Dismissing an employee is never easy. You will undoubtedly not be taking the decision to terminate an employee’s contract lightly, but it may only help your business to grow. You should involve both internal and external IT experts to build a case and protect your business. Find out how to use technology to handle an employee termination.
Find Evidence for Dismissal
You cannot dismiss an employee without evidence of misconduct. You must build a solid case to dismiss an employee and potentially take legal action. For example, a professional digital forensics specialist can gather, analyze and report relevant evidence from a device or storage media, and they can also backup their reports with expert testimony.
Notify IT Department of a Termination
If you have solid evidence and plan to terminate employment, notify your internal IT department of the termination meeting, so they can revoke any computer access while the meeting is taking place, which can immediately protect your data from a disgruntled member of staff. It is also critical to document the revocation of access for various legal purposes, as either the company or the former employee may choose to pursue litigation, such as unfair dismissal. It is also wise to revoke access when it makes financial and technological sense for the business.
Launch a Termination Policy
Every business has a responsibility to protect its infrastructure. For this reason, you must enforce a strict policy that states who must notified when an employment comes to an end within the business. For example, the policy must state that immediate notification must be provided to an IT department immediately, so they can take the appropriate action. The information security contact must also be responsible for researching, documenting and cancelling an account to prevent employee access.
Collect All Company-Owned Technologies
Nothing is more valuable to a business than its data. Following a termination of a contract, companies must collect all company-owned technologies, which may contain corporate files, sales records or marketing information. Make a record of every item loaned to an employee during their employment, so you can effectively recover all technologies before they have left the business.
Preserve Documents for a Potential Lawsuit
Companies should also consider enacting policies that outline how the IT department should preserve critical data, logs, records or materials, which would provide evidence to support the dismissal if a former employee chooses to embark on a legal battle. This is an essential process if you have dismissed a high-level member of staff whose reputation might have been damaged because of a termination.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are a variety of ways to utilize technology not only to dismiss a member of staff, but to protect your organization, data and internal processes. What’s more, the digital storing of critical evidence could help to protect your company when facing a nasty lawsuit with a former employee. Talk to your IT department about the different ways you can use technologies to protect your company before, during and after an employee termination.