Offboarding: The new way of exit management

health at work health@work
Dr.-Ing. Judith Elsner in health@work article

The fact that millions of baby boomers are retiring further intensifies the shortage of skilled workers even more. Companies are examining whether and how "the old ones" can be reactivated. Appreciative offboarding increases the chance of successful "bring-back" campaigns.

Download the whole article here in German. 

Find a brief summary of the article below. 

Return of retirees

The proportion of retirees who continue to work is rising, according to the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), the proportion of retirees who continue to work is continuously. The reason for this is the growing demand from companies that particularly value skilled workers at an older age because of their years of experience and know-how. 

Building bridges

Saying goodbye to working life is a drastic experience. A new phase of life begins, old contacts and routines are lost, and health or financial problems may also arise. Offboarding is a good way for the so-called "retiring talents" to start the new phase of their lives in a happy and structured way. On the part of employers, it is particularly important to value and cooperate with older employees until their last day of work. Similar to recruiting young, up-and-coming talents, the aim is to draw attention to offers of continued employment in retirement. 

Updating Skills

The key to offboarding is to offer employees the opportunity to upgrade their skills, whether they are retiring and want to continue working on a part-time basis or younger employees who have to have to change their job position. In 2019, Rolls-Royce Power Systems in cooperation with the HECTOR School of Engineering & Management at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) started the transfer qualification of mechanical engineers. So far, about 100 employees have taken advantage of the offer and thus improved their chances on the job market, both internally and externally. For example, engineers who previously built classic engines now develop local energy networks known as microgrids.

A harmonious seperation culture pays off

The effort involved in offboarding pays off in many respects. If the outgoing employee is made to feel valued by the company, he or she is more likely to be willing to make a clean handover and documentation. In this way, potential new candidates can be trained more easily and quickly. In addition, former employees are always ambassadors of the company and the aim is to keep the attractiveness of the employer high. A healthy and harmonious separation culture between departing employees and the company is a win-win situation for both sides. The former employees find their way more quickly and confidently into the new job and remain on good terms with the previous company so that friendly contact can be ensured in the future despite the separation.

 

Download the whole article here in German.

Source: health∂work, January 2023