Employee Termination Checklist

Change is seldom easy, even when it's for the best. And staff turnover can be a big distraction for the people who work for and with you. There are a number of employment and operational issues involved when an employee leaves your company, whether it's voluntary or not. This is sometimes an emotional or even potentially volatile event so it's important to be as prepared as possible. It's helpful to have a termination checklist to make sure nothing crucial gets overlooked. The following items should give you some ideas for developing your own termination checklist.

Company Property
You'll want to make sure things like company supplied computers, phones, and credit cards are returned. But don't neglect to collect the seemingly insignificant items like customer phone lists, marketing materials, and operational manuals. Come up with a procedure to quickly collect company property and allow the employee to retrieve their own things.

Security Access
You'll need to collect any physical access the employee has to company property, like keys and identification badges. But you'll also want to lock access to system and backup data by changing passwords or security privileges. It's a good idea to forward the employee's company email or set an automatic email alert to notify customers that the employee is no longer with you.

Compensation & Benefits
Determine what wages are owed and if the company is required to pay for any vacation time that was accrued but not used. Coordinate preparation of COBRA or your state's equivalent with the health insurance provider. Prepare information regarding the rollover of any retirement plans or other benefits and notify the carriers of the employee's termination. Collect any final expense reports for proper reimbursement.

Operational Matters
It's a good idea to remove the employee from the company website and change the employee's voicemail message. Establish a procedure for reviewing incoming email and voicemail messages. Finally, you may want to notify customers and suppliers of the change and introduce the employee's replacement if time allows.

Exit Interview
Make sure you confirm the employee's address for any future mailings. Review your confidentiality or proprietary information agreements and place the completed termination checklist in the employee's file.