PeopleMuster

How to run an offboarding so nothing is missed

An offboarding misses nothing when every step has an owner and a date counted back from the last day. PeopleMuster runs each exit as two tracked processes, one for the notice period and one for after the person has gone. You see who owns each step and whether it's done, and every device assigned to the leaver is already listed by serial.

Somebody hands in notice on a Tuesday. Their last day is four weeks out, and the work they hold has to move to somebody else before then.

What goes missing is rarely dramatic. A laptop never comes back. An account stays open. A client keeps emailing someone who left in March. Each gap turns up months later, usually by accident.

In PeopleMuster, offboarding starts from a reusable checklist template, run as a process against the leaver. Each process shows its state, its progress as steps resolved out of the total, the assignee, who started it and how old it is. A second template, Post-Offboarding, holds the steps that can only happen once they've gone.

The part teams underestimate is leave during notice. Four weeks of notice with a week of approved leave inside it is three weeks of handover, and the leave screen shows that before you plan around the wrong number. The device list matters for the same reason: it was written at handover, so it's complete on the day notice is given.

Why one record instead of two

An exit is the join running in reverse under a deadline. The leaver's remaining days fall off the capacity plan. Their projects need a new owner. Their devices are listed against the same record HR is closing. With one database, you see the delivery cost of a resignation on the day notice is given, weeks before the last day.

What is switched on

SOPs and checklists
Notice-period steps and after-the-fact steps run as two separate tracked processes.
Devices
Everything assigned to the leaver is listed against their name, so recovery is a list rather than a memory.
Projects
Whatever they hold has to be reassigned before the last day, and the project record shows what that is.
Resource allocation
Their remaining days come off the plan, which shows who absorbs the gap.
Leave
Unused quota is visible, and leave taken during notice shortens the handover further.
Activity log
Access and record changes are recorded with before and after values.

What the week looks like

  1. Day of notice

    Start the off-boarding process against the leaver. The last day becomes the date every step counts back from.

  2. Week one

    Reassign project work. The capacity plan shows where the load lands and whether that person is already full.

  3. Week two

    Check their leave balance. Leave during notice is common, and it eats the handover you planned.

  4. Final week

    Walk the device list. Every assigned item is named with a serial, so nothing depends on recall.

  5. Last day

    Take the device back and mark it available again. Access is withdrawn as its own step.

  6. After the last day

    Start the post-offboarding process for the steps that could only happen once they had gone.

Questions people ask

What should an employee offboarding checklist include?

Project handover, recovery of every assigned device, access withdrawal, a check of remaining leave, and the steps that follow the last day. PeopleMuster runs those as tracked steps with an owner each, and the free offboarding checklist template lists them in order.

What happens to the leaver's project work?

The project record shows what they hold, and their remaining days come off the capacity plan. You can see who absorbs the work before the handover starts.

How do we make sure the laptop comes back?

Every device is assigned to a named person in the register, with its serial. Offboarding walks that list, so you answer the question from a record rather than from memory.

Why two processes instead of one?

Some steps can only happen after the person has gone. Splitting them keeps the notice-period list short enough that people finish it.

Can we reuse the process for the next leaver?

Yes. The template stays, and each exit starts a fresh process from it. Filter running processes by employee, template, assignee or project, and two exits in the same month never blur together.

Where to go next