Offboarding a contingent worker? Make sure you don’t miss these steps

When it’s time to say goodbye to your contingent worker, having a checklist of items to complete will help ensure a smooth transition, which makes for a positive experience for you and your contract worker. Having an offboarding process also helps in reducing risk and ensuring business continuity because you’re taking steps to make sure contingent workers don’t leave with company-owned assets and data.

While every organization is different, this checklist provides a general guide of key elements to consider when offboarding a contingent worker.

From notifying the right people to ensuring a clean handoff of duties and responsibilities, use this checklist as a guide to making sure you’re covering all your bases when offboarding a contingent worker.

1. Create an offboarding plan

Once you’ve notified the relevant parties, it’s time to start putting together an offboarding plan. This should include a timeline of when specific tasks need to be completed, as well as who is responsible for each task.

Some tasks that should be included in the offboarding plan are:

• Arranging for the return of company property, such as laptops, phones, and ID badges
• Transferring duties and responsibilities to another employee
• Removing the contingent worker from company email lists and systems
• Updating company records
• Conducting an exit interview
• Updating HR records

2. Notify HR and IT

Notify HR and IT as soon as the decision to begin the offboarding process so that there’s ample time to prepare. This includes HR, the IT department, and any other relevant parties. This allows everyone to prepare for the offboarding process on their end.

Among the tasks that need to be done by HR are:

• Reviewing the employee’s file for any outstanding items, such as final pay or vacation days
• Updating HR records
• Conducting an exit interview

The IT department will need to:

• Remove the contingent worker from email lists and systems
• Disable the employee’s access to company systems and data
• Return of company property, such as laptops, phones, and ID badges

Other departments may be responsible for making sure that the contingent worker returns company property, such as laptops, phones, ID badges, credit cards, keys, and other items that were issued to the contingent worker by the company.

For team or project-specific software licenses or online tools access, it will be the responsibility of the supervisor managing the contingent worker to ensure that these are either transferred to another team member or canceled.

3. Give notice to the contingent worker

After you’ve created an offboarding plan, it’s time to give notice to the contingent worker. Depending on the contract they signed, they may be required to give a certain amount of notice before their last day. This allows them to have time to transition out of their role and wrap up any loose ends.

Be sure to review the contract to see how much notice is required, and give them plenty of time to do what they need to do. You could also provide them with a copy of the offboarding plan so they know what to expect.

4. Get them to transfer of duties and responsibilities

Another key task on the offboarding checklist is transferring the contingent worker’s duties and responsibilities to another employee. If the contingent worker has been working on a one-off project, this may simply involve documenting what they’ve done so far.

However, if they’re responsible for ongoing work, you’ll need to make sure there’s a knowledge transfer plan in place for someone to take over those duties. This may involve training the new employee or working with them closely in the transition period.

Documentation is extremely important at this stage, especially if you’re working with highly-skilled independent contractors. Ensure that the contingent worker prepares clear and concise documentation of their work, processes, and procedures. Provide time for questions and make sure that the new employee feels comfortable with the transition.

5. Conduct an exit interview

Exit interviews are a key part of the offboarding process, as they provide valuable insights into the contingent worker or employee experience with companies. Many organizations use this feedback to improve the onboarding process for future contingent workers in other projects.

When conducting an exit interview, be sure to ask open-ended questions and give the employee ample time to provide feedback. Some questions you can ask them are:

• Their overall experience working with your organization
• The nature of their work and whether they felt it was in line with their skills and experience
• The quality of the equipment and resources they were provided with
• Whether they felt supported by their supervisor or manager
• The working environment and whether they felt it was conducive to productivity
• Their compensation and whether they felt it was fair and competitive
• The opportunity for training and development while working with your organization
• The length of their assignment and whether they would have liked it to be longer or shorter
• Whether they would recommend working with your organization to others

Final thoughts

The offboarding process for your contingent workforce is similar to the process for regular employees, with a few key differences. Be sure to review the contract they signed to determine the amount of notice they need to give and transfer their duties and responsibilities to another employee. Additionally, conduct an exit interview to get feedback on their experience working with your business.