Zeiss: 'A structured and personal offboarding process using the Appical platform'
Offering employees a good send-off is an important part of the employee experience. That's why it is important to have a structured program for departing employees. Implementing an offboarding program facilitates the smooth transfer of responsibilities and knowledge, and gives HR time to gather useful feedback. See how Zeiss successfully implemented their offboarding program with the help of the Appical app.
Offboarding at the international leader in optics
ZEISS has been providing solutions in the field of optics and opto-electronics for more than 170 years. They are a global leader in their field and develop technological innovations for the semiconductor, automotive and mechanical industries. The organization has more than 33,000 employees worldwide, of whom 150 work in the Benelux countries.
In 2016, Zeiss started using the Appical platform for the onboarding of new hires. This case however, explores the end of an employment relationship: the offboarding. Again, the Appical platform plays an important role. Sasja Luijk, HR Manager Benelux, shows us what a good offboarding process at ZEISS looks like.
A structured offboarding experience
“Our offboarding at ZEISS lacked structure, specifically the exit interviews. We had a form with questions, but the entire process – from the moment someone would indicate they were leaving until their last day at work – was not very structured", says Sasja Luijk.
To improve the offboarding process, Zeiss started with a number of important questions:
- Who is responsible for the entire process, the supervisor or HR?
- What can we learn from the departing employee?
- How can we get honest and open feedback?
- Are all departing employees required to give feedback?
Feedback to improve the employee retention rate
"We felt it was important to get feedback about our culture, development opportunities, the supervisor/management, the working conditions and about employee benefits.“
The team carefully looked at the topics that should always be discussed. "Those are topics that we in our role can actively change, based on the feedback received, to improve the employee retention rate."
The team from ZEISS decided to include all our departing employees in the offboarding process; even those employees who leave on a less than voluntary basis can also provide valuable feedback.
Why did you decide on a digital tool?
“The advantage of the Appical app is that the employees can give their feedback at any time during the offboarding process,” says Luijk. “The result is that we get more extensive feedback than during one exit interview. An exit interview still forms a part of the offboarding process, but it no longer specifically focuses on getting feedback.”
“One important option in the offboarding app is that the employees can add an additional feedback field, in which they can discuss other issues than the themes that we had added. We see that many departing ZEISS employees make use of this option. The app also allows us to send employees an automatic reminder if they have not yet submitted their feedback.”
Advantages of the offboarding app
- The most common feedback is that people feel that it is super easy to give feedback via the app
- Employees can give feedback at a time that suits them, this results in more and more honest feedback
- We receive valuable feedback to implement future improvements
- The entire process is clear for all the stakeholders and all the roles and responsibilities are defined
- Appical allows you to add a team photograph or video and personalised text. The goal is to offer each departing employee a personalised experience
What employees say about Appical
"The advantage of the Appical app is that the employees can give their feedback at any time during the offboarding process. The result is that we get more extensive feedback than during one exit interview."
Welcome to the Offboarding app
Offboarding: Step by step
Honest Feedback
