15+ Crucial Offboarding Statistics [2023]: Why Offboarding Matters

Post A Job For Free, Promote It For A Fee

Research Summary: While everyone knows about the importance of effective onboarding, discussions about offboarding are few and far between. This is a shame, as professional offboarding practices are essential for any successful business.

From mitigating security risks to maintaining a positive reputation, there are many benefits associated with effective offboarding. To find out more, we’ve gathered an extensive list of offboarding statistics. According to our extensive research:

71% of organizations have no formal offboarding process.
20% of businesses have experienced data breaches connected to former employees.
32% of organizations have a partially automated offboarding process, while only 5% have a fully automated process.
76% of IT leaders strongly agree that offboarding is a significant security threat.

For further analysis, we broke down the data in the following ways:
General | Security | Exit Interview

General Offboarding Statistics

The majority of businesses have no formal offboarding process, meaning that the importance of offboarding is widely ignored and misunderstood. To find out more about the general importance of offboarding, here are some essential facts:

The annual employee turnover rate in the US is 18%.

This means that if a company has 100 employees, it could expect to lose and replace 18 of those employees each year. In turn, a company could replace nearly all of its employees after only five years.
58% of organizations have a formal onboarding process.

Companies are far more likely to prioritize onboarding over offboarding, as only 29% have a formal offboarding process (around half that of the companies with onboarding processes).
15% of employees have boomeranged back to a former employer.

With another 40% saying they would consider boomeranging back to a former employer. This consensus is especially prevalent with younger generations, with millennials being far more likely to say they’d boomerang.

Generation Share who would consider returning to a former employer

Millennials 46%

Gen X 33%

Baby Boomers 29%
Average employee work duration in the US has decreased by 4.1 years.

Offboarding becomes increasingly important when workers stay in positions for shorter durations and, ultimately, when turnover is higher.

Generation	Share who would consider returning to a former employer
Millennials	46%
Gen X	33%
Baby Boomers	29%

Offboarding and Security Statistics

Security is paramount to why having a formal offboarding process is so important. Former employees can hold a lot of power over businesses in a potentially negative way. For example:

89% of former employees still have access to private business apps and data.

This includes QuickBooks, Salesforce, and other vitally important company apps. And, given that 18% average turnover per year, that equates to a significant number of former employees with access after only a few years.
50% of former employee accounts remain active for longer than one day after departure.

With a further 25% of accounts remaining active for a week or longer and the remaining 25% remaining active for an unknown length of time.
60% of data breaches are caused by insider threats.

Former employees having access to data can be dangerous, as human error alone is responsible for over 80% of all breaches. This issue is true regardless of whether the threat is accidental or purposeful, as 44.5% of insider data breaches are malicious, and 15.5% are accidental.
70% of company IP theft occurs 90 days before employee resignation.

There’s nothing more dangerous than someone who has nothing to lose, and this is especially true for employees. However, a proper offboarding process would help ensure that access to private information and motivation to steal said information is reduced.

Exit Interview Statistics

Exit interviews can be a useful way for businesses to gather important information from former employees. However, this doesn’t mean exit interviews are implemented as often or as effectively as businesses would like. Here are the facts:

70.9% of exit interviews are conducted by HR.

The vast majority of exit interviews are handled by HR departments. Only 19% are conducted by direct supervisors, and 8.9% by the direct supervisor’s manager.

Person handling the exit interview Share of exit interviews

HR 70.9%

Direct supervisor 19%

Direct supervisor’s manager 8.9%

External consultant 1%
The exit interview participation rate stands between 30-35%.

This means that if a company experienced the typical 18% yearly turnover rate with 500 employees, they could expect to see only 25-35 exit interviews completed per year.
The in-person exit interview participation rate may be as low as 15%.

Employees are far less likely to participate in exit interviews in-person than they would be online. There are many factors that may contribute to this, including convenience, comfort, and more.
93% of employees believe that their exit feedback is important.

In spite of low participation rates, employees still seem to acknowledge the value of their feedback. For instance, 87% of exiting employees believe their feedback can help others.

Person handling the exit interview	Share of exit interviews
HR	70.9%
Direct supervisor	19%
Direct supervisor’s manager	8.9%
External consultant	1%

Offboarding Statistics FAQ

Why is offboarding important?

Offboarding is important because it mitigates security risks and is beneficial to the business’ brand. In more detail:
- Security. Given that the majority of data breaches are caused by human error, and most former employees receive a day or more after leaving to access work accounts, maintaining security can become a huge issue.
  
  Offboarding allows companies to remove old accounts and ensure that all account-related ties are cut with former employees.
- Branding. Having an effective offboarding process often leaves a more positive impression on former employees, making them more likely to write positive reviews about your business and report positive feedback to others.
- Networking. 15% of employees have boomeranged back to a former employer, and a proper offboarding process can help employers keep track of contact information and ultimately maintain beneficial networking relationships.
What is a good offboarding process?

A good offboarding process follows six crucial steps that prioritize communication and security. These six steps, in order, include:
- Communicating the termination
- Providing information to employees (final paycheck, benefits, 401K, exit interview process, returning company-owned equipment etc.)
- Plan for how to transition the employee’s responsibilities, customers, etc., to others in the company
- Conduct an exit interview
- Leave a positive impression and foster a fruitful networking connection
What are the goals of employee offboarding?

Good goals for employee offboarding include improving security and building your company’s brand. In the short and long term, here are some positive goals that can be achieved through effective offboarding:
- Reducing security risks
- Preventing legal issues
- Effectively allocating responsibilities to others
- Managing logistical challenges
- Fostering a positive relationship with former employees
- Gaining new business connections
- Securing positive reviews from former employees
- Implementing helpful feedback from former employees
- Strengthening positive brand recognition
These are just a few examples of the goals a company can look to achieve when committing to a formal offboarding process, and there are likely many more detailed goals associated with specific sectors and industries.

Conclusion

Despite the benefits of offboarding, 71% of businesses still doesn’t have a formal offboarding process. This is unfortunate, as a lack of offboarding increases security risks and misses out on the many benefits of fostering a positive relationship with former employees.

For example, 20% of businesses have experienced data breaches connected to former employees, and 70% of company IP theft occurs 90 days before an employee’s resignation. These issues can be addressed and mitigated through an effective offboarding process that prioritizes security and fosters positive relationships.

Ultimately, offboarding is an undervalued and overlooked process that is highly beneficial for businesses of all sizes.

References

Statistics

Author

Jack Flynn

Jack Flynn is a writer for Zippia. In his professional career he’s written over 100 research papers, articles and blog posts. Some of his most popular published works include his writing about economic terms and research into job classifications. Jack received his BS from Hampshire College.