Offboarding former employees is something that every business faces at a certain point. It is part of the employee lifecycle. The reasons behind it are diverse, whether it is due to retirement, new job opportunities, changes in the family, health reasons or just to take some time off, this is an event that will take place in any organization.
But what happens when there are hard feelings between the departing employee and the company? It is not uncommon to see unhappy employees rampage against company assets, whether physical or in the form of valuable company data.
Last year, a head of human resources got fired after she downgraded a colleague’s access to a computer system following a dispute. Turns out that two days after being laid off, the woman still had access to the system in the organization and deliberately deleted thousands of files that had job applications and resumes. The result was an outstanding quantity of files being deleted and a no less impressive $100,000 bill to restore the entire system.
Keep data protection in mind during the employee onboarding and offboarding process
Offboarding cybersecurity must be addressed from the very beginning, from the first day, and the best way to incorporate security best practices is by making it part of the employee onboarding process. Keep in mind that, every time you welcome a new employee, you hand them the keys to your castle, which is your company, so it is in your best interest to teach them how to make proper use of them.
At Wingman Solutions, we want to share some important topics that will help you create an IT onboarding and offboarding policy and we will cover each section in detail in this blog post.
Employee Onboarding Best Practices
Offer Flexibility
In today’s interconnected world, adapting to a hybrid workforce is crucial to assure the continuity of operations. There will always be workers needed on-site, but what if you hired a freelancer to manage your marketing campaigns? You need to adapt your employee onboarding program to tackle both situations.
To offer flexibility to your new hire during the onboarding process, your organization must include multiple delivery mediums, such as online meetings, in-person sessions, online information, group sessions, and personalized sessions.
Integrate Cybersecurity Training
Organizations must include cybersecurity training when onboarding new team members, adapting it to their entry-level, understanding, and experience.
This training should cover the diverse types of attacks that might target users, such as phishing, scam calls, and baiting, to name a few.
Cybersecurity training is also the best opportunity to teach your new employees about the security measures they will be using daily. For example, how are they going to store passwords? Employees who may have never used a password manager can be tempted to create an Excel spreadsheet to store them (not recommended). Thus, onboarding offers a chance to educate your new staff members on how to use the password manager and to incorporate it into their daily work.
Make The IT Team Part Of The Onboarding Process
Small to medium-sized business owners must be asking: how do I provide my new employees with all this information when it is only the accountant, the social media manager, and I who run the company? The answer is simple: you don’t. Instead, you outsource this work to an expert team of professionals like Wingman Solutions that are willing to take your new hires from zero-level knowledge in cybersecurity to being able to differentiate a phishing email from a legitimate one.
Remember the example we mentioned above? An angry employee rampaged over a data system causing thousands of dollars in damage. There are some critical aspects to consider when dealing with departing employees that can lower the risk of going through a similar event.
Onboarding And Offboarding Best Practices For Data Security: How IT May Help In Developing A Secure Onboarding Program
Giving a new hire a positive experience and bringing them up to speed are the main goals of the onboarding process.
Nevertheless, it is crucial to slow down and ensure that you are doing so securely. Ensure security compliance while setting up your new hire by following these crucial steps.
Collect Information
The onboarding process has already started before your new employee ever steps foot inside the building. Gather their personal information and start getting ready for their employment at least a week before they are scheduled to start.
HR and IT must carefully coordinate and communicate throughout this process. Ensure you:
Verify the worker’s details, including their name and position.
Decide what equipment they will require access to and what permissions they will require by thoroughly understanding the approval processes.
The new hire must be prepared to start right away by the time they show up.
Prepare And Ship Hardware
After that, get ready to ship them the hardware they’ll be using every day. A list of the supplies needed for each function should be included in your onboarding standard operating procedure (SOP).
Make sure laptops and other requirements are available a few weeks before the person starts in their new position. Be prepared to ship such materials early if they will be working remotely.
Install Necessary Software And Set Up Accounts
It’s time to install the required software and help your new hire with activating their accounts once their hardware is up and running.
Make a list of the systems and permissions that the employee will gain or lose access to when you hire a new employee or prepare a current employee for a position transition.
Employees in 27% of businesses lack necessary credentials for more than a week, according to survey data from Ivanti. This not only causes stress for the employee, but it also costs the business money.
Conduct First-Day IT Training
Every new employee learns a lot on their first day at work. Make IT training a top priority to guarantee that they are familiar with responsible and secure behaviour from day one.
A thorough IT training course should cover subjects like:
Ways to reach IT
The problems each department deals with
What effective password security looks like (e.g., do not keep passwords in a spreadsheet on the desktop)
The regulations that apply to certain apps (for instance, some software may need multi-factor authentication each time it is used, while others only once per day)
A description of your company’s security procedures
Employee Offboarding Best Practices
Start By Gathering Insight
The employee offboarding process would not be complete without an employee exit interview. You could also conduct a termination of employment survey. Many employees may be afraid to voice their concerns while still working for the company. They may want to avoid conflict or believe that it is pointless. The greatest way to get honest feedback is to do an employee exit interview.
Try to be receptive to any criticism that comes your way. Prepare to learn about issues you were unaware of, some of which will not make you happy. This is, after all, the whole goal of the procedure. You’re not seeking compliments; instead, you’re trying to figure out where the problems are. It’s the only way to address workplace challenges and improve employee retention in the future.
Respect Comes First
Throughout any offboarding process, the departing employee should be treated with respect and dignity, regardless of the reason for their leave. Resignations should not be taken personally by managers or team leaders. Instead, express gratitude for the employee’s tenure with the organization and best wishes for the future. This offboarding best practice is much more critical in case of termination. Ascertain that you have resources in place to assist the employee during what can be a trying period.
Remote Offboarding
Managing a remote employee essentially means that all communication and work will be done online. In certain cases, teams may not even physically interact during an employee’s employment. The absence of a face-to-face encounter when conducting remote offboarding raises the chance that some processes may be overlooked.
As soon as the employee submits a resignation confirmation, work together with HR to handle all legal paperwork and close account access. Make periodic phone calls to check in to make sure things like job transfers and crucial dates (final day of work, exit interview, etc.) are planned effectively. Making a digital checklist can also help departing staff make sure any company-owned equipment is returned and crucial online papers, like any non-disclosure agreements, are filled out.
Create An Offboarding Checklist
There are many aspects to consider when one of your staff members leaves. Make sure your IT team conducts exit interviews and follows established offboarding programs, like collecting all company assets that must have been in the employee’s possession. The IT team should also:
Revoke all login access: this includes access to email accounts, the cloud, and all corporate accounts. It is important to note that any IT team should be able to do this right after a worker has left. If an employee can access to internal systems long after the working relationship has ended, this is definitely an alarming threat and action must be taken.
Inform all stakeholders: Following the same process you would do with a new hire distribution list; you should do the same to inform other workers who are leaving the company in a timely manner. You should also notify external shareholders about the employee’s departure if needed.
Review computer activity: It’s worth mentioning that the days leading up to a termination process have a significant risk for data theft exploitation from an employee’s side. We suggest informing IT teams prior to any termination process to keep track of internet activity and data extraction.
Conclusion
We never expect any employee to leave our company on bad terms but there is always a chance that such a situation can happen. For cases like these, it is better to be prepared and take the right measures to protect corporate assets diligently, and we can help you achieve this. Let an expert Mississauga IT consulting provider like Wingman Solutions guide your employees with the right security best practices.
