20+ Sample Employee Exit Checklist

What Is an Employee Exit Checklist?

An employee exit checklist outlines all of the actions that must be completed when an employee quits an organization. It is frequently conducted as a check-box activity so that line managers and HR team members can see at a glance which actions have been accomplished and which require additional attention. Preparing the employee leave checklist is a time-consuming procedure that should not be neglected in light of the consequences. Different positions are prone to various degrees of offboarding. However, you must comprehend the standard procedure as well as the specifics of the employee offboarding process, from the moment you receive the resignation letter up to the exit interview.

Importance of Exit Interviews

Employees will leave no matter how amazing your business culture is, how great your training and growth program is, or how great your business leaders are. Whether it’s for a professional change, to care for their newly formed family, or just because it’s time for a change, you won’t be able to keep every employee, especially in this day and age. However, when someone leaves, it is critical to conduct an exit interview to evaluate the whole employee experience and, as a consequence, discover opportunities to increase retention and engagement. This is important for you to be aware of the importance of the employee exit checklist.

Assist in Increasing Employee Retention: As you are aware, excessive staff turnover is costly since recruiting, inducting, and training new employees will also require spending more of the company budget. As a result, firms strive to retain and develop talent wherever feasible. Exit interviews are an excellent approach to learning why employees choose to leave your company and can contribute to finding a solution to the problem of excessive turnover. By asking the same questions again, you may begin to collect data and uncover trends in why individuals leave. You may then start addressing these concerns as you further develop the internal structure and process within the company.Improve Culture and Environment: Exit interviews are arguably unbiased since soon-to-be ex-employees are more honest and candid about their thoughts about your organization. You are more likely to uncover the true reason for an employee’s departure, which may differ from what you assume or were first made to believe. They are more likely to provide you with an honest appraisal of your culture. As a result, you’re obtaining reliable information about your company. As a consequence, these insights can help to guide your organization’s strategy, resulting in action that improves your entire corporate culture.Gives Light on Pending Issues: For larger companies, minuscule issues may go unnoticed, which could take a longer time to bring to light especially if no one raises the concern. However, an exit interview, allows your ex-employees to bring to your immediate attention the issues that have been bothering them, which in turn can reduce the risk of the problem. It is possible that there are major difficulties inside your teams, and if they are not remedied immediately, you may lose additional people.Improve Recruitment: Exit interviews may provide useful data regarding your company’s recruiting, onboarding, induction, and training needs. This can enable you to discover where are you performing well and where are you falling short. This information may also be used to assist employees to match their expectations with their actual work functions. For example, if employees repeatedly complain that their job is more technical than expected, the issue may not be with the organization or the function itself. It’s possible that the organization just needs to provide more detail in job descriptions so that applicants understand what the work entails and can make an informed decision to apply.Improve Development Strategies: Exit interviews may show the need for a more effective learning and development plan inside your organization. Employees are more likely to depart if they do not feel encouraged or challenged in their employment. It will also highlight possibilities for leadership development and succession planning. Upon determining that there is a need to improve or update your company’s current manner of training and development, it could help your employees to feel more fulfilled with themselves and their skillset, which in turn, can be rewarding for your company as well.

Key Elements of an Employee Exit Plan

Another relevant aspect of your employee exit checklist would be an actual employee exit plan. This kind of plan will tackle what you will be doing in the case that your employee decides to take their things and leave the company for their respective reason. You should not focus on it being such a terrible thing because it is a normal process of work. But what you can do is benefit from it and let your company improve. With that being said, this curated list has been made to state what are the elements found in an employee exit plan.

Professionalism: Regardless of the circumstances surrounding the retiring employee, keeping cool and professional can help to guarantee a seamless transition for your organization and leave doors open should future contacts with the exiting employee arise. For individuals providing notice, managers must assess if the employee being on site for two weeks or longer would be more productive or detrimental to the organization. If it is damaging, you can accept their resignation with respect and explain that you would accept it effective immediately for the benefit of the firm. You may inform them that you would pay them for the two-week period in which they promised to labor.Knowledge Transfer: In circumstances where notice would be advantageous, be sure you make the most of this time and keep engaged with what is being achieved. Give the departing employee a systematic method and a set time each day to complete a Transfer of Knowledge paper. This document should provide a brief overview of work duties, current projects, deadlines, status updates, and relevant contacts. The list should indicate the location of the associated information. When there is no notice, assign someone on the team to study the former employee’s email account, recent papers, and physical files accessed to gain as much knowledge about his current activities and responsibilities as possible.Critical Analysis: A fast assessment of the situation is necessary. Analyze the job description and assess whether the information supplied needs to be updated. Check to see if the workload given is reasonable, or if it is too much or too little. You should also be aware if there is the possibility of internally absorbing duties or adjusting workflow structure. Take your time analyzing the problem. Don’t pass up an opportunity to improve business operations by making a few simple, or even major, changes to processes.Receiving Feedback: Seeking input through an exit Interview is also helpful for future planning of the empty post. It might give valuable information about your company’s structure and culture. There are several approaches to conducting an exit interview. Of course, this would be ineffective with a dismissed or dissatisfied employee. In those circumstances, spend some time considering whether there is anything the organization may do better to assist achieve a good fit for hiring and successful employee support and engagement.Communication: This is arguably the most crucial aspect of dealing with an outgoing employee. The impact of this advancement on your organization will be determined by how you communicate. A sudden one-line email to the team informing them that the person is no longer employed by the organization is likely to cause confusion and reduce morale. A systematic company-wide communication that sends a calm and prepared response while addressing rational inquiries about temporary solutions and contacts for that role’s obligations best reduces the possibility of unanticipated unfavorable reactions.Appreciation: Remember to thank everyone who helped with the changeover, took on extra work until a successor was recruited, and so on. Determine if one-on-one, public, or monetary gratitude is acceptable, and be sure to follow through with sincerity. Employee departures can have long-term and bad repercussions inside a business. Set up a plan for dealing with events like these immediately to guarantee a seamless transition and even take advantage of the chance to examine the process and help your organization perform better.

How to Write an Employee Exit Checklist

With two lists made regarding the exit interview and essential parts of an employee exit plan, now is where you can officially proceed to draft out your employee exit checklist. It is important that you fill out each section with ample purpose otherwise, it may not be as relevant in the actual procedure of your employee departing the company. So to better have a grasp, you can view the sample employee exit checklist form which is provided in this article. Think of this as an employee exit checklist guideline to create a concrete list.

1. Communicate the Employee’s Departure

It’s a good idea to coordinate with the employee on when, how, and by whom the specifics of their leave will be revealed to avoid a fragmented spread of knowledge and potentially detrimental workplace gossip. Depending on the circumstances, such as your firm’s culture or the employee’s leaving, you and the individual may pick an official announcement in a company meeting, a more casual email, or even simply mention it in a team huddle. This can be done of course, after the employee sends their official resignation letter to the appointed head of their department or straight away to the HR Manager.

2. Facilitate the Transfer of Knowledge

If you are fortunate enough to have hired a replacement for the leaver’s vacant role prior to their actual departure date, you will undoubtedly benefit from scheduling time for those two individuals to meet to handover outstanding work and for the quitter to coach the succession plan on some of the most critical aspects of the role. This might be a fantastic method to inform the new recruit about aspects of the work that may not be covered in a conventional training course. List out certain responsibilities the resignee has that are important to transfer to the new hire. Otherwise, if you have not found a new hire, then disregard this step.

3. Recover Company Assets

When an employee leaves your organization, you must guarantee that they return any corporate property that was in their control prior to their departure date. This might involve technology like computers and cell phones, as well as other properties such as uniforms or even keys to the premises. It might be beneficial to create a list of these corporate assets in advance to ensure that they have all been recovered. Some examples include but are not limited to receivables, deposit accounts, money orders, checks, bank drafts, marketable securities, and investments.

4. Update IT Access

The IT staff must carry out a process to stop the leaver’s IT access, ensuring that no one else may access their PC or other data after they leave. It’s also customary to include an out-of-office message or automated redirection to the email account before closing it down so that crucial communications from clients don’t go unnoticed. Revoking access to their email or their permission to enter the business office would also need to be done so that no cases will be made regarding that matter.

5. Conduct the Exit Interview

Exit interviews are a necessary step in the employee offboarding process. An exit interview can take the form of a face-to-face chat between the leaver and a member of the HR team, or it can take the form of completing a questionnaire to learn the leaver’s thoughts and opinions about the company, recommendations for change, and genuine reasons for leaving. Smart businesses recognize the need not just to enable an exit interview process, but also to act on the outcomes.

6. Prepare for Future Reference Requests

Your former employee is likely to provide your name and contact information as a referral for any future employment opportunities. Maintain accurate and precise documents pertaining to their employment with you so that you may respond to such inquiries swiftly and appropriately. It goes without saying that you need to answer objectively or give out impartial information regarding your employee’s history with the company.

FAQs

Why do companies conduct exit interviews?

Companies perform departure interviews to learn about employees’ thoughts about their employment, supervisor, organization, and other factors. An exit interview is a dialogue between an employee and their employer, most commonly with the assistance of a human resources person. This is a good time to talk about work happiness or provide comments on policy and direction. Exit interviews can be conducted in person, remotely, or via an exit interview form.

What do you say in an exit interview?

Make sure to express what you loved about working there and what you think they do well. Your employer will likely see your views and experiences as more fair, honest, and factual if you present a balance of good and negative feedback. You want to be truthful in this talk, but you also don’t want to say anything that would make your interviewer look terrible. Practicing what you will say before the interview guarantees that you don’t mispronounce anything or improperly frame an answer. Take a look at this collection of often-asked exit interview questions.

Who conducts an exit interview?

To put the employee at ease and promote honest replies, exit interviews should be performed by an impartial third party, such as a human resources representative. If an exit interview is performed by the immediate supervisor of a departing employee, that individual may be hesitant to be open. This is why sending the resignation letter is often directed toward the HR manager or department head.

There is no standard employee exit checklist format, but if your company utilized one for consistency, then it is better that you use it as well to remain uniform with other employee exit processes. But if your current company lacks one, then that is where you will set your company with their respective job exit checklist.