When someone leaves your business, there’s usually a checklist. Hand back the keys, return the laptop, final payslip. But the IT side of offboarding is one of the most commonly overlooked security risks in small businesses, and it’s one that can cause real problems if it’s not handled properly.
The access problem
Think about everything a typical member of your team can access: their email account, shared files, client records, financial systems, your website backend, social media accounts, cloud storage. Now think about what happens to all of that when they leave.
If their accounts aren’t disabled promptly, they can still access everything. That’s true even if the parting was friendly. It’s simply not good practice to leave former employees with active access to your business systems.
It’s not just about trust
This isn’t about assuming the worst of people. Most staff leave on good terms and would never dream of misusing their access. But leaving accounts open is a security risk regardless of intent.
If a former employee’s email account is still active and their password gets compromised in a breach, that’s a way into your business that you’ve left open unnecessarily. It’s also a compliance issue in some regulated industries.
What a proper IT offboarding process covers
- Disabling the leaver’s accounts immediately on their last day
- Revoking access to cloud services, shared drives, and third-party tools
- Recovering and wiping any managed devices
- Transferring important emails and files to the relevant person
- Updating shared passwords the leaver had access to
- Removing them from shared inboxes, distribution lists, and communication tools
- Checking for any personal accounts they may have set up on behalf of the business
The last point is one people often miss
It’s surprisingly common for employees to set up business accounts, a social media profile, a tool subscription, a domain registration, using their personal email address because it was quicker at the time. When they leave, the business loses access to those accounts entirely.
A quick audit of your digital tools before someone leaves, or ideally as part of a regular review, can prevent that headache.
Building a simple process
You don’t need a lengthy policy document. You need a short checklist that gets followed every time someone leaves. We can help you put that together as part of our IT support service, and we can handle the technical side of offboarding so nothing slips through the gaps.
Want to make sure your IT offboarding is watertight? We can help.
