Mark just quit unexpectedly! Not only do you have to find his replacement, you’ve just realised that Mark has a LOT of company data on his devices. Even if his devices are returned quickly, he also still has access to some of his company cloud accounts because it’s going to take a while to change all those passwords. Then you remember that Mark even has customer emails on his phone, so how do you get those back?!
The fact is an employee’s digital footprint starts from the moment they are onboarded with a matching company profile. Thoroughly removing a person from that digital goldmine is important.
What harm can employees do if they aren’t offboarded properly?
Whether your ex-employee is accident prone, feeling resentful, or just bored, then they can cause a lot of trouble for you and your business. They could:
Delete company data
It may not be intentional, but if someone is erasing files off their computer and accidentally removes an important file or folder because they do not recognise it, then it can cause all sorts of problems. The best way to avoid this is to keep data off personal devices and restrict what they can delete through admin privileges.
Steal clients from your company
The employee might have formed some tight connections with clients through the business and could end up stealing clients away from the company as they’ll have all the contact information at their disposal.
Send out nasty emails
If the employee is feeling wronged or vengeful, then they can send out abusive or unprofessional emails from their company email. The emails may be about your company, or to a specific client that the employee had trouble with. Either way, it’s not a professional look.
Stolen devices equal stolen data
If the employee’s phone, tablet, or laptop is stolen and they still have your company’s data on it, or have auto-login on their browser, then your data is at risk. It’s even riskier if they don’t have secure passwords on their devices.
You need a digital offboarding process
Having a digital offboarding process means that before someone retires, resigns, or is dismissed, there’s a plan in place to quickly cut those digital ties.
Business password manager solutions and endpoint device management apps can make the procedure quick and simple. You really don’t want to be scrambling to change the passwords to your accounting system because your bookkeeper just got into a giant row with the office manager and left in a hurry.
You want to quickly lock a former employee out of your systems and data with a few clicks and a digital offboarding process will be key to that.
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