Is there a logical umbrella term for onboarding and offboarding?

Question

I'm creating documentation that describes both the process of onboarding new team members (e.g. creating accounts for required resources, locating, installing and configuring required software, finding the right person to talk to for a particular request), and also the process of offboarding departing members (e.g. revoking access to resources, ensuring completed work is stored in an appropriate location).

Ideally I'd like to arrange this documentation in a hierarchy, where these two processes seem to naturally sit under headings of "onboarding" and "offboarding," or in simpler English, "joining" and "leaving."

I'm looking for something that would be a top-level (umbrella) term to place both these headings under - descriptiveness is more important than brevity.

I'd rather avoid things like "HR Processes" as these contain things that the new team members, and other team members need to do that don't really feel to me like they fit under human resources' purview.

Obviously I could just use a heading like "Onboarding/Offboarding" but if there's a suitable umbrella term I'd much rather use that.

Answer 1

In my work places we've used 'transition,' 'transition process' or 'workplace transition' as an umbrella for both terms.

If the changes all relate to the same type of positions (employees, contractors, interns, etc..) then it could be 'employee transition'

Hope that helps (albeit belatedly).

Answer 2

This sounds like an employee transition plan:

Employee transition plans are a living documents that managers use to structure an organizational transition. Whether an employee is leaving their role or starting a new one, a transition plan can help streamline all processes involved. Overall, such plans can help managers set up actionable steps within organizational shifts and guide transitioning employees toward success. — Indeed

In fact, when I started my job I received a file with notes from the former employee titled "[Former employee name] transition document".

Answer 3

As these terms are abominations, invented to inflict mental torture on lovers of the English language, one is free to invent whatever portmanteau term one likes.

This could reflect the apparent nautical origins of the original, e.g.

Naval manœuvres

Waterboarding

The basic problem with the root of these abominations is that “boarding” has the same meaning as that derived from the phrase “to go onboard” and cannot be used. If one wishes to retain the “board”, all I can think of is:

bordello

although the spelling is different, and it is not really English.

If one considers the nautical analogy carefully, then:

gangplank traversal

suggests itself. If a single word is required, the Scots “ganging” might serve, although I imagine the plankers (sp? perhaps it should have an ‘o’.) would make a verb of the noun. A physical scientist would just label the section “Max”.

The actual nautical terms (thankfully not prostituted for this purpose) are embarking and disembarking. In this case the root seems not inappropriate:

barking

(An additional three-letter word is optional.)

The ridiculous name now given to the department rejoices in this:

Inhuman resource deployment

would reflect my own experience.

Doorkeeping

seems another possibility.

Alternatively one could try to translate the original into English, for example “Hiring and Firing” or, to avoid the implication of dismissal, “Hail and Farewell”, in which case the portmanteau term:

Halitosis

has much to recommend it. (I don’t need to explain the toe reference, do I?).

However if one really want something compact one would probably need to use a multi-syllable latinate word. As a chemist

Transition states

suggests itself. One would hope that, as in chemistry, thet don’t stay around too long.

But perhaps “transition” is too Latin, and the poster may have mentioned it, so to end here is an Anglo-Saxon suggestion (or perhaps not, on reflection, but older anyway, and only two syllables):

crossings

Sounds a bit like a collection of short stories, or the title of a record album, but if you didn’t like the others…