Identifying the behavior of each member of a team is fundamental for a Manager. Anticipating how each member is likely to behave when faced with a list of events enables you to adapt your individual management style, and thus provide a globally effective response for the whole team.

This is especially true when it comes to the departure of an employee.

The reason or conditions of this departure already give an idea of the potential state of mind of the "offboardee" during the few weeks of his offboarding.

Examples:

• if the offboardee is more often than not a "driving and constructive force" in the case of a conventional severance agreement
• whether it is "rather collaborative" in the case of a resigning employee on an open-ended contract or a trainee/employee at the end of a contract,
• if he is clearly counter-productive, or absent, if he has ever felt the victim of injustice and/or his departure is against his will.
  

Here are 5 states of mind that one of your offfboardees might adopt during the few weeks/months leading up to his or her departure from the company.

Offboarding the 1st in class employee 🤓

Typical employee profile: either the true "1st in class" who always does everything to the best of his ability, or "the suck-up".

Why this behavior in offboarding: if the 1st in class is wired that way, "the beaner" is looking for something in return (professional recognition from the manager, personal self-satisfaction, etc.).

Points of vigilance for the Manager: RAS for the 1st of class, on the other hand it is necessary to be vigilant on the quantity and the relevance of the contents produced by "the beaner" who can think "to be paid with the line" and to make some 🏔

Offboarding the dunce employee 😴

Typical employee profile: one who doesn't have a strong taste for effort, and who won't act unless it's in his or her own interest.

Why this behavior in offboarding: even though he knows his departure is certain, he asks himself "why bother preparing a handover when I'm not going to be here?

Watch out for the manager: he/she can only rely on him/herself, and on his/her hierarchical relationship, to give impetus to the employee's action. The manager needs to define the STRICTLY necessary tasks. 💡TIPS Komin: make him understand what he has to gain to put him to work.

Quality of its knowledge transfer Quality of knowledge transfer: it's possible to get good added value from it, but it takes a lot of sweat from the manager (is it worth it?) both to get "the dunce" to work, and to check the quality of the content produced.

Offboarding the rebellious employee 😡💀🤘

Typical employee profile: someone with a grudge against you or your company for something to do with their departure or something that happened before.

Why this behavior in offboarding: he imagines making you "pay for his injustice", by neglecting his handover or any other task that you might request as part of his offboarding.

Points of vigilance for the Manager: there is no point in forcing the rebel's hand, at the risk of making him a detractor and polluting the working atmosphere before he leaves, in which case there would be more to lose in terms of team productivity than to gain from poorly performed (or even cleverly sabotaged) tasks.

Quality of knowledge transfer: rebels are driven by emotion, so it's possible to "turn around" a rebel by finding the right words, or by getting the message(s) across through a more neutral interlocutor. In this case, the tasks he agrees to perform can be very useful

Offboarding the soft underbelly 😐

Typical employee profile: the one whose commitment has never been strong at his or her job, so from the moment his or her departure is recorded, commitment plummets all the more 📉... The "sleeping majority" of companies

Why this off-boarding behavior: he's never been passionate about his position, the company or even the team, so he doesn't project the usefulness of knowledge transfer for his successor/company/team.

Points of vigilance for the manager: cf. "Le cancre" ➡️ "(the manager) can only rely on himself, and on his hierarchical relationship, to give impetus to the employee's action. The manager should define the STRICTLY necessary tasks. 💡TIPS Komin: make him understand what he has to gain to put him to work"

Quality of his knowledge transfer: "soft underbelly" does not mean "unwillingness"; if he is guided and monitored, he can be a good element during his offboarding, the adjustment variable being the time you are willing to invest in him.

Offboarding absent employees 💨

Typical profile of the employee: the one who will be invited to find a new challenge elsewhere, when he or she would have liked to stay with the company (redundancies, certain company-initiated severance agreements, etc.). They leave the company with little or no notice/offboarding period.

Why this behavior in offboarding: at the request of the company or the employee, the cohabitation is cut short because the divorce is consummated between the parties. The employee may be hurt, the company may fear bad press...

Points of vigilance for the manager: he/she can formulate his/her expectations of the employee before he/she leaves, but must not make any demands. The absence of collaboration during offboarding should be weighed upstream in the decision to part company.

Quality of knowledge transfer: no employee = no offboarding, no offboarding = no knowledge transfer

Do you think there are other behaviors?

Komin.io supports companies in the transfer of knowledge between employees, particularly when it comes to offboarding. Arrivals and departures are part and parcel of corporate life. It's not that employees decide to leave, it's that the company doesn't value their knowledge and experience before they leave for good.

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