Employee turnover at a company is inevitable. You may find yourself needing to let someone go, or they may be moving on to something different. Depending on the industry, or the company, employee turnover could be high.
As a managed IT services company, we see mishandling of the situation frequently. The company will let us know weeks after an employee has already left the company. Even if you part ways on good terms, immediate action needs to take place on the employee’s last day.
A former employee does not have to be malicious in order to put your business at risk for a cyber attack. Quick action can also help save your company money, as you might be paying subscription fees for their account.
Ensure data has been transferred
Sometimes employees store data in various and even unapproved places, like directly on their hard drive or in a personal cloud service like Dropbox.
If the employee has resigned on good terms, a good idea is to sit down with them prior to their last day and find all of this data. On the other hand, if the employee is being let go, you may need your IT services provider to dig through their computer to see if there is anything that needs to be kept.
Move this data to the correct person, or location to make sure it doesn’t get deleted permanently in the steps below.
Remove data from devices
This step is often overlooked by businesses. Especially in 2021 when so many employees are using personal devices to access company resources. Depending on your setup, you can remotely wipe company data from a personal cell phone or computer.
Without removing this data, your confidential business data could be stolen and placed in the hands of your competitors. Make sure you know all of the devices the employee has used to access your company and clear the data from all of them.
Remove accounts
One of the most important steps is to remove the employee’s accounts from any subscription based services and from the network. If these accounts are left activated, you will not only be paying monthly fees for your former employee on a monthly basis, you would also be opening yourself up to attack.
Dormant accounts are notorious for getting compromised. Ensuring the employee no longer as access to your company’s files and data will eliminate that risk.
The main problem with dormant accounts is that they are not being monitored. Meaning, if someone is trying to access the account, no one will be notified of the attack. This allows the attacker to continue trying until they get it right.
Verify all equipment has been returned
Finally, many employees are being issued equipment to help them get their job done. This is especially true now, when so many employees started working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tracking this equipment will definitely save your company money.
If you don’t already have an inventory system in place for your company’s hardware, you should implement one immediately. As employees check out equipment, you will want to be sure that they bring back everything they have checked out when they are leaving the company.
As you can see there are many things to consider when an employee terminates. Make sure you take steps to remove their access immediately to help protect your business.