Digital Offboarding Checklist for Departing Employees

When an employee leaves, digital offboarding means removing their access to every company system and recovering company data and devices. The key steps are transferring knowledge, listing every app they used, changing shared passwords, recovering devices and data, transferring file ownership, closing accounts, and revoking all access, including building passcodes. 

Former employees who keep access are a common insider threat. Under the Data Privacy Act, you are also responsible for making sure they can no longer reach personal data.

Your Digital Offboarding Checklist

Knowledge Transfer

Vast corporate knowledge can disappear when a person leaves an organization. It’s important to capture this during a digital offboarding process.

This could be something as simple as what social media app someone used for company posts. Or it may be productivity leveraging, such as the best way to enter the sales data into the CRM.

Make sure to do a knowledge download with an employee during the exit interview. Better yet, have all staff regularly document procedures and workflows. This makes the knowledge available if the employee is ever not there to perform those tasks.

Address Social Media Connections to the Company

Address any social media connections to the former employee. Is their personal Facebook user account an admin for your company’s Facebook page? Do they post on your corporate LinkedIn page?

Identify All Apps & Logins the Person Has Been Using for Work

Hopefully, your HR or IT department will have a list of all the apps and website logins that an employee has. But you can’t assume this. Employees often use unauthorized cloud apps to do their work. This is usually done without realizing the security consequences.

Make sure you know of any apps that the employee may have used for business activities. You will need to address these. Either change the login if you plan to continue using it. Or you may want to close them altogether after exporting company data.

Change Email Password

Changing the employee’s email password should be one of the first things you do. This keeps a former employee from getting company information. It also keeps them from emailing as a representative of the company.

Accounts are typically not closed immediately because emails need to be stored. But you should change the password to ensure the employee no longer has access.

In Microsoft 365, block sign-in first, then convert the mailbox; see Microsoft 365 data protection.

Change Employee Passwords for Cloud Business Apps

Change all other app passwords. Remember that people often access business apps on personal devices. So, just because they can’t access their work computer any longer, it doesn’t mean they can’t access their old accounts.

Changing the passwords locks them out, no matter what device they are using. You can simplify the process with a single sign-on solution. In Microsoft 365, block sign-in first, then convert the mailbox; see Microsoft 365 data protection.

Recover Any Company Devices 

Make sure to recover any company-owned devices from the employee’s home. Remote employees are often issued equipment to use.

You should do this as soon as possible to avoid loss of the equipment. Once people no longer work for a company, they may sell, give away, or trash devices.

Recover Data on Employee Personal Devices 

Many companies use a bring your own device (BYOD) policy. It saves them money, but this can make offboarding more difficult.

You need to ensure you’ve captured all company data on those devices. If you don’t already have a backup policy in place for this, now is a good time to create one. Track returned laptops with IT lifecycle management.

Transfer Data Ownership & Close Employee Accounts

Don’t keep old employee cloud accounts open indefinitely. Choose a user account to transfer their data to and then close the account. Leaving unused employee accounts open is an invitation to a hacker. With no one monitoring the account, breaches can happen. A criminal could gain access and steal data for months unnoticed.

Revoke Access by Employee’s Devices to Your Apps and Network

Using an endpoint device management system, you can easily revoke device access. Remove the former employee’s device from any approved device list in your system.

Change Any Building Digital Passcodes

Don’t forget about physical access to your building. If you have any digital gate or door passcodes, be sure to change these so the person can no longer gain access.

Make offboarding a written part of your IT policies.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is digital offboarding? 

Removing a departing employee’s access to all company systems and recovering company data and devices. 

When should IT access be removed? 

On the employee’s last day, ideally at the moment they leave. Plan it before their final day. 

What happens if former employees keep access? 

They could view or leak company data, which can lead to a data breach and Data Privacy Act issues.

Need help reducing offboarding risk? 

CloudConsole manages user accounts, devices, and access for businesses in the Philippines with 24/7 IT support. Contact us for a free consultation.