You’ve heard plenty of talk about the importance of onboarding team members for better data security. But did you know that the highest risk comes from a poor off-boarding process? Here’s why off-boarding is so important, and how to do it better.
What is Off-boarding and Why Does It Matter?
Off-boarding is, at heart, a review of all the decisions and processes that take place when an employee leaves an organization. It’s the completion of a journey, from coming onboard at the time of hiring, the training and development that took place on the voyage, then the inevitable departure at the end of the cruise. It’s a complex process, being employed. Understanding what’s really working and what needs to be improved can be discovered as much in the off-boarding process as anywhere else along the journey.
Just as with recruiting, the more care you take with the off-boarding process, the better the experience is for your employees. It also helps gather information and protect the business. Employees who quit need to be managed out the door. Making sure that their access is revoked and that critical documents are no longer accessible to them is a big part of that process. Don’t allow them the opportunity to take important trade secrets along with them. Revoking access to the network and ensuring data privacy matters to the security of the company as a whole.
What Should Off-boarding Achieve?
The complexity of onboarding and off-boarding depends on the organization. But the goals are going to be the same no matter what. You want your off-boarding to carefully communicate the necessary information that an employee needs when leaving. It should set the team up for success beyond a team member’s departure. For example, you may want to gather information about why an employee is leaving. It’s also where you ask outright what could have been done to keep them. Or, if an employee is being let go, they will need to know the process of leaving the company and reduce the chance of any misunderstandings as they take their leave.
For employees who leave on negative terms, pay extra attention to data security. Off-boarding without a strategy is negligence and will lead to vulnerabilities. A bad off-boarding can result in productivity loss, security breaches, compliance concerns, or surprise costs to get business back to normal. To avoid this, you need to make sure that you are deprovisioning access to the network among other things. This helps protect sensitive documentation after they are no longer accountable to the business. Make sure that an employee on their way out doesn’t have access to anything they shouldn’t. This is critical to the data security of your company now and in the future.
For help keeping a watch on your business-critical documentation, connect with the team at Happy Faces Records Management today.
