Ten Steps to Protect Confidential Information When an Employee Leaves

How to protect company data and confidential information from ex-employees.

Losing an employee is never an enjoyable event for a company. Whether it is by termination, retirement, or resignation the final exit is full of legal complications and other considerations. One important part of the separation that some companies fail to consider is the limitation of access to company computers and confidential information. This data can be highly valuable to your company and having it leaked to your competitors can have devastating effects.

Even if an employee leaves the company on good terms and you consider them to be highly loyal, it is still important to take precautions to prevent any problems that might harm your business. Here are some of the most important actions you can take to protect your company property from harm.

1.Back up all current data on the employee’s hard drive and clone his or her login account

2.Monitor calls and emails to or from the employee as they are preparing to leave

3.Remind the employee of any legal documents that they signed agreeing to not share any company data or intellectual property

4.Collect all company possessions (phones, credit cards, computers, passwords, security cards, etc.)

5.Deactivate ID cards, credit cards, and expense accounts

6.Forward voicemails and emails to someone else until you can safely erase the accounts

7.Create an auto responder and voicemail that informs people contacting the employee that they are no longer within the company while directing them to someone else that can help

8.Remove employee from phone directory and email list

Two weeks following termination:

9.Review computer logs to see if the employee attempted to access your network

10.Review email correspondence and IM chat logs to see if employee has attempted to contact any other employees to discuss confidential information or solicit employees

By following these ten steps you can greatly reduce the risk of losing confidential information and data. While it might seem like a lot of hassle to go through for each employee, the headache caused by one employee leaking sensitive information makes following these steps more than worthwhile.