Employee offboarding: the IT checklist

An employee's departure is a sensitive moment for IT: access can stay open for months, and important files can disappear along with the account. A written checklist, shared between HR and IT, prevents oversights.

Before the departure

• Agree with HR on the date and time when access will be closed.
• Identify the files and e-mails to hand over, and to whom.
• List the subscriptions, supplier accounts and online services opened in the person's name.
• Decide who takes over their responsibilities: shared mailboxes, Teams teams, approvals.

On the day of departure

• Block sign-in, reset the password and revoke active sessions.
• Remove the registered multi-factor authentication methods.
• Convert the mailbox to a shared mailbox, or set up an automatic reply and forwarding.
• Transfer the OneDrive content before any account deletion, since retention after deletion is limited.
• Remove the person from groups, teams and remote access (VPN).
• Change the shared passwords they knew.
• Close access to applications outside Microsoft 365: CRM, online banking, supplier portals.

Equipment

• Collect the computer, phone, security keys and badges.
• Wipe or reassign the devices, and update the inventory.
• On a personal phone, remove only the work data through device management.

Licenses

Once the data has been dealt with, the license can be reassigned, or released: billing then stops according to the subscription commitment (at term for an annual commitment). Without follow-up, licenses keep being paid for months for people who have left.

And when someone joins

• An account ready on day one, with permissions defined by role.
• A computer prepared and configured to the company standard.
• Enrollment in multi-factor authentication from the first sign-in.
• A short introduction to the security rules and the support channel.