September 25, 2025
Redesigning the Employee Offboarding Experience: From Exit to Advocacy
The employee offboarding experience is easy to overlook. Most companies have onboarding guides, training schedules, and welcome kits in place. But when someone leaves, the process is usually improvised. Only about a quarter of organisations have a proper exit process in place.
That can backfire. A messy exit unsettles the team, fuels negative reviews, and leaves security gaps. Former employees talk, and job seekers listen. Research shows 84 percent of candidates read reviews before applying, and most check several before making a decision. One bad story can travel further than a dozen positive ones.
There’s also the security piece. Many people leaving a job still have access to some part of their old company’s systems. Insiders are tied to close to a fifth of data breaches, and those breaches cost millions. Without clear steps for closing accounts and collecting equipment, risk multiplies.
Turnover itself is normal. What matters is how you manage the exit. Done well, it shows respect and keeps relationships intact. Done poorly, it leaves damage behind.
The Cost of a Poor Employee Offboarding Experience
When offboarding goes badly, the impact isn’t small.
Reputation takes the first hit. People leaving don’t keep their opinions to themselves. They talk to friends, they post online, and they leave reviews. A bad story from one former employee can do more damage than a dozen good ones.
Connections are lost, too. Only about 30 percent of alums keep in touch with their old company. The rest move on, and so does any chance of future referrals, partnerships, or rehires. Without a plan, the door shuts.
Security, as mentioned above, is another weak spot. Just look at the ex-employee who was responsible for the cash app breach that hit over 8 million users in 2022. A simple account closure could have stopped that event from happening.
Then there’s the effect on the people who stay. Poor communication surrounding departures can create anxiety and distrust. Intel’s 2024 decision to cut 15,000 jobs, about 15 percent of its global workforce, is one example. Employees described the process as abrupt and confusing, and the company took a reputational hit that went far beyond the layoff numbers.
A weak exit process doesn’t just affect the person walking out the door. It can shake team morale, put data at risk, and leave lasting marks on the brand.
The Upside of a Positive Employee Offboarding Experience
A strong employee offboarding experience, on the other hand, delivers benefits for everyone involved. Get it right, and you should see the results pretty fast.
Protecting Reputation
When someone leaves, the last impression sticks. A bad experience shapes the story they’ll share. If A good one changes the tone of that story. Reviews, referrals, and even casual conversations reflect are packed with positive memories of the company.
Reputation depends on more than a single moment. It comes from hundreds of interactions, including how people exit. A respectful exit process makes it more likely that someone will describe your business as professional, even if the reason for leaving wasn’t that positive.
Reducing Security Risks
The less glamorous side of offboarding is security. Many companies still fail at the basics. People leave, but their logins stay active. Laptops, phones, or ID cards aren’t collected quickly. Studies show that over a third of former employees still have some access when they walk out.
That kind of gap is dangerous. Insider breaches account for nearly one in five incidents worldwide, and the costs are enormous. Creating a simple checklist and automating what you can makes it less likely for things to be missed. Closing accounts and collecting equipment shouldn’t depend on memory. It should be part of a straightforward process that runs every time.
Keeping Doors Open
The way someone leaves influences whether they’d ever come back. During the pandemic, about one in five people returned to their old jobs. Another large share said they’d consider it. That’s only possible if you handle the farewell properly.
Alums also bring value in other ways. Around 15 percent of new hires come through referrals from former employees. These are people who already know your culture and are trusted by their networks. If the offboarding felt respectful, they’ll recommend you. If it didn’t, they won’t.
Supporting the People Who Stay
Exits don’t happen in isolation. The team that remains is watching. A rushed or cold process makes people nervous. They start asking themselves whether leadership values employees at all. That issue only gets worse when staff have to pick up the slack of a missing team member.
Clarity matters. Explaining what’s happening, recognising contributions, and handling transitions smoothly can keep trust intact. It’s not about turning departures into celebrations. But leaders do need to make it clear that team members are respected and appreciated from start to finish.
Learning From Feedback
Employees often share the most honest feedback when they’re heading out the door. They may not have felt comfortable raising issues earlier, but they’ll say it during an exit interview. The problem is that too few companies capture that information.
A friendly exit interview, where employees feel comfortable explaining all the little gripes they have with the company (without fear that they won’t get a decent referral), can be really valuable. It gives you a chance to find out what’s really driving people away from your business, and what might encourage remaining staff to stick around.
Reinforcing Culture
How someone leaves tells the rest of the workforce what the company truly values. If offboarding centers around fairness and consistency, it strengthens culture. If it’s mishandled, it undermines it.
Culture isn’t about what’s written on posters. It’s about what people actually experience. A respectful employee offboarding experience sends a clear signal that people matter at every stage of their time with the business.
The Employee Offboarding Experience Journey Map
People leave for different reasons. Some quit for another job. Some retire. Sometimes the company lets them go. Each of those situations feels different and needs handling in its own way. A map helps because it gives a bit of structure without locking you into one script.
Stage 1: Resignation or Notification
The initial “notification” is where the process begins, and it shapes everything that follows.
- Voluntary resignation: The person has accepted another role or wants a change. The conversation is usually quick, but it still deserves respect. Treating them as if they’ve already left leaves a lasting impression.
- Retirement: Often a positive moment, sometimes celebrated. It still requires planning around pensions, knowledge transfer, and, in some cases, a gradual shift to part-time work.
- Involuntary exit: These situations are tougher. Layoffs and terminations bring emotion, and trust can break down fast if the message isn’t clear and delivered with care.
- Remote notification: Common in distributed teams. These talks often happen on video and can feel impersonal if rushed. Managers should prepare, slow the pace, and allow time for questions to be asked.
Compliance starts here as well – notice periods, severance, forms. Having standard documents ready makes it easier for managers to get it right.
Stage 2: Planning and Communication
After the decision is out in the open, the focus turns to planning. Work still needs to get done. Tasks need reassigning, deadlines checked, and clients or partners updated. Writing this into a plan makes sure nothing is missed.
The team needs to be brought up to speed as well. If nothing is said, rumors fill the space. A short, direct message works better than silence. It doesn’t have to cover every detail, just enough so people understand the change and how the work will continue.
There are also rules to follow. Contracts and labor laws shape what can be shared and when. In unionized workplaces, there may be extra steps to take. A checklist helps make sure those requirements don’t get overlooked.
Stage 3: Transferring Knowledge
When someone leaves, the risk isn’t only about headcount. It’s about the knowledge they carry out the door. Maybe it’s a client they’ve built trust with, or the undocumented fixes that keep a system running. If those things don’t get passed on, the team spends weeks trying to piece them back together. Get a handover strategy together fast.
Tools like Asana or Confluence are useful because tasks and deadlines sit in one place, and nothing depends on memory. Olo, the online ordering company, uses task-based workflows in Asana for this stage. Work gets reassigned step by step, so projects don’t stall when someone leaves.
There’s also the legal side. Intellectual property doesn’t vanish when someone resigns. Reminding employees of confidentiality agreements and collecting signed confirmations where needed gives clarity and protects you from a lot of headaches.
Stage 4: Exit Conversations
Exit interviews are your chance to find out what your employees have really been thinking, but haven’t said out loud. Unfortunately, many companies miss this stage, sometimes just because a leader, or the ex-employee, doesn’t have time to sit down for a chat.
Flexibility helps. Some people prefer a one-to-one chat. Others are more comfortable filling out a short survey or talking after they’ve had a week to decompress. Offering different formats increases the odds of getting real insights.
The most important part is doing something with that feedback. Collecting it and then ignoring it only fuels cynicism. Sharing a few themes with the broader team, and explaining what will change as a result, shows people their voices count.
Stage 5: Technology, Assets, and Security
This is the most dangerous stage to overlook. People hand in a badge, maybe a laptop, and that’s it. But in reality, the list of things to collect is much longer. Email, cloud drives, CRM systems, messaging tools – every login is a potential backdoor if it stays open.
The fix isn’t complicated, but it does take discipline. IT should have a checklist that covers every system. Automating the process makes it harder to miss a step. Atlassian’s IT workflows are one example; once offboarding begins, accounts are closed in sequence, licenses are recovered, and nothing depends on someone remembering.
Left, the Canadian travel company uses Bamboo HR to automate the offboarding process, shaving 30% of the time it takes to handle the security side.
Stage 6: Final Day Experience
The last day shapes the memory of the whole job. If it’s handled with warmth, people carry that with them. If it’s cold or rushed, they carry that too.
On the last day, you have a final chance to show recognition for everything your employee did. Doing that can remind them of how good it was to work with you, and how much they achieved along the way.
This stage is also where practical things get finalized. Payroll needs to be accurate. Benefits and pensions need explaining. Insurance or healthcare coverage often continues for a period, and employees should leave knowing exactly what to expect. Skipping these details creates frustration that can spill into reviews or even legal disputes.
Stage 7: Alumni Engagement and Advocacy
Once the paperwork is done and the laptop is returned, the relationship doesn’t have to end. Former employees can become some of the most valuable advocates a company has, but only if the connection sticks.
Alum networks are one way to do it. Some organizations use LinkedIn groups, others set up Slack channels, or send regular newsletters. There’s tangible business value here. Around 15 percent of new hires come from alum referrals at EY. That’s a strong return on something as simple as sending updates or hosting an occasional alum event.
Plus, maintaining connections makes it easier for your ex-employees to return later, if they decide their “new direction” isn’t working out the way they’d hoped.
Technology and Automation in Offboarding
Offboarding has a lot of moving parts. Collecting devices. Closing accounts. Scheduling an exit interview. Updating payroll. If those steps sit in emails, something gets missed.
Technology helps take the pressure off. HR platforms like HiBob or BambooHR create a single place to track tasks. When an employee leaves, the system starts the checklist. Payroll, benefits, and forms move through in order. Managers can see what’s done and what’s still open.
For handovers, project tools like Asana make things visible. Tasks shift to new owners, deadlines are clear, and nothing depends on memory. Everyone sees the same board, which keeps projects from stalling.
IT has its own part to play. Tools like Atlassian can pull the plug on accounts automatically. Email, cloud drives, and customer systems are shut down in sequence. It’s harder for mistakes to slip through when the process runs by default.
Automation doesn’t remove the human side. What it does is keep the basics consistent. Every exit runs the same way, whether it’s a resignation or a layoff. That protects the company, supports employer brand protection, and frees HR to focus on the conversations that matter.
Measuring Employee Offboarding Experience Success
It’s hard to improve what you don’t measure. The employee offboarding experience is no different. A few simple signals show whether the process is working.
Start with participation. How many people take part in exit interviews or surveys? If only a handful respond, you’re missing insights. Online, participation rates sit around 30 percent. In-person, it’s even lower. Tracking that number tells you if your approach is inviting or off-putting.
Alum engagement is another sign. Are former employees still opening newsletters, showing up at events, or staying in touch on LinkedIn? If the answer is no, the relationship probably ended at the door. If the answer is yes, you’ve created advocates who may return as hires or clients.
Referrals and boomerang hires are harder numbers but worth watching. At SHRM, about 50% of referrals are hired on average. If a lot of your new team members are recommended by an ex-hire or your previous hires decide to come back to your business, that’s a good sign.
Security and compliance checks also matter. Are accounts being closed on time? Are company assets coming back? A quick audit shows whether the process is tight or if gaps are leaving the business exposed.
Some teams take it further by using analytics. Descriptive data shows what happened. Predictive data starts to flag where risks are likely to appear next. The most advanced groups even build prescriptive models that recommend fixes. That’s how exit feedback starts linking directly to wider employee experience strategy.
The ROI is clearer than it seems. Good offboarding lowers hiring costs when former employees come back or send referrals your way. It also protects your reputation and helps the team stay productive during periods of transition. Each of those has a financial impact. Put them together, and it’s clear that offboarding is worth more than just ticking boxes.
Mastering the Employee Offboarding Experience
Offboarding doesn’t need to be complicated. It just needs to be consistent. A few habits make a big difference. Keep the basics tight. Collect equipment. Close accounts. Pay people correctly and on time. Missing those steps creates frustration and risk.
Automation is helpful, but it only goes so far. Software can check boxes and shut down accounts, but it can’t thank someone for their work. That part has to come from a manager. Often, a simple thank you or a short, genuine conversation matters more than a planned send-off.
When people share feedback, treat it seriously. Let them know you heard them. Tell the team what themes came up and what will change. If nothing comes from it, people stop believing in the process.
It also helps to think about the people left behind. They’re watching. If departures are handled fairly, trust holds up. If not, it slips.
Remember, leaving doesn’t always mean the connection is over. Former employees might recommend others, return later, or even work with you as partners or clients. A thoughtful employee offboarding experience keeps those possibilities alive.
