Employment Termination Checklist

Notify the Human Resources office as soon as you have confirmed receipt of a termination letter from an employee.

Request the employee concerned to write a resignation letter that states he/she is leaving the company along with the effective date of resignation (companies usually request a minimum of two weeks notice, when possible and desirable).

Record the resignation letter and date of resignation using the form fields below.

Once they have been notified, record the details of the termination in question using the form fields below, so as to never lose track of this vital information.

Notify your network administrator or other appropriate staff of the date and time on which to terminate the employee's access to computer and telephone systems.

Make arrangements for how these accounts will be routed to ensure that your organization will not lose contact with clients and customers.

Disable the employee's building entry alarm code, if applicable.

Effective on the resignation date, whether immediately in a termination situation or at a mutually agreed upon end date, you need to cut off the employee's building access.

Depending on your access methods:

• You will need to disconnect the employee's building entry code
• Disable the entry swipe card
• Collect the employee's keys

It is in the best interests of you and your former employee that he or she cannot access any company property.

Resigning employees are required to turn in all company property. Follow the sub-checklist below to ensure that nothing is taken with them.

Employees should turn over passwords to their immediate supervisors and other information pertaining to accessing computer files and telephone messages. Note, you may want to keep email and phone accounts active for awhile to field customer contacts.

Resigning employees are paid up to a maximum of 30 days for unused, accrued vacation time. If the employee has used time not yet accrued, payment to the company for this time is subtracted from the last paycheck.

Note: If your company designates a certain number of days of sick leave and they are accrued, you would also need to pay the employee for the proportionate accrued benefits.

Immediately upon termination, former employees receive a letter from the Human Resources office that details the status of their benefits upon termination. Record a copy of this letter using the form field below.

Remember to cover life insurance, health coverage, retirement plan and expense account plans.

Repayment of advances: Any unpaid payroll advances will be subtracted from the employee's final check.

Any unpaid expenses in line with company business (turned in on an expense report) including unpaid commission and bonuses will be paid in the final paycheck.

Review of confidentiality or non-competition agreement: Any confidentiality or non-competition agreement that the exiting employee signed when commencing employment should be reviewed to make sure that the employee understands what is expected of him/her vis-a-vis such agreements.

Even if the employee never signed such a document, most employee handbooks have a clause or code of conduct paragraph about non-disclosure of company-related confidential information or trade secrets. Review this and remind the employee that any breach of this confidentiality will be addressed effectively.

Resigning employees are encouraged to participate in a confidential exit interview with the Human Resources department.

Exit interviews are an important process you can use to gather information regarding the working environment in your organization. When notified that an employee is terminating employment, your HR office will schedule an exit interview; record the date of this interview using the form field below. All information gathered is confidential and is reported periodically in summary form.

Resigning employees, who plan to seek employment elsewhere, must sign a form giving the company permission to provide reference information when potential employers call. Record the signed document by uploading a copy to the form field below.

Give the employee an address update form to fill out if they move. Especially for multinational companies, or those with high turnover, W-2s will come back as non-deliverable if the address has changed. As a backup, verify that the employee's emergency contact information is up-to-date and that you can contact that person if you have trouble getting their W-2s to them.

For the latest version of the W-2, click here.