IT for Care Homes: How to produce an employee offboarding IT policy

When your carers, managers or head office staff leave, do you have a process in place for offboarding their IT?

It’s really important for your care home or group to make sure their devices, passwords and access is managed carefully.

Here’s  an overview of some of the worst-case scenarios if you don’t have an offboarding process in place, plus how to produce a successful employee offboarding IT policy for your care homes.

Data Security – If ex-employees still have access to systems, it could potentially expose the care home or group to files being deleted or their client databases entering the public domain (either accidentally or maliciously). A successful offboarding process ensures data access is removed so sensitive data stays secure and private.

Reputation – If you are offboarding a disgruntled employee, it leaves systems open for them to sabotage. If they still have access to emails, they can extract addresses and still contact key personnel or even residents and families.

Cyber Breaches – If passwords are not changed, it could lead to data being sold to cybercriminals.

Compliance – care homes and groups must comply with guidelines, such as GDPR, and regulations for employees leaving. 

Things you can do internally

1. Make sure HR/management automatically tells IT if anybody is leaving, when they are leaving (and indeed if returning at any point) etc.
2. Appoint an IT provider such as GHM to manage access, identity controls etc.
3. Keep a record of devices used – ensure these are all returned as even if they are historic, they could still contain sensitive data.
4. Create an offboarding IT checklist and share with HR and managers.

How GHM Handles IT Offboarding for Our Clients

We’ll streamline the entire offboarding IT process for care homes and groups, each time a member of staff leaves.

Our Account Managers will help too create and implement an offboarding checklist.

We’ll also discuss recommendations for improving care home security and efficiency for offboarding. This will include IT Security, using personal devices for work purposes, Password Protection guidelines, and having a robust data access policy.

Lastly, don’t forget about your Microsoft licences if you use them in your care homes. Are these being reused? You don’t want to be paying for licences not in use. We can review your licenses to make sure you’re not paying for licenses you’re not using.

For further information or advice, contact us on 01865 367111.