Technology Moving Positions & Offboarding for Resigning or Retiring Employees

Employee offboarding is a crucial yet often overlooked aspect of the employee lifecycle. A well-executed offboarding process not only ensures a smooth transition for departing employees but also contributes to a positive University image and can even lead to potential rehires or referrals. 

Departments are owners and experts of onboarding/offboarding their employees, and IT Solutions has a lot of resources available for departments to utilize to their advantage. This article will focus specifically on the technical aspects to consider when an employee transitions out of your department. 

The first step to a successful offboarding is a well-planned onboarding and gathering department-managed information about employees and their TWU-provided assets (information, hardware, software, email, shared drives, etc.). We strongly encourage department leaders and their administrative support staff to make a copy of the Department Administration Template and begin to fill it in. (Requires an @twu.edu login. After copying, download to use in Excel.) This document should be reviewed when employees change roles and at least once annually to keep content accurate.

When employees move positions, change departments, or leave the University, there are items to be addressed by both the employee and manager. Most access is revoked following the successful completion of the end assignment, termination, or resignation actions in Oracle Cloud. Access to University Systems is terminated at the end of the business day on the last day of employment unless paperwork is submitted to initiate a subsequent active appointment. Access includes Exchange (Outlook, Public Folders, Calendars, etc.), Google Suite (email, calendar, docs, etc), all enterprise system access (e.g. Canvas, Service Center, Colleague, Oracle, etc.), Pioneer Portal, Office 365, and X-Drive.

When a person leaves the University (or a department or role), decisions need to be made in advance of the separation/change to ensure continued operations. Succession planning is critical for operational success. What does this mean?

• Email. Will there be an out-of-office message? [put in place before separation or manager creates an IT ticket after] Will someone monitor the email? [manager creates an IT ticket]
• Files. The physical ones are easy … what about the employee’s hard drive, X drives, Google My Drive, Google Shared drives, OneDrive, external drives, etc.? ITS can help with file transfers and changing ownership of cloud-stored files with a ticket. Be mindful of Records Retention Schedules when reviewing files.
• Phone Number and voicemail. As with email, will someone be monitoring the line?  [put in place before separation or manager creates an IT ticket after] Was the employee a member of a RingCentral queue or were they a queue manager? Create an ITS ticket for support.
• Physical assets. Devices with hard drives need to be turned into ITS (via a ticket) for a refresh. When someone is hired into the position, put in a ticket to have the phone device updated. Personal printers may need to be set up as part of technology onboarding for a new hire.
• Reassign/end access. Does anyone else in the department have access to run that report or mnemonic? Run the social media?

IT Solutions strongly encourages Texas Woman’s departments to embrace ownership of their business processes and operations. There should be some kind of record for each employee of their primary responsibilities and how they complete those tasks, when they complete those tasks, etc. to ensure stable operations. For practical tips, check out the Operational Excellence Foundations course (1 hr 32 min) on LinkedIn Learning.

Offboarding Steps For the Employee

• Confirm that all electronic files containing University data from personally-owned computers, mobile devices, storage media (hard drives/flash drives) have been migrated to a shared drive (Google or X or OneDrive) designated by your manager and removed from personal devices.
• Inform others that you will no longer be available at your TWU email address. (Out-of-Office reply in Outlook in owa.twu.edu in GMail)
• Return computer, cell phone, laptop, printer, and any other University-owned equipment to your manager.
• Grant access to important files and emails and transfer ownership of data and Google applications.
  • Transfer ownership of Google Drive documents
  • Transfer Google Calendars or Events
  • Add an additional owner(s) to any Google Sites
• Grant access to important files and emails and transfer ownership of data in Outlook.
  • Allow someone else to manage your mail and calendar
  • Share an Outlook calendar with other people
  • Sharing your calendar in Outlook Web App
  • Assign and track tasks
• Grant access to important files and emails and transfer ownership of data in O365.
  • Share OneDrive files and folders
• Review internal departmental reporting and communication to ensure any automatically generated reports are forwarded to the new person.
• Remove or uninstall all University licensed software on personally-owned computers or devices (License coincides with employment).
• Verify that your TWU email address is not linked to any personal websites (Facebook, Amazon, etc.).
• We know you have diligently kept TWU files and information separate from personal information.
  • Copy any files from your University-owned devices (C:\ drive, X:\ My Personal Folder, Google Drive, OneDrive, Outlook/GMail Contacts) 
  • Copy any contacts from your Outlook account before your access is disconnected.
    • Back up your contacts from Outlook

Offboarding Steps For the Manager

• Confirm with the employee that all electronic files containing University data from personally owned computers, mobile devices, storage media (hard drives/flash drives) have been migrated to a shared drive and removed.
• If the employee is retaining another role at TWU, contact the Service Desk to remove access to other systems. This is important especially when the employee has a status change and their account will remain active in the case of a dual role or otherwise.
• Ensure that the employee has returned any University-owned property including computer, cell phone, laptop, and printers. Update information with Facilities Management.
• Verify removal of employee from department web pages (may need to contact webteamrequest@twu.edu. Directory removal (unless Emeritus or continuing active employment in another role at TWU) will be completed upon notification to the Service Desk about RingCentral (see below).
• Have the employee provide you with access to important documents, files and emails and transfer ownership of data in Google applications, Outlook, and O365 (instructions in employee section above). 
• Submit a RingCentral ticket to make any necessary changes in RingCentral (both individual account and queues), if applicable.Changes include whether the number is to be retained or removed from the department, If the employee is moving offices, positions, or departments, is the phone number moving or does a new number need to be assigned? Also, provide instructions how calls or voice mails should be handled.
• Remove them from X-Drive.
• Submit a ticket to have them removed from public folders.
• Review internal departmental reporting and communication to ensure any automatically generated reports are forwarded to new person
• Review mailing list ownership or moderation privileges for the employee (contact the Service Desk for assistance) and make plans for new ownership or moderation.