Grow Your Team: Checklist for Onboarding & Offboarding Employees
As organizations strive to take their employee retention rates to the next level, onboarding and offboarding checklists provide a key tool for success. By carefully designing onboarding and offboarding processes, employers can maximize their efforts to retain and engage valuable staff, reducing turnover and building a strong culture in their organization. In this article, I will discuss how to develop an effective checklist to ensure smooth onboarding and offboarding of employees and the key elements to consider when creating these process for successful employee retention.
Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- Assessing Employee Retention
- What to Include in an Onboarding Checklist
- What to Include in an Offboarding Checklist
- Benefits of an Onboarding/ Offboarding Checklist
- Creating and Using an Onboarding/ Offboarding Checklist
- Ensuring Your Onboarding/ Offboarding Checklist is Effective
- Conclusion
- Introduction
When it comes to managing any business, one of the most important indicators of success is employee retention. Having an onboarding and offboarding checklist can help make sure you are effectively managing employee turnover and retaining employees. An onboarding and offboarding checklist provides an organized way to track the various steps involved in newcomer and exiting employee processes. It also helps to prevent missed and/or forgotten steps, allowing for a more successful onboarding and offboarding experience for both the company and the employee. This article will provide information on assessing employee retention, what to include in an onboarding and offboarding checklist, and the benefits of such a checklist. Lastly, we will discuss best practices for creating and using an onboarding and offboarding checklist.
- Assessing Employee Retention
When creating an onboarding or offboarding checklist, it is important to first assess employee retention and understand the factors that can lead to employee turnover. Employee retention is a measure of the ability of an organization to keep its employees over a period of time. It is a significant measure of any organization's success and is an important indicator of overall morale and performance.
Employee retention is largely affected by the organization's culture, the recruitment process, compensation, job satisfaction, and benefits, as well as other aspects of the work environment. These factors should be taken into account when assessing areas in which your organization can improve its employee retention rate. Additionally, HR professionals should consider the use of surveys and other metrics to help understand how employees view their experiences and progress within the organization. This can be a useful tool in identifying areas of potential improvement that may lead to improved engagement and ultimately, better employee retention.
- What to Include in an Onboarding Checklist
Onboarding can be difficult to manage, especially when there are multiple employees starting on different days. To ensure the onboarding process is consistent, effective, and streamlined, it is important to create a comprehensive onboarding checklist. Doing so will help to ensure each new hire has the same great onboarding experience, and will ensure that all necessary steps are completed properly.
Some items that should be included in an onboarding checklist are:
• Welcome Package: A welcome package or letter should be given to new hires on their first day. This should include items such as a company overview, policies, and information about benefits.
• Technology Set-Up: Technology must be provided for each new hire, including a computer, phone, and/or tablet. Ensure that all of these items have been delivered and set-up prior to the employee’s first day.
• Introductions: Introduce each new hire to their team and fellow colleagues. It is important to make each new hire feel welcomed, so it is important to plan an onboarding schedule that involves each team and coworkers.
• Orientation: An orientation should be held to ensure new hires are aware of the company’s mission, values, policies, and processes. This orientation should include educational materials, resources, videos, and discussion of the company culture and day-to-day activities.
• Assignments: Assignments should be made to new hires on their first day so that they can start becoming productive and integrated into the team. These assignments should be tailored to each individual hire, allowing them to start picking up on new skills and responsibilities quickly.
Creating a comprehensive onboarding checklist will ensure that all new hires have the same great onboarding experience. Ensure all items listed above, and any other necessary items, are included in your onboarding checklist to start new hires off on the right foot.
- What to Include in an Offboarding Checklist
An offboarding checklist is critical to ensure that organizations remain compliant when parting ways with an employee. It outlines a repeatable process that should be followed when transitioning employees out of a role, delineates the different tasks and ensures a smooth exit for the former employee.
The offboarding checklist should consist of the following key elements:
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Obtain Necessary Signatures and Clearances: A comprehensive offboarding checklist should include the process for obtaining signatures and clearances, such as verification of notice provided to the employee, any necessary non-compete, non-disclosure, and/or non-solicitation agreements, and confidential information collection forms.
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Check for Company Property and Inventory: An offboarding checklist should also address the process for tracking and recovering company property and inventory, such as keys, laptops, company mobile phones, company cards, credit cards, uniforms, and access badges.
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Revoke Employee Access: The next step for the offboarding checklist should involve revoking employee access to the organization’s systems and networks, such as emails, intranet, software, and other applications.
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Record Outstanding Hours and Update Payroll System: The organization should record outstanding hours and update the payroll system accordingly to ensure that the former employee is not able to access payment information.
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Track Documents Sent/Received: The organization should also track all documents sent/received from the former employee related to his/her exit, such as termination letter, reference letter, transfer document, or last pay cheque.
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Schedule Site Tour and Removal of Personal Belongings: The organization should also schedule a site tour to ensure that all personal belongings have been removed and to identify any areas of the workplace that need to be cleansed of the former employee’s presence.
These key elements should be used as a starting point for establishing an effective offboarding checklist. Organizations should review their processes regularly to ensure that they remain compliant and effective.
- Benefits of an Onboarding/ Offboarding Checklist
Onboarding and offboarding processes are essential for fostering employee retention within an organization. An onboarding and offboarding checklist can significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of these processes, as well as increase employee satisfaction and retention. By having an onboarding and offboarding checklist to refer to, the processes are more likely to be managed in a timely and organized manner, which in turn yields positive results for employee retention.
The checklist also ensures that all necessary steps are taken, ensuring that important tasks are not forgotten or overlooked, saving time and money. The checklist serves as a helpful guideline, reducing frustrating delays due to incomplete tasks or paperwork. It also helps to streamline the onboarding/offboarding process and create a consistently positive experience for the employee.
The checklist also helps to ensure that the employee receives all of the necessary resources to succeed in their job. This can include emergency contacts, training materials, and contact with the employee's immediate supervisor and other relevant personnel. Furthermore, the checklist can be used to measure the employee's success in the onboarding/offboarding process in order to identify and address issues that may arise.
Onboarding and offboarding checklists also help to create a positive first impression by providing a contained and organized experience. This can help to boost employee engagement and foster a feeling of belonging and commitment to the organization. Finally, having an onboarding/offboarding checklist can ensure that proper protocol is followed and that all documents are completed accurately and on time, minimizing potential liability issues.
- Creating and Using an Onboarding/ Offboarding Checklist
Creating an onboarding and offboarding checklist, which covers all aspects of the onboarding and offboarding process, is a crucial step in ensuring your new hires have a smooth transition to their roles and an amicable exit when the time comes.
First, it's important to define the scope of the onboarding and offboarding processes, including any new employee orientation activities and any offboarding activities, such as handing in key cards and seat deallocation. Understanding these steps in detail helps you to formulate your checklist.
Next, you should create your checklist and assign any relevant tasks to the relevant members of the team. It’s important to assign tasks to specific people so that everyone is clear on their own responsibilities and deadlines. You could even set up a shared project management list or platform where everyone can log updates and deadlines.
Once you have created the checklist, it’s important that all members of the team understand the onboarding/offboarding process. It’s also worth holding onboarding/offboarding training sessions for all team members so that they know the best way to approach each stage of the process.
Finally, don’t forget to regularly review and update the onboarding/offboarding process as any changes to regulations, processes, or staff could require updating the checklist accordingly.
- Ensuring Your Onboarding/ Offboarding Checklist is Effective
Once your onboarding and offboarding checklist is complete, it's important to make sure that it is effective. After all, there's no point in spending time creating a checklist if it doesn't have the desired effect. Here are some tips to help you ensure your onboarding/ offboarding checklist is as effective as possible:
• Test the checklist: One of the best ways to make sure your checklist is effective is by testing it out. Ask a few current employees to go through the onboarding/ offboarding process using the checklist you created. Ask for their feedback after the process and use it to make changes to the checklist if necessary.
• Integrate the checklist into your onboarding/ offboarding system: The goal of the checklist should be to ensure your onboarding/ offboarding process is standardized and efficient. This is why it is important to integrate your checklist into your existing processes.
• Keep the checklist up to date: As your company grows and develops, you may need to make changes to your onboarding/ offboarding checklist. It's important to regularly review your onboarding/ offboarding checklist and update it when necessary.
• Make sure to include new employees and trainees: It can be easy to forget to include new employees and trainees in the onboarding/ offboarding process. Make sure to include them in the checklist and make sure they go through all of the required steps.
• Follow up with former employees: Following up with former employees is a great way to improve employee retention. This means that you should include a step in your offboarding checklist that tasks someone with reaching out to the employee and thanking them for their service.
By taking the time to ensure your onboarding/ offboarding checklist is effective, you can set up your company for success and improve employee retention.
- Conclusion
Conclusion
An effective onboarding and offboarding checklist can be an invaluable asset to any business, helping them to foster stronger relationships with their employees and encourage employee retention. When done properly, checking off items on both the onboarding and offboarding checklists should become a natural part of the onboarding/offboarding process for any employee.
By setting up a checklist, it is easier to monitor compliance and make sure all steps are completed prior to an employee moving on, which can help ensure that the transition process is smoother and that the company is protected from any legal liabilities. Additionally, having an onboarding and offboarding checklist makes it easier to ensure each employee is treated fairly and consistently when they join or leave the company.
Onboarding and offboarding checklists are vital tools that help to ensure that the processes of introducing new hires and ex-employees to the company proceed smoothly and with minimal disruption. By properly and consistently implementing onboarding and offboarding processes, businesses can improve employee retention—an important factor in building a successful and lasting business.
