The Lifecycle of an Employee: How to Create a Seamless Onboarding and Offboarding Experience

Employee onboarding and offboarding are two key human resources (HR) functions that are becoming increasingly significant. Onboarding commences once a job seeker agrees to accept a job offer, and encompasses all of the necessary measures to ensure that a new employee is effectively integrated and productive within the organization. Offboarding is essentially the opposite of onboarding and entails the separation of an employee from a company. This may involve a procedure for transferring knowledge to other employees. The retirement of baby boomers and the tendency of millennial workers to frequently switch jobs are among the shifts in the labor market that are driving an increased focus on onboarding and offboarding processes (Thibodeau, 2018).

Nearly every major talent management software system incorporates an onboarding component, and there are vendors that specialize in providing onboarding systems. In the same way, talent management systems encompass offboarding software as well. Employee onboarding and offboarding share many similarities, including the need to handle payroll, benefits, and various legal documents, as well as the issuance or retrieval of keys, badges, IT equipment, and network access.

Onboarding Process

Out of onboarding and offboarding, Onboarding is currently receiving the most attention in HR technology. In a competitive labor market, the cost of recruiting and training new employees has piqued employers' interest in retaining their employees. According to research papers and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 50% of high-level employees do not succeed in their roles within 18 months, and half of all hourly workers quit their jobs in a mere 120 days. Poor onboarding has been identified as a contributing factor to this issue (Thibodeau, 2018).

A company may market itself to a candidate as a forward-thinking organization that utilizes advanced technology. The candidate may be excited about this prospect, but HR may inadvertently undermine this image. For instance, the new employee may be handed a pile of paper forms to fill out and sign right away,  the IT department may not be prepared with the necessary security credentials. Essential training may not be scheduled. Consequently, the new employee ends up wasting time and questioning their decision to join the company.

Source: https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/definition/employee-onboarding-and-offboarding

According to Lucidchart(2023), to ensure a smooth onboarding process, it's important to focus on the Four C's of your company: 

• Compliance - which involves instructing new employees on the essential regulations and policies that govern the organization; 
• Clarification -  which involves educating them on their job responsibilities and performance expectations; 
• Culture - which involves informing them about both formal and informal organizational customs, including things like dress code; 
•  Connection - which involves assisting them in forming interpersonal and interdepartmental relationships within the company.

A template for HR onboarding process can be quite useful, but keep in mind that it may not fit every business as each one may have different requirements. Nonetheless, it is important to have a basic understanding of how to carry out an effective onboarding process, particularly during the first few days of a new employee (BrightHR, n.d.)

Here is an example of the steps HR could follow:

On day one, HR could introduce the new employee to your business by providing a general overview, including a guided tour, going through your employee handbook, policies, and procedures, and introducing them to their colleagues. 

From day two onwards, HR could provide the employee with their work schedule and initial tasks to introduce them to their role. Also, they can plan this for the second day and the weeks ahead, such as discussing their first tasks, having regular check-ins, reviewing their performance, answering their queries, and encouraging their engagement. They are free to modify this schedule as needed, but the aim should always be to make the new employee feel welcome and help them complete their job to the best of their abilities. This onboarding process will help the new employee feel at ease in their new role and enable them to start working effectively (BrightHR, n.d.).

According to BrightHR, to simplify the aforementioned step-by-step approach, HR can develop a checklist to adhere to, which outlines the basic phases ahead. The checklist could consist of the following steps:

1. Officially hire the candidate and submit a job requisition form to the HR team.
2. Conduct a background check.
3. Establish the schedule and job duties that the new employee will need to follow.
4. Prepare and complete the necessary new hire paperwork.
5. Plan the induction process, including team introductions and potentially assigning a mentor.
6. Set up the new employee's working environment.
7. Plan the training schedule.

It is also advisable to offer flexibility in the process, as the new employee may have questions or specific requests about certain stages.

Offboarding Process

The retirement of the baby boomer generation is often referred to as a "silver tsunami," due to the large number of daily retirements, which is estimated to be around 10,000. This exodus of experienced and knowledgeable workers from the workforce can be a cause for concern, and as such, an offboarding process may begin well before an employee officially retires. This may involve older employees mentoring and training younger workers to ensure a smooth transition. The software can be used to track these training processes, which may fall under the umbrella of succession planning software.

Offboarding is designed to ensure that the departure of an employee is as seamless as possible, with a focus on encouraging them to share their expertise with others. Management systems are put in place to organize everything involved in the exit process, with a view to reversing some of the steps taken during the onboarding process.

According to Hibob (n.d.), It is important not to underestimate the effort required to carry out a successful and seamless offboarding process. HR technology can assist in organizing and simplifying the entire exit process by:

1. Establishing a uniform offboarding process
2. Ensuring a positive exit experience for the departing individual
3. Providing prompts, flowcharts, and checklists to ensure that all necessary handover tasks are completed
4. Supplying an exit interview script
5. Automating certain offboarding procedures (such as sending final pay summaries through specific programs)

References:

1. Thibodeau, P., (2018). Employee onboarding and offboarding. Retrieved from https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/definition/employee-onboarding-and-offboarding, Accessed on 22nd March 2023

2. Lucidchart. (2023, March 23). The Ultimate Guide to Employee Onboarding: How to Create a Process that Works. Retrieved from https://www.lucidchart.com/blog/employee-onboarding-process, Accessed on 24th March 2023

3. BrightHR. (n.d.). Employee Onboarding Process | BrightHR. Retrieved March 23, 2023, from https://www.brighthr.com/articles/hiring/employee-on-boarding-process/

4. Hibob. (n.d.). Offboarding. HR Glossary. Retrieved March 23, 2023, from https://www.hibob.com/hr-glossary/offboarding/