Does your business have a policy for handling employee terminations? Does that policy include IT related considerations? IT concerns should be a central component of any employee termination policy. Employees with access to email and other data could potentially do serious damage to your business on the way out the door. Sensitive data such as client or employee information could be stolen and used against you. More commonly, data may be deleted or damaged which could be extremely costly.
Any termination policy should include the following considerations:
Notify IT
Whether your IT is handled in-house or outsourced to a vendor such as Mankato Computer Technology, your HR person should know exactly who to contact to make them aware of a pending or immediate termination.
Timeline of Notification
If you know the termination is coming, your HR person should know when to contact your IT team to start the process of revoking access.
Preservation of Data
Any data created or stored by the exiting employee should be preserved as needed. This may include voicemails, email, calendars, log files, or data stored locally on their computers.
Retrieval of Company IT Property
Make sure you have the ability to retrieve computers, cell phones, tablets, etc. at the time of the termination. Maintaining an inventory of devices and accounts issued to the employee at onboarding is the easiest way to ensure nothing gets missed in the event of a termination.
Revoking Server Access
The terminated employee’s domain or server access should be disabled immediately upon termination.
Remote Access Termination
If your business has a remote access solution in place, it’s essential to make sure a terminated employee cannot continue to access your network from home.
Email Forwarding
Typically, it’s a good idea to have the terminated employee’s email forwarded to a current employee so that important communications are not lost.
If you do not have IT person on your staff, MCT can handle the IT side of these HR issues for your business. If you are at all concerned about past employees or the security of your network, call today for a free assessment to determine your risks and receive recommendations to securing your network and data.