Off-boarding Employees: Records Management

The DES Records Management Policy states:

The employee’s supervisor will work directly with the employee to make sure that records are retained and managed to provide continuity for the agency and its business needs. Employees leaving their position will make sure that all documents, portable storage devices, and email pertaining to their position and job duties are accessible by their supervisor.

Ideally, you will work with employees prior to their departure to ensure that any records they may have are transferred appropriately or (for emails) assigned retention labels. However, this may not always be possible, so below are steps to take after an employee has left.

When completing the SAR

1. Check “Yes” under “Do Email and Network Files Need to be Reviewed? (i.e. I drive, home folder)” if you are unable to work with your employee to transfer and organize their emails and files prior to their departure.
   
   
2. If the employee’s records are subject to an ongoing litigation hold or public records request, check “Yes” under: “Does Employee have records subject to Current Legal Hold or Public Request?”

Reviewing emails

1. Be sure that at least one of the emails in the employee’s inbox is labeled with the appropriate retention policy label from the list below (for instructions on applying retention labels, see Applying Retention Labels to Individual Emails).

I Drive/Home Folder, C Drive

Move the types of files below to the appropriate shared folders used by the workgroup:

• • Work completed as part of the agency’s role or function
  • Finalized documents and master copies
  • Program records
  • Administrative records
  • Finalized meeting records
  • Active draft documents currently open to comment from colleagues
  • Policies and procedures master files
  • Reports
    
    

Do not move these:

• • Supervisor’s employee files
  • Files used for reference only
  • Drafts and superseded documents
  • Personnel records (e.g., copies of the employee’s evaluation, PDF)
  • Files that have no retention value (e.g., duplicates/copies)

Tip: Never name a shared folder with an employee’s name (e.g., Sara_Salter). All folders should be named and organized according to function or role (e.g., Popcorn_Program_2015 or Popcorn_Director_2015) so that active records can be easily found and used by others, and quickly identified when those records have met their required retention period and are eligible for destruction.

Further questions

If you have further questions, contact your records management coordinator or the DES Records Officer.