Offboarding Workflows

Offboarding workflows ensure that every departure — voluntary or involuntary — is handled consistently, securely, and completely. Equipment is returned, access is revoked, knowledge is transferred, and all legal documentation is archived.

Why Use the Offboarding Workflow

Skipping structured offboarding creates risk:

• Forgotten accounts remain active after the employee leaves
• Equipment goes untracked and unrecovered
• Sensitive knowledge walks out the door without documentation
• Legal documents go unsigned
• Defend insider threat monitoring is never activated

The offboarding workflow coordinates HR, IT, and the employee's manager so nothing is missed.

⚠️Always initiate offboarding through the Offboarding workflow — not by directly changing the employee's status to Terminated. The workflow triggers Hub access revocation and activates Defend insider threat monitoring. Changing status directly skips these integrations.

Starting Offboarding

1. Navigate to Offboarding in the left navigation
2. Click New Offboarding
3. Select the Employee
4. Set the Last Day of Work — the date on which Hub access will be revoked
5. Select an offboarding template (or build a custom checklist)
6. Review the task list and adjust assignees or due dates as needed
7. Click Start Offboarding

When offboarding starts:

• People notifies Defend to begin elevated endpoint monitoring for this employee
• People schedules Hub access revocation for the employee's last day
• All assignees receive email notifications with their tasks

Offboarding Templates

Like onboarding templates, offboarding templates define a default checklist for a given role.

Creating an Offboarding Template

1. Go to Offboarding > Templates
2. Click New Template
3. Add tasks across categories — the same categories as onboarding apply

Sample Offboarding Checklist

Task	Category	Assignee	Due
Schedule exit interview	Orientation	HR	Day −5
Collect company laptop and accessories	Equipment	Manager	Last Day
Collect access badges and keys	Equipment	Manager	Last Day
Collect company phone (if applicable)	Equipment	Manager	Last Day
Revoke Microsoft 365 account	IT Setup	IT	Last Day
Revoke VPN and remote access	Access	IT	Last Day
Revoke PSA/CRM/RMM access via Hub	Access	IT	Last Day
Transfer open PSA tickets to another tech	Documentation	Manager	Day −3
Document client relationships and notes	Documentation	Employee	Day −5
Knowledge transfer session with replacement	Training	Manager	Day −3
Send farewell announcement to team	Orientation	HR	Last Day
Process final pay and any unused PTO payout	Documentation	HR	Last Day
Send separation agreement for signing	Documentation	HR	Last Day
Archive employee email (90-day retention)	IT Setup	IT	Last Day
File I-9 and employee records per retention policy	Documentation	HR	Last Day + 3

Hub Access Revocation

On the employee's last day, People sends an instruction to Hub to revoke the employee's access across all products. This happens automatically — no manual step is required.

Access revocation includes:

• Hub login disabled
• All product sessions invalidated (forced logout)
• SSO tokens invalidated

💡If you need to revoke access earlier (e.g., immediate termination for cause), edit the offboarding and change the Last Day of Work to today. Access revocation will execute immediately.

Exit Interview

Schedule the exit interview as an offboarding task. People does not have a dedicated exit interview form, but you can:

• Use the task's Notes field to record key takeaways
• Upload exit interview notes as an attachment
• Create a performance review of type Improvement Plan to document the departure context if needed

Knowledge Transfer

Knowledge transfer is the most commonly skipped offboarding step. Including it as a required task for the departing employee ensures client relationships, tribal knowledge, and in-progress work are documented before they leave.

Best practice: require the employee to create a knowledge transfer document covering:

• Active client accounts and relationship context
• In-progress projects and their status
• Recurring tasks or responsibilities they own
• Contacts, credentials, or access they hold
• Anything only they know

Legal Document Archiving

After offboarding, the employee's records must be retained per your jurisdiction's employment law requirements (typically 3–7 years depending on jurisdiction and document type).

People retains all records in the soft-deleted employee vault — records are never hard-deleted. The following are preserved:

• Full employee profile (all versions via audit trail)
• All signed e-sign documents
• Policy acknowledgments
• Performance reviews
• Time off records
• Training records and certifications
• Audit logs

ℹ️People retains audit records for 1 year. For longer retention requirements, export and archive records per your legal counsel's guidance before the 1-year audit TTL expires.

Tracking Offboarding Progress

From Offboarding, you see all active offboarding processes:

• Status: Not Started, In Progress, Completed, Overdue
• Progress: percentage of tasks completed
• Last Day of Work
• Overdue tasks highlighted in red

Completing Offboarding

Once all tasks are complete and the employee's last day has passed:

1. Open the offboarding
2. Verify all tasks are marked complete
3. Click Complete Offboarding
4. The employee's status is automatically updated to Terminated or Resigned based on the offboarding type

The employee record is preserved with status Terminated/Resigned. They remain searchable in the directory with filters.