How to end things well and why offboarding matters more than ever
Hi friend,
Welcome to your monthly dose of fresh & fruity People & Culture inspiration 🍇🍌🍉. Created with 💕 by the 7people team, because sharing is caring. Enjoy.
This month, we’re reflecting on an often-overlooked aspect of the employee experience: Saying Goodbye 👋🏼. Recruitment, onboarding and engagement tend to get plenty of attention, but offboarding? At most companies… not so much.
It’s a big missed opportunity. Especially if you care about creating a strong company culture…because the way you handle farewells reveals a lot about yours. And positive goodbye’s contribute to more than just a good culture - and in the long-run they can even improve your recruitment results!
Why Offboarding Matters (More than Ever!) The data is pretty obvious:
‘Most people who start working today,
will have 10-15 jobs in their lifetime.’
Let that sink in! Yes, losing team members can be tough and sad, but it’s an inevitable part of work. The end of our limited employee lifecycle. We need to get way more comfortable with it - and better at saying goodbye.
Be Breakup Ready
Resigning is like a breakup conversation: hard to say, harder to hear, never easy. Especially if it’s one-sided.💔
Employees can feel excited about their decision to move on, but they may also be conflicted about leaving their team (work friends) and company behind. In the heat of the moment, managers can take their resignation too personally, getting emotional or even bitter. We get it, but respectfully - get over it.
Smart managers are comfortable with the fact that employees will leave. They know how to deal with team-disruptions, and can turn exits into opportunities: with solid backup plans, talent pools, maybe even internal succession plans.
Every manager should be ready to handle a resignation with dignity and without panicking.
Imagine the difference if every leaver felt safe to resign, knowing their manager would congratulate them and be ready to help the team adjust smoothly.
Shift the Mindset
Employee departures are often seen as a loss or setback. But they can also be moments of pride. A resignation usually means someone is ready for a role your company can’t currently offer. That’s not failure, it’s a sign of their growth 🧠.
Be proud of their contributions and the courage to embark on a new adventure. And if you’ve been their manager for some time, maybe you can be proud of yourself as well. You helped them build the skills and experience they needed to make this move, enabling them to transform their career or even life path! 💪🏽
What if someone doesn’t leave on good terms?
The most challenging goodbyes can be those where the employee leaves upset. When the departure wasn’t their own choice (re-organisation or redundancy), it was based on their performance or a clash with their manager. In these cases, it’s important to acknowledge that the friction tends to be between the organisation and the employee, not the employee and their team.
When it’s complicated, we suggest taking it case by case. Discuss with the team or the employee how they want to say goodbye, and what feels appropriate. Letting the team say farewell, and thanking someone for their efforts, is always possible. Over time, negative emotions will fade, but the memory of how you said goodbye will remain.
Gifts, Rituals & Events
Make sure you have a policy for gifts, to ensure the experience is somewhat fair. Decide how much the company wants to spend on a goodbye, often based on tenure. Ensure it’s taken care of - don’t leave it to chance. Some managers will simply forget or won’t put the effort in, and HR can help them a bit here.
🎁 Here are some examples - from our team and clients:
🤑 It’s not about the amount you spend, but more about the effort that goes into it. However, if you have a decent budget… we know of clients who give their leavers a weekend away in a fancy hotel. Hard to beat that experience!
Boomerangs and a Lasting Network
Employees don’t completely disappear. They remain part of the professional ecosystem. Team members who leave often become future clients, suppliers, partners, or even “boomerang hires” - returning one day with new experience and skills.
The fact is, they will talk about your company after they leave. How you treat them on the way out will, one way or another, impact the company’s reputation and network. Past employees can even become a fantastic resource for employee referrals.
👉 Offboarding is more than an administrative process. It’s a chance to create lifelong ambassadors. With turnover on the rise and employees moving between jobs so much more, you have to say goodbye the right way.
Let’s build irresistible organizations, where we do good goodbye’s.
