Maintain Data Security With Google Workspace When an Employee Exits
Read time: 5 minutes
Losing an employee can be a challenging period for any organization. It involves not only saying goodbye to a valued team member but also concerns about the potential impact on the entire company. If not handled effectively, an employee’s departure may result in security vulnerabilities and data breaches. That’s why having a well-thought-out plan for managing an employee’s exit is crucial, especially if the parting is on less-than-ideal terms.
Fortunately, there are specific measures you can take to facilitate a seamless and safe departure for both the departing employee and your company. This blog provides a detailed, step-by-step guide on orchestrating an employee exit using Google Workspace. Adhering to these guidelines will help safeguard your company’s data and uphold security throughout this transition.
Verifying your Google Workspace users during employee departures is crucial. This ensures that the departing employee is indeed who they say they are and has the rightful access to your company’s data. After successful authentication, users gain entry to their Google Workspace account, empowering them to oversee their accounts and permissions. A robust authentication process simplifies user management, especially during employee exits.
After verifying the employee’s authentication, proceed to collect details regarding their organizational access privileges. This encompasses all administrative access or permissions they possess, extending to items like documents, drive folders, and other confidential data. This information should be documented and shared in a secure system so that you can manage access quickly and easily when the employee leaves your organization.
To enhance the security of an employee’s account, proceed by disabling their access to all Google Workspace services. Navigate to the admin console, then go to Users > Employee email address > Security. In this section, you’ll find a comprehensive list of Google Workspace services accessible to the employee. Disable their access to each of these services for an added layer of security.
After disabling the employee’s access to all Google Workspace services, proceed to retrieve their data through Google Takeout. Visit takeout.google.com and choose the specific data you wish to download. For most cases, you’ll want to download everything including Hangouts Chat and Meet data as this can often contain sensitive information. Follow the steps below.
Whether your employee departure is amicable or not, it’s wise to back up their data. Even if you’ve already downloaded all the information through Google Takeout, an additional backup ensures the safety of crucial files and documents. This precaution guarantees that nothing is lost in the event of any issues with their account.
To make this process as effortless as possible, you should use G Suite to PST to help you plan the exit and transition for the departing employee.
With this tool, you can effortlessly retrieve all the information from a user’s Google account, ranging from Gmail messages to documents saved in Google Drive. After downloading the data, you can confidently proceed to delete the user’s account without any concerns about data loss.
Furthermore, you have the flexibility to choose between selectively backing up specific Google Apps data or opting for a comprehensive backup of all the information housed in your account. Whether it’s Gmail data or Contacts, customization is at your fingertips—filter emails by various criteria like date, sender, size, and subject during the backup of Gmail data, or narrow down contacts based on name, email, phone number, and more during the backup of Contacts data. Once the backup is complete, the restored data can seamlessly integrate into any email client application that supports PST format or any email account compatible with the IMAP protocol. Moreover, you can purchase and activate the tool after opting for a free trial version and get hands-on experience.
Ensure that any devices provided by the company and utilized by the departing employee are thoroughly wiped. This action is crucial to deny them access to company data post-departure. To initiate the wiping process, navigate to the Admin console, select “Devices,” choose the specific device for wiping, and conclude by clicking on “Wipe Device.”
In the aftermath of an employee’s departure from the organization, it becomes crucial to scrutinize your security configurations. This involves not only ensuring the currency of all passwords but also introducing extra layers of authentication for accounts linked to sensitive information. Moreover, consider incorporating measures like two-factor authentication or identity verification services to guarantee that only authorized users can access your company’s resources.
After diligently following the steps outlined in this guide, you should possess a well-defined understanding of how to meticulously orchestrate a secure employee departure using Google Workspace. Keep in mind the crucial importance of seeking guidance from your HR department or legal advisors when navigating decisions pertaining to employees, particularly in the context of their farewells. Have you experimented with employing Google Workspace for orchestrating employee exits? Share your insights and tips in the comments for the benefit of fellow readers!
When you suspend a user in G Suite, their access to all G Suite services is removed. This includes Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Sites, Groups, Hangouts, and Vault.
Yes, suspended users can still log in with Google Workspace. However, they will be limited in what they can do and will not have access to certain features. Additionally, their account may be deleted after a prescribed period of time if it is not reinstated.
