Whether you let an employee go or they leave on their own, the process can feel daunting as a business owner. Because your concern is for the individual who will be leaving and for your workflow without them, it is easy to overlook the important technical steps you need to take to avoid problems for your small business.

In this email, we will cover a few key technical steps you need to take in order to protect your small business:

Gather All Your Information

Make sure you have all the relevant information about the employee’s IT set-up including passwords, usernames, and any other access codes. This will ensure that you can secure your systems and prevent any unauthorized access.

Secure Your Accounts

Change all the relevant passwords, both for your internal systems and any accounts the employee may have had access to (such as email, social media, messaging apps, video conferencing, etc.). This will prevent them from being able to access any sensitive information or wreak havoc with your accounts. You’ll also likely want to forward the person’s email to someone else and secure a backup of their email account.

Secure Physical Assets

Does the employee use a company-owned computer, monitor, printer, phone, or router? Do they have a company credit card? All of these items will need to be retrieved. We encourage you to have a spreadsheet with all the information about these devices so you are sure you are receiving the right devices back. 

Clean Their Computer

We encourage business owners to provide computers to their staff because it gives them the ability to protect their data better.  

If you own the computer your employee has been using, collect the device as soon as you know the employee is leaving and ensure that all data and files belonging to the company are deleted from that computer or device. This includes anything stored in the cloud, as well as any locally-saved files. Again, this is to protect your company’s information and prevent any unauthorized access.

Unfortunately, if you don’t own the computer, you will not be able to do this. 

Track Your Steps

Keep good records of everything related to the offboarding process. This will help you in case there are any issues down the road and you need to refer back to what was done.

In addition, keeping records of the steps you take this time will help you create a process for the future. It’s definitely worth your time to create both an onboarding and offboarding document for employees so you can check off tasks as you go and to ensure you don’t forget any steps. Forgetting even one app or site a disgruntled employee has access to can cause real problems for your business.

By following these simple steps, you can protect your small business when offboarding an employee and avoid any potential problems for your business.

Here at Murph Consulting, we combine IT expertise with human-to-human support. Our Help Desk with a Heart ❤️ is here to help you with your IT needs. Let us know how we can help. Contact us today at 917-924-4084.

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