Employee termination checklist: removing access the same day

When you let someone go there is no notice period to prepare in. Access should end at about the time you tell them, so prepare the list beforehand and have the right people ready. This checklist is about access and property. For the employment law side, such as final pay deadlines in your state, check with your state labor department or an employment lawyer.

Track it in Handover

Before the meeting

  • List everything they have: app accounts, shared passwords, devices, keys, badges and cards.
  • Make sure someone else is an admin on every account where they are the admin or owner.
  • Line up who will turn off each account, and when.
  • Prepare their final paperwork.

During or right after the meeting

  • Turn off their main work account and sign them out of every session.
  • Remove them from every other app, starting with anything holding money or customer data.
  • Collect laptops, phones, keys, badges and company cards before they leave the building, if you can.
  • For remote staff, arrange a prepaid return of company devices.

The same day

  • Change every shared password, door code and alarm code they knew.
  • Remove them as an authorized user on bank, card and vendor accounts.
  • Redirect their email so customers still reach someone.

Afterwards

  • Handle final pay and benefits as your state requires.
  • Save a dated record of what was removed and collected, and by whom.

Questions

Should I turn off their accounts before or after I tell them?

At about the same time. Many businesses turn off the main account while the conversation is happening. Turning it off long before can tip them off; long after leaves a window to copy or delete data.

What if they had admin rights?

Add a second admin before the meeting. If they are the only admin on an account, removing them first can lock everyone out.

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