Exit, post-employment, and the evolution of people practice across the lifecycle

The final stages of the employee lifecycle — exit and post-employment — form the central focus of this video, which addresses Assessment Criterion 3.1 of 5CO01. The video covers the full range of employment endings, including resignations, retirements, redundancies, and dismissals, and examines how each type demands a distinct management approach. It also considers what has come to be called the post-employment stage, addressing the role of alumni networks and the concept of boomerang employees — former staff who return to an organisation — as well as the influence of former employees on employer brand through platforms such as Glassdoor.

Across both stages, the video maps out the specific contributions made by different people practice roles. HR operations, HR business partners, and employee relations specialists each carry distinct responsibilities during exit, from administrative separation tasks and compliance requirements through to collective redundancy consultation and trade union engagement. The video also covers a less obvious contribution: the role of L&D professionals in delivering outplacement support for departing employees, and their potential involvement in alumni relationships through continuing access to learning resources.

The third area covered in the video is the broader evolution of people practice roles across the entire employee lifecycle. This includes the growing integration of HR, L&D, and OD functions, the application of employee experience frameworks drawn from customer experience thinking, and the increasing use of people analytics and data-driven decision making to understand how interventions at one lifecycle stage shape outcomes at another. Technology's role in automating administrative work — and what that shift means for the strategic focus of people professionals — is also addressed.