Learn what steps the IT department has to perform to avoid being blamed for information leaks and ensure departing employees have no access to company’s data anymore.
Why Following An Employee Offboarding Checklist
Employee offboarding is a critical process that demands mutual contribution from both HR and IT teams. For HR professionals, this might include ensuring all necessary paperwork is completed, conducting exit interviews, and communicating the departure to relevant departments.
However, for companies using Google Workspace, the checklist for IT teams is crucial, as it is often the most dangerous stage. Departing unhappy users might be inclined to steal and misuse the company’s data. Even if the user is not unhappy, leaving access to files or drives poses a very real threat. Google Workspace admins will be responsible and blamed if an information leak in Google Workspace happens. Here’s a comprehensive checklist for IT teams to ensure a secure and efficient offboarding process.
Table of Contents
Checklist for IT Teams: Offboarding Users in Google Workspace
Revoke Access to Shared Files and Drives
- Use Google Admin Console to find all files and drives the user has access to.
- Revoke permissions and access to these shared resources.
Sign Out User from All Devices
- Ensure the user is signed out from all devices to prevent unauthorized access.
- Use the Google Admin Console to force sign-out from all sessions.
Change Password and Update Recovery Information
- Generate a new, secure password for the user’s account.
- Update the recovery email and phone number to ensure the user cannot reset the password.
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Suspend or Delete User Account
- Depending on the company policy, either suspend or delete the user account.
- If deleting, ensure all data is transferred to another user or archived as needed.
Archive User Data
- Use Google Vault to archive the user’s data.
- Ensure the data is securely stored and accessible for future reference if needed.
Remove Access to Third-Party Applications
- Revoke the user’s access to any third-party applications integrated with Google Workspace.
- Ensure all API tokens and credentials are invalidated.
Automating Offboarding Process
Manually managing the offboarding process can be time-consuming and result into error. That’s where IT operations automation comes into play.
Benefits of Automating Offboarding steps
Efficiency: Automating repetitive tasks saves time and reduces the workload on IT teams.
Consistency: Ensures that all steps are performed correctly and consistently every time, minimizing the risk of human error.
Security: Reduces the risk of data breaches by ensuring all access is revoked promptly and securely.
Scalability: Easily scales with the organization, handling large volumes of offboarding processes without additional strain on IT resources.
Step-by-Step Guide On Automating Offboarding With Zenphi
Zenphi, a Google Workspace workflows automation platform, and a must-have tool for Google admins, can help you automate these tasks, ensuring a more efficient and secure offboarding process.
Here’s a detailed guide on how to automate offboarding steps with Zenphi:
Removing Access to Shared Files and Logging Out
- Actions: Use Zenphi’s ‘List User’s Shared Files‘ and ‘Remove Sharing‘ actions to get a list of shared files and remove access.
- Process: Create a loop to go through all shared files and remove sharing permissions. Use the ‘Sign Out User‘ action to log the user out from all devices.
Generating New Password and Updating Recovery Information
- Actions: Use ‘Generate Password‘ and ‘Update User‘ actions to create a new password and update recovery information.
- Process: Configure the ‘Update User’ action to change the password and update the recovery email and phone number to prevent unauthorized access.
Suspending or Deleting User
- Actions: Use the “Suspend User” action to suspend a user. You can also choose to archive or delete the user account.
- Process: Specify the user’s email address and choose the appropriate action (suspend, delete, or archive). Ensure all data is securely transferred or archived as needed.
Alternatively: Use Zenphi's Employee Offboarding Flow Template
You can also use Zenphi’s fully customizable employee offboarding template. [Read a step-by-step template usage guide: How to use and customize zero-touch employee offboarding template]
Video Tutorial On How To Automate Employee Offboarding and Access Revokes
Watch this YouTube video to recreate the same flow in Zenphi
The #1 Workflow automation platform for google workspace admins
We’ve already helped hundreds of companies to implement best practices in security automation. If you want to update your employees offboarding protocols but unsure where to start, book an obligation-free conversation with our Google Workspace automation experts.
