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When you have a lengthy process after hiring someone, you call that the "onboarding" process. Is the term "offboarding" correct for a lengthy end-of-contract process? Or what would that be called?

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I've not come across onboarding before today. Do you have a link that provides a definition? – coleopterist Dec 4 '12 at 15:53
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I'm tempted to suggest 'jettisoning...' – user867 Dec 5 '12 at 0:45

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The term "offboarding" refers to "Removing a user from an identity management system or downgrading the user's privileges." according to the Free Dictionary. I looked up the term on other websites, and they all concur. New York University even has an article titled "Offboarding Employees" where they discuss what to do when an employee leaves the company.

I hope this answers your question.

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Googling "hr offboarding" turns up enough hits to suggest it's a recognized term. – Wudang Dec 4 '12 at 15:59
Ah, I asked this on behalf of a coworker and it turns out he was convinced it wasn't due to Word's spellcheck recognizing "onboarding" but not "offboarding". Good to know spellcheck is, as usual, incorrect :) – Yamikuronue Dec 4 '12 at 16:01
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@Yamikuronue, I'm guessing someone had already added "onboarding" to the custom dictionary, but had not done the same for "offboarding". My copy of Word doesn't recognize either one as a single word. – Marthaª Dec 4 '12 at 18:23
@Marthaª -yes, I think perhaps as onboarding seems more used and the process referred to as "offboarding" is often buried in a maze of euphemisms. Eg at IBM, we had Career Transition Programs and goodness knows what else. – Wudang Dec 4 '12 at 19:04

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