9 Essential Things You Must Do When Employees Leave Your Business

For decades, Flinders Street Station has played an integral role in Melbourne’s life. 

The hustle and sounds of peak hour in the city. People rush about and look down at their screens. Everyone is going in every direction, converging on the corner of Flinders and Swanston. 

All in the mad scrambled to get into the office. 

And many times, made plans for that night with workmates, friends or loved ones. 

Catch a show at the Athenaeum. 

Grab a bite to eat in Chinatown. 

Or Southbank. 

A beer (or a few) at the Duke of Wellington. 

As you dash down the steps, shouting out, “I’ll meet you under the clocks.”

Now, with fewer employees working five days in the city, these casual catch up have become a thing of the past. 

However, staying connected is even more important as we recover from the pandemic. 

Both in person and online. 

But sometimes, your bond with others comes to a natural end. Things change, and people move on. 

It’s the same at your workplace.

Every day, employees decide to leave their current roles. And the recent ‘great resignation‘ is fuelling their desires to find new opportunities.

So with more employees handing in their notice, you need to consider how your business should respond. 

What do you need to do when an employee decides to resign?

The thing is, you need to have an effective process to help digitally offboard an employee. 

I mean, you don’t want a former employee to access your business email accounts and send out emails to your clients. Imagine logging into your laptop and receiving a barrage of emails from clients having received an unsolicited contact by your ex-employee.

That will only cause reputational harm to your business.

Unfortunately, things go wrong when you don’t digitally offboard an employee correctly, exposing the business to security threats.

A recent study found that 20% of businesses have experienced a security data breach due to poor digital offboarding. 

So, when an employee leaves your business, here’s what you need to do. 

Your checklist to successfully digital offboard an employee.

1. Change email password

You must change the employee’s email password to prevent them from continuing to access company information. This stops them from emailing your clients and appearing to still work for your business. 

In most cases, the email account won’t be closed immediately to allow for the data to be stored. 

But changing their password protects your business from unauthorised access. 

2. Change all other employee passwords. 

One thing to consider is the business apps they use on their company devices and those they may access on personal devices.

Changing passwords for all apps and sites they may access regardless of the device, and if you have a single sign-on solution, that will make it easier. 

3. Check any social media connections.

In some businesses, your exiting employee may have used their social media accounts to administer your social media profiles. 

For example, they may have used their Facebook account as your business’s page admin. Or they post content to your company’s LinkedIn profile or Twitter. 

It is critical to confirm this before they leave your business.

4. Identify and check access for all apps and websites.

Many businesses will have a list of company-wide apps and websites that your former employee would access. Typically, your IT department or Human Resources can guide you. 

However, employees sometimes use unauthorised websites and apps to do their work. In many cases, they fail to realise the potential security risks associated with using them. 

So, you need a process to ensure you are aware of any sites and apps the exiting employee may have been using. If you continue to use them, ensure you change the login credentials. Or, if no longer required, export any sensitive company information and close the accounts. 

5. Capture their knowledge

When the time comes for your employee to leave the business, it’s vital to have an offboarding process to capture the knowledge acquired during their time with you. 

Like, which social media apps they have been using. Or what is the most efficient way to enter sales data into a CRM? 

You can ask them the most productive way to complete specific tasks and workflows 

One way many businesses capture this information is during an exit interview. However, you could also ask the exiting employee to document essential procedures and workflows. 

6. Recover all company devices and revoke access

Given many employees are working remotely, you must check they don’t have any company devices at home. Ideally, it would be best if you recovered these devices as soon as possible to avoid losing them, having them sold or thrown in the bin. 

You can use an endpoint device management system and revoke device access. And you should remove the exited employee’s device from any approved device list in your system.

7. Recover data on your employee’s personal devices

Many Melbourne businesses offer their employees a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy. Whilst this can save money, it does make offboarding more challenging.

It’s critical to check you have captured all your company’s data on those BYOD. If you don’t have an existing backup plan, establishing one is a great idea. 

8. Transfer any data and close accounts

You should transfer any data you wish to keep to another user and close the former employee’s accounts. 

Here’s the thing leaving an inactive employee account open is just asking for trouble. It doesn’t take much for a hacker to initiate a breach, stealing data and having access to your systems.

9. Update any building access digital passcodes

It’s easy to forget the employee may have access to your buildings. Ensure you change any digital gate or passcodes to stop unauthorised access. 

 

Does your Melbourne business need help to minimise your offboarding risk?

We can help you implement a digital offboarding process to prevent IT security risks.  Your MSP should have a departing user procedure for your business. All these steps above and much more specific to your business are already documented and ready to act. All you need to do is let your MSP know when someone is leaving, and they’ll take care of the rest.

Contact us to learn more.