Beyond Hiring and Departing: Why Continuous Support Matters in HR

In today’s shifting workforce landscape, companies are experiencing both rapid hiring and difficult reductions. In the first eight months of 2025, layoffs and discharges in the United States reached 13.8 million, a 4.6% increase from the same period the year before.¹ The tech industry alone has seen more than 177,000 employees impacted this year.²

Transitions at the beginning and end of the employee journey carry emotional and financial weight. Onboarding shapes how confident and connected someone feels as they begin. Offboarding shapes how respected they feel as they leave. When either is mishandled, confusion increases, trust declines, and reputation suffers.

Providing consistent, accessible support during both onboarding and offboarding is no longer optional. It is strategic.

The Onboarding Moment: Confidence and Clarity from Day One
Meet Sarah. She’s excited to start her new role. She wants to contribute quickly, but she is also learning new tools, new processes, new systems, and new expectations. Somewhere in that mix is her benefits package, a meaningful part of her compensation, but she won’t fully understand it until much later.

She is not alone. Only 12% of employees say their organization does an excellent job with onboarding.³

Yet strong onboarding can lead to:

• 82% higher retention⁴
• More than 70% improved productivity⁴

Meanwhile, losing a new hire in the first few months can cost $7,500 to $28,000, depending on role and industry.⁵

Benefits education is a key part of this. Benefits can account for up to 40% of total compensation,⁶ but 35% of employees say they do not fully understand the benefits they selected.⁷

When clarity is missing, employees underutilize valuable programs, feel less supported, and underestimate the investment the organization is making in them.

The Offboarding Moment: Dignity and Continuity Matter
Now meet John, a long-tenured marketing manager whose role is eliminated during restructuring. Along with the emotional impact, he loses access to the internal HR portal or intranet that held all his benefits information, including COBRA continuation, retirement rollovers, and resource contacts.

He needs information, yet the system containing it is now closed to him.

This experience is common. 85% of Americans say employers do not offer enough support during layoffs.⁸

Support, or lack of it, shapes perception:

• 82% view employers more positively when offboarding support is provided⁸
• 80% are less likely to speak negatively after a supported departure⁸

How someone leaves impacts culture just as much as how someone starts.

‍The Information Gap: A Systems Problem

• New hires often cannot access information until they are fully onboarded.
• Departing employees often lose access the moment they exit.

The core issue: Most HR systems are built for administration, not communication.

‍How SwellSpace Helps
SwellSpace creates public-facing, no-login HR and benefits websites that ensure employees, families, and former employees always have access to the information they need.

With SwellSpace:

• Before day one, Sarah can explore benefits, culture, values, and first-week expectations in advance. Confidence replaces uncertainty.
• After the last day, John can still view clear explanations of COBRA, retirement options, and available support services. Dignity replaces confusion.

In both cases, the organization demonstrates care, clarity, and consistency — without adding workload to HR.

This Is What a Human-Centered Workplace Looks Like
Supporting employees through onboarding and offboarding isn’t just policy. It’s culture.

It says:

• You matter here.
• Your experience matters.
• Your transition matters — no matter the direction.

Ready to Support Your Team Through Every Stage?

SwellSpace helps organizations create beautiful, accessible, always-available HR and benefits websites that support employees, families, retirees, candidates, and alumni without logins, frustration, or repeated HR questions.

Let’s make the employee journey clearer, more supportive, and more human.

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Sources

1. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). https://www.bls.gov/jlt/
2. TrueUp. Tech Layoffs Tracker. https://www.trueup.io/layoffs
3. Gallup. “Why the Onboarding Experience Is Key for Retention.” 2018. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/235121/why-onboarding-experience-key-retention.aspx
4. SHRM (citing Aberdeen Group). “Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Good Onboarding.” 2017. https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/talent-acquisition/dont-underestimate-importance-good-onboarding
5. Allied One Source. “The Silent Killer of Workforce ROI: How Poor Onboarding Costs You Thousands.” https://www.alliedonesource.com/the-silent-killer-of-workforce-roi-how-poor-onboarding-costs-you-thousands
6. HR Performance Solutions. “Total Compensation Statements.” https://www.hrperformancesolutions.net/hr-whitepaper-archive?article_id=31
7. HR Morning. “Employees Don’t Understand Benefits; 6 Fixes.” https://www.hrmorning.com/articles/understand-benefits/‍
8. INTOO. “Post-Layoff Support and Outplacement Sentiment.” https://www.intoo.com/us/blog/stats-post-layoff-support-outplacement-american-workforce/