Offboarding

Offboarding describes the deliberately designed separation process at the departure of an employee from the company for which he worked so far in the context of employment or service relationship. The opposite, the process when an employee joins the company, describes onboarding .

variants

In terms of content, a distinction is made between two types of offboarding:

1. Offboarding (also: "Exit Management") as a technical process by HR and IT management in the company ( identity management )
2. Offboarding as a socio-emotional process of the employee, accompanied by a coach .

Offboarding as a technical process

Here, offboarding is understood as a software-supported process in personnel and identity management , which ensures the secure deactivation and documentation of the access authorizations of employees who have left and thus prevents data misuse and theft.

Some HR management solutions also offer the generation of guidelines for the exit interview or of "routing slips", by means of which, for example, the return of company property - such as mobile PC and communication devices or company cars - is ensured and the consequences of leaving can be systematically processed for internal processes (e.g. the allocation of employee parking spaces or the capacity utilization in the canteen). Conducting the exit interview is already part of the offboarding process of the second variant:

Offboarding as a socio-emotional process

Offboarding according to the second definition is primarily practiced in German-speaking countries as part of outplacement consulting - here as personal support for the departing employee by an external coach . Internal HR managers, on the other hand, often shy away from active, personal support for the employee in the exit phase - especially in connection with the supposedly negative consequences and moods for the departing employee after a company resigns. Or the process is neglected for reasons of efficiency: Active support for new and existing employees appears economically more plausible than investing in employees who are leaving. In contrast to onboarding , in which the high costs of recruiting and the avoidance of unsuccessful integration of new employees into the company offer obvious personal and economic reasons to make this process active and successful, the separation of employees often makes it easier for the direct contracting parties in the foreground, to have agreed - possibly after lengthy negotiations - on the (legal) modalities of the contract termination and to have implemented them.

A positive exception, which is particularly widespread in the course of redundancies for operational reasons, is the investment in a resigning employee by hiring an external outplacement consultant. Compared to outplacement advice in the narrower sense (translated: "accommodation" or "placement "Of an employee outside of the previous company), which focuses primarily on the professional orientation and thus on the ostensibly important (more) economic aspect of securing a livelihood in the form of a new employment relationship and thus makes a significant contribution to the silent separation of employees (company perspective) and whose ostensible satisfaction of needs is achieved (employee perspective), the extended outplacement in the sense of offboarding aims in particular at the emotional consequences for the departing and the remaining employees by regaining the "self" -consciousness of the excl heathen employee. And thus to the expansion of his personal intelligence and identity

The fact that the separation leaves an emotional gap for both the departing and the remaining employees in the company - with in some cases considerable consequences for people's job satisfaction and the employer image, is often underestimated and in some cases (all those involved) only become aware of it after the person has already left the company. The technical process of the supposedly “clean”, “silent” and “safe” separation is too much in the foreground of established processes in personnel and IT management .

These effects are particularly massive for the departing person if the work with the previous employer was of existential importance for their identity - that is, a considerable part of their life, either over long years and / or through a very intensive commitment in favor of the previous company has been invested (see also burn-out syndrome ), and the person has defined himself to a large extent through his professional work, his successes and his professional contacts.

The professional offboarding by appropriately trained HR managers or an external coach should help the employee to "understand" the separation as a natural end to a stage of life, to consciously use the knowledge from his experiences for the new phase of life and work. In this way, the employee is oriented “disembarking” in order to set off for new goals - with solid ground under their feet, namely with a positive awareness of their personal and professional talents and motives. Offboarding thus represents either an extended component of support by an external outplacement consultant and / or coach. Due to the declared objective of offboarding to strengthen the employee's self-competence and ability to act , the process, in contrast to outplacement in the narrower sense, can be carried out by internal ( Personnel) responsible persons are initiated and carried out as well as by external offboarding specialists.

Internal and external implementation

The positive signal to the departing employee and his remaining colleagues speaks in favor of internal implementation (provided that the internal coach is professionally qualified) through the open handling of an (inevitable) separation and the associated positive effects on employee satisfaction, the employer image and an open and honest corporate culture . The internal implementation is limited in time by the last working day of the departing employee.

One of the advantages of being accompanied by an external coach is that the latter takes a more neutral position that is not colored by shared experiences or individual roles and positions of power. It can also be advantageous that the external coach can support his client free of the objectives of the (former) company and thus - at least in the client's awareness - more openly and impartially. The stronger focus on the future, which the coach embodies as an external person, can be a further argument for this approach. The external support can begin before the last working day of the departing employee, but in contrast to the internal implementation, it does not have to end on this.

Software overview

• for IT software solutions (identity management) see identity management and
• for HR software solutions (HR Management) see

See also

• Identity management
• Compliance (Business Administration)
• Outplacement
• Coaching
• Staff layoff
• Employment and qualification society

literature

to "3 - Offboarding as a socio-emotional process":

• PI Worldwide: How to Sustain Morale After Layoffs . PI Worldwide, 2009.
• Hajo Neu: Work less, live more. Strategies for consistent downshifting . Campus Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-593-37221-5 , 12 - Loss of job does not mean loss of future, p. 172-179 .
• Peter Rassidakis: Paths of Self- Evolution . 2nd Edition. Books on Demand , 2009, ISBN 3-8311-1763-2 .
• Richard Nelson Bolles , John E. Nelson, Madeleine Leitner (Translator): The Prime Years: Now Plan How You Will Live After Your Job . 1st edition. Campus Verlag, 2008, ISBN 3-593-38667-4 .
• Howard Figler, Richard Nelson Bolles: The Career Counselor's Handbook . 2nd Edition. Ten Speed ​​Pr, 2007, ISBN 1-58008-870-8 .
• Frank Müller, Hans B. Schiff, Gerd M. Strauch: Social transfer of personnel - Shaping change fairly with outplacement . Kohlhammer Verlag 2005
• for outplacement in the narrower sense see there.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jurij Ryschka: Changes in the company - and what will become of me? A workbook for self-coaching . 1st edition. Verlag Wiley-Vch, 2007, Chapter 2, p. 37 ff.
2. ↑ Martin Wild: Outplacement - Make or Buy . 1st edition. GRIN Verlag , 2007, p. 2.
3. ^ Karl-Heinz List: Outplacement. From termination talks to career advice . 1st edition. Bw Verlag, 2003
4. ↑ Jurij Ryschka: Changes in the company - and what will become of me? A workbook for self-coaching . 1st edition. Verlag Wiley-Vch, 2007, Chapter 2, p. 41 ff.
5. ^ Plan Your Education . Iseek.org. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
6. ↑ Janine Berg-Peer: Outplacement in Practice. Designing separation processes in a socially acceptable manner: A guide for consultants and decision-makers . 1st edition. Gabler Verlag, 2003, Chapter 6, p. 189 ff.
7. ↑ Melinda Mezo: Employee Retention - Onboarding, Offboarding & Stuff in Between . In: Rising Women Magazine , September 2008
8. ↑ Employee Retention - Onboarding, Offboarding & Stuff in Between . Risingwomen.com. Archived from the original on January 7, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 12, 2010. 
9. ↑ SoftGuide software guide - software search search result . SoftGuide. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
10. ↑ SoftGuide software guide - software for human resource management . SoftGuide. Retrieved July 12, 2010.