completing a checklist, creating a culture where employee transitions enhanced rather than disrupted company progress.
Chaitsi Ahuja
Founder & CEO, Brown Living
Hold Stay Conversations
We believe that a positive exit experience is very important for maintaining long-term relationships with employees even after they have left the organization. We subscribe to the idea that “how you leave is just as important as how you arrive.” Studies show that 72% of employees who experience a positive exit would consider returning, which underlines how a well-managed offboarding process can positively impact your brand.
One of the best practices that we emphasize is to hold “Stay Conversations” as part of exit interviews. This is not a mere questioning of why someone is leaving but instead gaining insights on how the company can improve and what worked well for the departing employee. It ensures that we can correct potential gaps while employees are going out feeling respected and valued. It is a win-win for the departing employee and the company.
A caring and personalized departure process-ensuring leaving employees receive recognition of their contributions regardless of if such is done with a card when they leave or organizing farewell, have your achievements internalized. Helping them go away with pride will strengthen our culture of respect while ensuring that an entrance door will still be accessible through the same or different department from where they were before they took their exit.
Offboarding in the right way has shown me firsthand how a difficult goodbye can turn into an opportunity to reflect and grow. All in all, it’s about creating lasting goodwill for everyone involved, whether staying with the organization or moving to a new opportunity.
Arzoo Chaudhary
Content Partnership Manager, ProProfs Training Maker
Create a Personalized Feedback Loop
One approach I value during offboarding is creating a personalized feedback loop. This means setting aside time for open, two-way communication where the departing employee can share their thoughts and experiences while also receiving a clear, constructive summary of their contributions. When done thoughtfully, it shows that their input matters and leaves a positive impression as they exit.
This kind of practice benefits both the organization and the employee. It gives the company a chance to learn and improve, while reinforcing to the employee that their time and work were meaningful. It turns the offboarding process into more than just a formality—it becomes a chance to strengthen your reputation as an employer. It’s a way to ensure the experience feels respectful and productive, which can lead to better relationships with both current and former employees in the long run.
Even Fusdahl Hulleberg
Chief Marketing Officer, Recharge Health
Offer Tailored Outplacement Services
As an executive coach for over two decades, I’m a believer that employee offboarding is a blend of support and discovery. On one hand, companies can prioritize offering tailored outplacement services to help executives transition seamlessly—whether it’s refining their resume, preparing for interviews, or elevating their personal brand.
On the other hand, there’s great value in anonymous exit interviews. Research shows that 89% of employees leave jobs due to workplace issues, often tied to management rather than the company itself. Leveraging technology to gather honest and anonymous feedback allows companies to identify patterns, address root causes, and foster better retention.
Offboarding isn’t just about parting ways—it’s about creating a positive experience for the employee while capturing insights to improve the organization.
Adriana Cowdin
CEO and Executive Coach, Be Bold Executive Coaching
Celebrate Employee Departures
Managers often try to entice employees to stay with counteroffers and vague promises of change and growth, but this is rarely effective. Job hunting takes time, so most people have mentally exited the organization long before they quit. Your job is two-fold. First, congratulate them. Great managers want their people to succeed, so celebrate the win. Then, support their transition with relevant guidance and coaching. The conversation will help you understand what the person is running to or from. It will also get you in the habit of having routine career discussions with your team, so you’re rarely surprised by a resignation letter. They’ll still come, of course, but much less frequently.
Tim Toterhi
CHRO, Plotline Leadership
Plan for Knowledge Transfer
My best advice here is to plan ahead as much as you’re able, focusing especially on achieving a smooth transfer of knowledge to the team members who will be taking over those responsibilities in the future. Ideally, having the departing employee involved in training their replacement will usually be the most seamless way to go about this. When that isn’t possible, a good alternative is to have the departing employee document the key processes of their role. If there is already a documented process in place, ask them to review it and update or annotate it with their tips, tricks, best practices, or other insights they’ve gained during their time working in the role.
Technical and process knowledge isn’t the only type that will need to be transferred in many roles. For positions that directly interact with customers or clients, ensuring a smooth transfer of knowledge about those relationships can help to prevent disruptions to your business, and avoid missed communications or delays in response after a key employee leaves the team. Again, it’s ideal if the exiting employee can do this directly by facilitating introductions between their standing clients and their replacement. At minimum, make sure they inform their clients that they’ll be leaving and the client will interact with someone else moving forward. It can also help to set up an automated message on their inbox or voicemail that informs clients who they should reach out to instead.
Matt Erhard
Managing Partner, Summit Search Group
Ensure Smooth LinkedIn Update Process
A successful offboarding process goes beyond procedural steps; it should be thoughtful and considerate, ensuring a smooth transition for all parties involved. While there are many steps to cover, I want to highlight the following key factors that can enhance the experience for the departing employee and the organization. Remind the employee to update their LinkedIn account. Encourage them to change their LinkedIn password if tied to their work email and update their employer information. This simple yet often-overlooked action ensures the departing employee can maintain uninterrupted access to their account as they move forward in their career.
Elise McCabe
Founder, Career Transition Strategist, Career Coach, Outplacement Specialist, Career Management Consulting