Onboarding vs Offboarding

It always amazes me when companies offboard employees in such a brutal manner.

Let me start with this isn't something that JDP have always got right, and as a relatively new sole business owner, it is something that I have vowed to get better at; although I really hope I do not have to do it very often!

In the past few months I have had two exceptionally popular and amazing crew members leave the business. Jess who had been with JDP for 3 and a half years and Maddie Hunt for almost 5 years. Both of whom, if you asked me earlier this year, I would have sworn would be with JDP forever as we had been through so much together. So when I hear about the Great Australian Resignation that is going to happen in Australia - I 100% believe it.

Anyway, when Jess informed me on a Sunday (whilst we were having drinks during game 2 State of Origin) that she was leaving JDP, I will be honest I was not expecting to hear that at all. I spent the rest of the night trying to talk her around and when the news finally settled in, my thoughts were, JDP is in a far better place today than when she joined, so for that I should be grateful and not upset.

"JDP is in a far better place today, than what it was than when they joined, so for that I should be grateful"

Very similar to when Maddie told me she was moving to Salesforce, I was actually genuinely happy for her, very sad for me and the JDP business, but happy for the five years that we got to know each other, work together and that I could be part of her amazing story. Maddie had done an amazing job in the UI/UX space in Brisbane and having only been the second person within JDP to work this space (taking over from Jared) created one of our most successful desks and opened the path for Reese to continue.

My point?

When a new person joins a business, the red carpet is rolled out. Every company wants to put their best foot forward. They put a nice gift box on the desk (or sent to their house), with a mug, a pen, some chocolates and some even make a big deal about giving someone a nice new laptop (very generous of you to give something to work with lol). Anyway, it is great to see the amount of effort companies will go to, to make someone feel truly welcome when they join a business.

However, when someone resigns (and I have seen this happen far to often), that same person is often made to feel like a leper and ostracised from a business where they have given so much of their time, their blood, sweat and often tears doing their job, yet they are marched out the door and ignored by the very people they have worked with so closely over the years, and this is lead from the top down.

I know from personal experience the impacts this has, and for one I believe that off-boarding should be more important than on-boarding, after all the person has already proved to the business what they can do.

So I wanted both Jess and Maddie to leave JDP in the best possible manner. We threw a thank you 'good bye party', cranked the music up and celebrated for all that they did for JDP. I am super grateful to both and I always will be.

Not that I want to encourage anyone else to leave, but I think everyone who currently works for JDP knows, that if they do leave, the door will always be open to come back and as importantly, I will always be here to chat with them, help them, guide and assist in anyway that I can with their future career.

Any company that kicks you out the door after you leave, ignores you, well the question is, is that really a company you would want to work for again and more so, recommend to another person? Also, if your company does this to other people, what makes you think they will not to you?

Companies please get your offboarding right. Let us start treating people with respect and not just at the time that you want something from them.

With the Great Australian Resignation 'that is coming', it is something that you need to start thinking about.