What an Employee Should Do Before Leaving Western

As an employee of Western you may have accumulated a treasure trove of email messages, documents, spreadsheets, presentations and other files that may be of value to your coworkers long after you leave. You may also have become a point of contact for services your group provides, or you may manage or approve access to services that others need. The following checklist will help you and your department prepare for your departure. We recommend reviewing this checklist with your supervisor.

Email Handling

Set an Auto-Reply in Outlook to redirect people to another point of contact in your department before your last day. You can even set this up weeks before your last day. It will not prevent you from personally responding to an email message, and each sender will receive the automatic notification only once.

Forward Important Messages. If there are messages you think your supervisor or coworkers need, forward those messages before you leave. If you have a large number of messages to transfer to someone else, move them to a folder in Outlook and export them.

Phones and Voice Mail

Change the voice mail greeting on your phone to provide callers with a new point of contact, or forward your number to someone else in your department.

Share Important Files and Resources

If you store files on your OneDrive for Business account, you may want to download a copy of your OneDrive so you can provide copies of specific files to your coworkers. The same is true if you use Google Drive in our Google Workspace environment.

If you manage any technology resources, it is important to transfer management over to a coworker or supervisor. Your personal OneDrive can host a number of resources that should be moved to a shared departmental location:

Office 365 Groups or Microsoft Teams

If you are the owner of any Microsoft Teams or Office 365 Groups, please elevate another member to the Owner role. 

Security Groups

Do you manage any security groups or distribution lists? Email the Help Desk at helpdesk@wwu.edu and let us know whom to designate as the new manager. We recommend doing this at least two weeks before your last day so there is no interruption in services that you are authorized to provide. Also consider these possibilities:

  • Are you a delegate for a resource calendar?
  • Are you a meeting organizer for recurring meetings?
  • Do you manage any Office 365 groups? Elevate a another member of the group to Administrator.
  • Are you a Yammer group admin?

Your Computer and Devices

Ask a technician to re-image the computer or at least clean it up for the next employee. Also make sure they are aware of any university-owned mobile devices or technology-related accessories you have.

Software Licenses

If you owned Licensed software, it is probably possible to transfer the license to your department or whoever is replacing you. Contact Software Services to get a list of transferable software that is currently in your name. 

 

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