Companies terminate or fire employees for various reasons. However, if not handled appropriately, terminating employees has consequences – especially if an employee was holding a sensitive position or had access to critical data in the company. As an employer, you need to know how to handle the whole termination process to ensure that the departing employee does not take retaliatory action against the company’s sensitive information and systems.
An employer should prepare for and conduct a termination of a key employee in a five-step process. In this article we will the discuss the five-step process a manager or employer should follow to ensure that a termination goes smoothly and also ensure the safety of the company’s critical data and remaining employees.
Access analysis
The first step a manager or employer should take is access analysis. This process entails the manger or employer determining the departing employee’s accessibility to sensitive company information. This includes physical and electronic access through safe combinations, ID cards, keys and access cards. The manager should also find out if the employee has the ability to remove or change controls to access vital information. If an employee worked in a sensitive department, say IT, the company should do further investigations to find out if the departing employee made any copies of documents that may put the company at risk if they are exposed. After the company verifies all these information, they can take the next step.
Motive analysis
After the employer has determined the employee’s access, the next step is to consider whether the departing employee may have had any motive to harm the company before termination. At this point, the manager involved in the termination process should check the employee’s personnel files and review it to uncover any prior conflicts with executives or co-workers. The manager should also check if the employee has any criminal record in the past or if he or she has made any threats. The manager can also find out if the employee had any plans to leave the company at some point.
Mitigation
If a company finds any exposures, the company can now take steps to mitigate them. This process allows managers to decide how to limit access to the employee or cut off access completely to resources. At this stage, the managers decide whether additional security is required on site. The manager should then retrieve all company property in the possession of the employee such as keys, computers and access cards at the time of the termination or before. If the employee has more company property in his home, these should also be retrieved. In order to encourage the employee to cooperate, the company should arrange that the employee get his severance check at home as they pick up any company property available.
Termination
The next step a manager should take is plan for the termination itself. The manager should establish how the employee will be terminated and by whom, the location and timing and the employee’s departure from the premises after the matter has been concluded. You also need to brief your security guards in Montreal regarding the termination. This is very important since a company needs the security guards to protect other employees or key executives if the individual is prone to violence. A manager should not let the termination process drag on to minimize the risks involved.
Personal device data check
In case a company finds any company data stored in the employee’s personal devices, the company should ensure that it gets erased before handing the gadget back to the owner. If there is any evidence of wrongdoing, a company can retain these devices as evidence to protect the company from any future charges by the employee.
By following these five steps, a company should be able to successfully process the termination of a key employee and minimize any potential harm.
