New Report Finds Corporate Offboarding Processes Struggling to Keep Pace with More Frequent Workforce Restructuring

Onwards HR research finds 94% of organizations surveyed lack fully automated or integrated offboarding as companies navigate more complex workforce change

ATLANTA, GA, UNITED STATES, October 7, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Workforce restructuring is becoming less of an occasional corporate event and more of an ongoing business reality, as companies respond to economic pressures, technological change, AI-driven job redesign and shifting workforce needs. But new research suggests the systems used to manage the people side of those changes haven’t kept pace.

More than 1.2 million U.S. employees experienced layoffs in 2025, according to data cited in the new 2026 Workforce Transition Benchmark Report from Onwards HR. At the same time, organizations are managing restructurings, role redesigns, voluntary separation programs and routine employee departures across increasingly distributed workforces.

Against that backdrop, the Onwards HR research found that 94% of organizations surveyed have not reached a fully automated or fully integrated offboarding process, while 52% say more than half of their offboarding and severance process still requires manual effort.

The findings point to a growing operational challenge: workforce change is becoming more continuous and complex, while the processes companies rely on to execute employee transitions often remain fragmented across people, departments and systems.

“The way companies restructure their organizations has changed faster than the way they manage the resulting workforce transitions,” said Sarah Rodehorst, CEO and Co-Founder of Onwards HR. “Restructuring is becoming a more continuous part of business, driven by everything from economic conditions to AI and changing workforce needs. But many organizations are still managing the exit side of that change through manual processes and disconnected systems. The more frequently companies restructure, the harder that gap becomes to manage.”

Conducted in partnership with SHRM, the research examines how organizations manage employee separations, severance, compliance and workforce transitions as those responsibilities become a more regular part of business operations.

More Workforce Change Means More Complexity
As workforce transitions become more frequent, the operational burden extends well beyond issuing a final paycheck or terminating system access.
A single workforce reduction can require companies to coordinate employee data, severance calculations, payroll, benefits, legal review, required notices, agreements, signatures, communications and IT access — sometimes across multiple states or countries and involving HR, Legal, Finance, Payroll, IT and managers.

The research suggests many organizations are managing that complexity through a patchwork of systems and manual processes. Sixty-six percent of organizations surveyed use two or more tools to manage employee separations, and nearly four in 10 use three or more.

Compliance becomes more complicated as workforces’ cross jurisdictions. Among respondents who answered the question, 61% cited state-specific separation notice requirements as a source of compliance difficulty, 49% pointed to managing a multi-state or multi-country workforce and 43% cited the challenge of keeping templates and agreements current as laws change.

Yet much of that work remains dependent on people and manual checks. Only 10% of respondents reported using dedicated compliance software. When determining WARN and mini-WARN requirements during workforce reductions, 49% said HR manually checks government guidance, while just 12% reported using software that tracks thresholds in real time.

The Human Challenge Goes Beyond Technology
One of the report’s most notable findings involved people rather than systems.
Fifty-five percent of respondents identified manager preparedness and script compliance as a top challenge in severance and offboarding, making it the most selected challenge. Cross-functional coordination followed at 40%, while 36% cited maintaining consistency across locations or business units.

The effects of a poorly managed transition can also extend well beyond the departing employee. Fifty-eight percent of respondents associated negative offboarding experiences with decreased morale among remaining employees, while 55% cited legal disputes or complaints, 49% cited negative employer-brand reviews and 47% pointed to the loss of potential boomerang employees.

Many Organizations Wait Until Risk Becomes Visible
Despite the potential consequences, the research identified a reactive pattern in how organizations address workforce-transition processes and technology.
Forty percent said a compliance issue, close call or EEOC complaint could trigger evaluation of a dedicated solution. At the same time, 40% cited having experienced “no significant problem yet” as a reason they have not adopted one.

“‘Nothing has gone wrong yet’ isn’t the same as having a resilient process,” Rodehorst said. “When workforce change becomes more frequent, organizations have more opportunities for something to fall through the cracks. If the trigger for modernization is a compliance problem or costly mistake, the organization is already responding too late.”

The potential costs are not theoretical. Among respondents, 53% said severance calculation or separation agreement errors had occurred, although rarely, while another 6% said they occurred occasionally. Fifteen percent said their organizations do not track error frequency. Among defined error types, incorrect severance calculations were the most commonly reported, selected by 42% of respondents who answered the question.

Companies See Automation as Part of the Solution
When asked where automation could provide the greatest benefit, 61% of respondents selected compliance and 61% selected document generation and management, followed by severance calculations and documentation at 54%.

Respondents identified state-specific document generation, a single platform coordinating HR, Legal, Finance and Payroll, direct HRIS integration and automated severance calculations among the biggest gaps in current offboarding technology.

Open-ended responses also pointed to potential applications of artificial intelligence, including monitoring changing compliance requirements, surfacing relevant information and flagging areas that may require attention — while keeping HR and Legal professionals in control of review and decision-making.
The findings suggest that the next stage of workforce transition management will require more than automating individual tasks.

As workforce changes become more frequent, organizations will need processes that connect teams and systems, embed compliance into workflows, maintain consistent documentation and better prepare managers to navigate difficult employee conversations.
Read the 2026 Workforce Transition Benchmark Report.

About Onwards HR
Trusted by more than 60,000 HR and Legal professionals, including teams at Fortune 500 companies, Onwards HR helps organizations navigate every type of employee separation — from individual exits to complex, large-scale workforce reductions — with the precision and care these moments demand.
Onwards HR helps organizations ensure employee separations are compliant, consistent and compassionate, with a platform designed to support planning, preparation, execution, employee support and governance throughout the workforce transition lifecycle.

Jennifer Ravalli
Maverick Meridian
+1 908-330-6524
jennifer.ravalli@maverickmeridian.com
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