Article Introduction
When an employee leaves your business, there’s usually a well-established process for returning equipment, issuing final paperwork and communicating the departure internally. What often receives less attention is the digital footprint they leave behind.
For many organisations across Sussex, Surrey, Kent and the wider South East, employees rely on dozens of business systems every day, from Microsoft 365 and Teams to CRM platforms, cloud storage, supplier portals and social media accounts. Without a structured offboarding process, it’s surprisingly easy for access permissions, business data and critical systems to remain connected to someone who no longer works for the company.
As businesses become increasingly cloud-based, effective offboarding has become an essential part of both cybersecurity and business continuity planning.
Why Employee Offboarding Matters More Than Ever
Modern employees often accumulate access to a wide range of business applications over the course of their employment. While this supports productivity and collaboration, it can also create risk if access is not properly reviewed when someone leaves.
According to the UK Government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey, 43% of UK businesses identified a cyber security breach or attack in the previous 12 months. Many of these incidents stem from weaknesses in access management, including inactive or unnecessary user accounts.
Former employee accounts can present several challenges:
- Continued access to business systems and sensitive data
- Unnecessary user licences and software costs
- Increased risk of credential compromise
- Difficulty meeting compliance and data protection requirements
- Loss of visibility over who can access information
Most employee departures are entirely amicable. However, good security practice is not about trust, it’s about maintaining control over business systems and reducing unnecessary risk.
The Security Risks of Poor Offboarding
A common misconception is that offboarding simply means disabling an email account and collecting a laptop.
In reality, employees often have access to:
- Microsoft 365
- Teams and SharePoint sites
- OneDrive storage
- CRM platforms
- Finance systems
- Password managers
- Marketing and social media platforms
- Remote access tools
- Supplier and customer portals
If even one of these accounts remains active, it may create a security gap.
Former employee accounts, forgotten permissions and dormant credentials can all increase an organisation’s attack surface. As businesses adopt more cloud applications, collaboration platforms and remote working tools, maintaining control over user access becomes increasingly important.
Even where there is no malicious intent, inactive accounts can become attractive targets for cybercriminals. An old account with excessive permissions may provide a route into systems that would otherwise be well protected.
This is why effective offboarding should be treated as a cybersecurity process, not simply an HR task.
Protecting Microsoft 365 During Employee Offboarding
For many organisations, Microsoft 365 sits at the centre of daily operations. It stores emails, documents, conversations, calendars and business-critical information.
A robust Microsoft 365 offboarding process should include:
-
Disable User Access Promptly
Once departure arrangements are confirmed, organisations should have a clear process for disabling or restricting access at the appropriate time.
This should include:
- Microsoft Entra ID accounts
- Email access
- Teams access
- VPN connections
- Mobile device connections
2. Secure and Transfer OneDrive Data
Important files are often stored within individual OneDrive accounts.
Before removing licences or deleting accounts, ensure any business-critical content is identified and transferred to the appropriate manager, department or SharePoint location.
3. Review SharePoint and Teams Permissions
Employees often have access to team sites, document libraries and shared resources that span multiple departments.
Reviewing permissions helps ensure access rights remain aligned to current business needs and prevents unnecessary exposure to sensitive information.
4. Manage Shared Mailboxes
Many customer-facing employees have access to shared inboxes used for sales, support or operations.
Removing access and transferring ownership where required helps maintain continuity for customers and colleagues.
5. Recover and Secure Devices
Company laptops, tablets and mobile devices should be recovered, audited and securely wiped where appropriate.
Businesses using Microsoft Intune have additional options for remotely managing and securing devices if equipment cannot be returned immediately.
​Employee Offboarding Is Also a Business Continuity Issue
While security often receives the most attention, offboarding also plays a critical role in business continuity.
Many SMEs discover after an employee leaves that they were the sole administrator of an important system or account.
Common examples include:
- Facebook Business Manager accounts
- LinkedIn Company Pages
- Google Business Profile accounts
- Software subscriptions
- CRM platforms
- Website hosting portals
- Domain registrations
- Supplier portals
In some cases, these accounts were created using a personal email address rather than a company-managed account. Recovering access can be difficult, time-consuming and even impossible.
Social media management is a particularly common issue. If the only administrator leaves without transferring ownership, businesses can lose control over advertising accounts, company pages and customer communications. Employment law specialists have highlighted this as an increasingly common risk for organisations that rely on social media for marketing and customer engagement.
Similarly, important documents may remain stored in a user’s OneDrive, while key supplier relationships and system knowledge may exist only within that individual’s accounts.
Effective offboarding helps ensure business-critical information remains accessible, regardless of staff changes.
A Practical Employee Offboarding Checklist
Every organisation’s requirements will differ, but an effective offboarding process should typically include:
- Disable Microsoft 365 user access
- Remove Teams and SharePoint permissions
- Secure and transfer OneDrive data
- Recover company devices
- Remove VPN and remote access permissions
- Reset shared passwords where necessary
- Review social media and marketing platform ownership
- Audit third-party SaaS applications
- Remove access to supplier and customer portals
- Reallocate licences and subscriptions
- Update internal documentation
- Confirm business-critical accounts remain accessible
Don’t Wait Until Someone Leaves – Understand your Security and Continuity Gaps Now
The most effective offboarding processes are planned before they’re needed.
By regularly reviewing user permissions, documenting ownership of digital assets and maintaining clear procedures for Microsoft 365 account management, organisations can significantly reduce both security and operational risks.
Employee departures are inevitable. Unexpected loss of access to critical systems doesn’t have to be.
At Extech Cloud, we help businesses across the South East strengthen Microsoft 365 security, manage user access and implement practical processes that support both cybersecurity and business continuity. If you’d like to assess whether your employee offboarding process is leaving gaps in security or business continuity, contact our team for an initial 10-minute consultation.
