The art of offboarding: How to leave a lasting impression
Onboarding (the process of orienting a new employee to the workplace) gets all the love. But offboarding (the process of transitioning an employee as they leave)? That’s where the long game begins. Think of it as the beginning of an employee’s long-term relationship with your company.
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This guide draws on years of experience supporting thousands of co-op students and employers through the University of Waterloo’s Co-operative and Experiential Education (CEE) program.
We’ve pulled real-world examples from employers who have worked closely with co-op students, including Dayforce, Ceragen, BlueMetric, Teck Resources and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan to give you a helpful offboarding toolkit.
While this guide is designed with students' work terms in mind, the tips here are also helpful for offboarding full-time employees.
1. Beyond goodbyes
What does offboarding really mean?
Offboarding, the process an organization follows when an employee leaves, is more than collecting a laptop and deleting email accounts. It’s how you support your co-op students through the final weeks of their work term – wrapping up projects, sharing feedback, saying goodbye and keeping the connection alive.
While onboarding helps students start strong, offboarding shapes how they remember your organization, how they talk about their experience and whether they come back for another work term (or send their friends your way).
Done effectively, offboarding:
- Reinforces a positive impression of your organization
- Provides opportunities for feedback and learning
- Opens the door for future engagement, return work terms or full-time roles
- Generates positive student feedback, reviews and referrals
- Builds a network of campus ambassadors who promote your brand
- Strengthens your overall talent strategy and supports long-term hiring success
Providing an excellent offboarding experience leads to positive results. According to a 2024 Gallup study, employees who are extremely satisfied with their exit experience are:
At Dayforce, we have a co-op to full-time conversion rate of more than 50 per cent. And our secret is a mix of proactive planning, structured offboarding cycle and a culture that sees co-op students as long-term talent and not just short-term help.
2. Give and gather feedback
Offboarding begins long before a student’s final day. The first step to leaving a positive impression is to make feedback part of the entire co-op journey, from the first check-in to the final evaluation.
During the term
Build feedback into check-ins and 1:1s
Regular, thoughtful feedback helps students grow, build confidence and stay engaged. Use check-ins to review progress and identify areas where they may need extra support.
Encourage reflections
Prompt students to pause and reflect on what they’re learning, where they’re excelling and if there are new skill areas they want to develop.
Record student wins
Throughout the work term, keep a running list of student accomplishments. You can celebrate these wins later and they serve as a reference point for future evaluations.
- Kevin Chen, engineering manager, Veeva
- Jaden Noronha, Faculty of Math co-op student
At the end of the term
Conduct an exit interview
An exit interview is a short, structured conversation held before an employee’s final day to gather feedback about their experience. These conversations can help you to grow as a supervisor – they give you insight into the employee experience and what can be improved. Ask the employee what they liked about their work term and what could be improved for next time. The answers may surprise you and help you to improve the co-op experience for future student hires.
See our tools and templates for sample questions you can ask to help you get the most out of the conversation.
Complete a final evaluation
A student’s final evaluation is a key step in the offboarding process. It’s where you get the chance to review a student’s performance at the end of the work term. Use this time to reflect on a student's areas of strength and areas for development. Talk about what went well, ask what they learned and how their projects connected to their academic goals.
See the Student Performance Evalution (SPE) tool.
Talk about next steps
Check in with students to understand their interest in returning for another work term or exploring full-time roles. Don’t miss the chance to have a conversation about their future with your organization. You can also ask about other future plans such as grad school.
3. Recognize and celebrate
When you recognize students for their work, you build confidence and make students know that they are valued and part of the team. It also reflects positively on your workplace culture.
Celebration is one of the most underrated retention tools, especially for students when they are finding their place in the workforce. It makes them feel seen and valued.
Shoutouts and high-fives
Make celebration and recognition an ongoing effort, not just a send-off gesture. Recognizing co-op students for their contributions builds confidence. It boosts morale across your organization and shows future hires that your workplace values employees.
There’s no single way to celebrate. Here are a few ways employers make recognition meaningful:
Invite students to present their work
Give students the spotlight. Invite them to present their projects and impact to leadership or their team. This not only helps them feel seen and appreciated, it also helps to build their presentation skills and understanding of the impact of their work.
“We provide students with the opportunity to give a presentation at the end of their work term. That presentation culminates in an offboarding celebration where they all receive thank-you gifts.”
— Masaki Miyoshi, lead, campus talent acquisition, Teck Resources Ltd.
Include students in company awards
If your company has existing awards, include co-op students in the nomination process. You can also create a separate category to recognize outstanding student contributions.
“We include our co-op students in our broader employee population, and this includes involving them in nominations for our existing recognition programs. For example, an engineering student won our Teachers’ Values Award, which is usually won by only about four or five employees a year.”
— Minami Alguire, manager, campus talent acquisition, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan
Consulting engineering firm, Crozier has the ‘Crozier Way Scholarship’ that is awarded annually to a co-op student who exemplifies the company’s core values.
Amplify students' achievements
Share co-op students' accomplishments and feature their work in a team email, newsletter or your company's social media pages.
Fairfax celebrates co-op students during employee appreciation month and annual meetings. The company spotlights student achievements through its internal communication platforms.
Nominating co-op students for the Co-op Student of the Year award is a great way to show that the organization values their contributions. The Employer Impact Awards also offer an opportunity to highlight how students made a difference within your organization.
Host a farewell lunch or casual team send-off
End on a high note by wrapping up the term with a farewell event – this can be lunch, a party or a small team gathering.
“At the end of their work term, we have a social party to celebrate them (co-op students). We also give them completion certificates, including digital versions that can be shared on LinkedIn.”
—Minami Alguire, manager, campus talent acquisition, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan
4. Transition smoothly
A thoughtful handover ensures continuity. By capturing key knowledge, resources and advice, the next incoming co-op students can hit the ground running when they start.
Your last co-op student is the strongest launchpad for the next. Tap into their experience, make them part of the transition and ensure knowledge doesn’t slip through the cracks.
Guide students to prepare simple handovers
Before students wrap up their work terms, have them document what they’ve worked on, key learnings and tips. Having the document on hand makes it easier for the next co-op student to pick up where they left off.
Include key files, workflows and project next steps
Keep important documents, links and processes organized and easy to access, so the next student can dive in without having to start from scratch.
Invite the exiting co-op student to help train and onboard the next student
Peer-to-peer handovers make transitions smoother. Let outgoing students share insights and walk new co-op students through key projects.
5. Open doors, keep connections
The co-op term ends, but the relationship doesn’t have to be over. Use the end of the term to help students build their network, explore career options and stay connected.
Offer career support
Support your co-op students as they take their next steps, whether they are returning to school, applying for graduate programs or exploring full-time roles.
Recommend networking opportunities
Share relevant industry connections, communities or events to help students expand their network and find future opportunities.
Revisit earlier 1:1s to personalize suggestions
Use what you’ve learned during the term to suggest next steps or opportunities tailored to their career interests.
Host an internal career fair
If you have early talent or graduate pathways, you can host a career fair near the end of the work term to let students know what’s available within your company and how they can apply.
Stay connected
Keeping relationships alive after the work term helps you build a strong talent network and shows students that they’re part of something bigger.
Encourage students to follow your company on LinkedIn
Make it easy for students to stay updated on company news and future opportunities by inviting them to connect with you on LinkedIn and follow your organization.
Invite students to join mentorship programs or talent pools
Offer ongoing growth by pairing students with mentors or adding them to talent pools for future roles within your organization.
Set up a previous employee alumni program
Build a community for former co-op students to stay connected. Alumni programs can offer exclusive events, learning opportunities and ways to give back.
Ask students to refer peers for future co-op roles
Great students know other great students. Leverage co-op students as ambassadors, encourage them to recommend friends and classmates who could be a great fit for future roles.
6. Start strong, end stronger
Offboarding is your chance to turn great students into future hires and build a network of brand advocates who’ll keep your company top of mind long after their work term ends. Make it count.
It’s not just about work experience, it’s about creating a positive, holistic life experience that students remember and talk about. Our goal is for all students to return to campus with a story that makes their peers say, ‘I want to work at Teck too’.