Some thoughts on the issue of employee knowledge exit strategies:

When an employee leaves an organization there are a number of considerations, which should be addressed as they relate to records and information management, such as:
·	Electronic Information/data 
.	E-mail Accounts - any e-mail messages that contain corporate information
.	Files on structured and unstructured drives
.	Files on removable media, diskettes, CD's, PDA's, personal computers
.	Corporate information contained within any voice related hardware
·	Job specific hard copy information in possession of employees such as files, reports,     	project information, publications, correspondence, meeting minutes, statistical data, 	reference materials, presentations contained in cabinets, desks etc.  
·	Expense records such as travel records, vendor and product selection information, 	procurement information, budgetary information 
·	Individual files such as payroll, timesheets, and performance review documents 
·	Procedural records, manuals and guides 
·	Information in an employees head (knowledge transfer) - manager could meet with employee to 	discuss and record any outstanding issues, projects being worked on, subject matter expert 	information which only this employee knows etc.

Corporate E-mail Accounts

One of the issues organizations are dealing with is how to handle active/dormant e-mail accounts, after the departure of an employee, which may contain corporate information.  Some of the methods (up for discussion) to mitigate the risk of losing valuable corporate information "could" be:

·	IT could be notified of an employee leaving the organization and access could be provided 	to the manager to review the account, with or without the employee.
	
·	The corporate e-mail policy could be amended to indicate that all employees must review 	their e-mail accounts prior to leaving the organization to file corporate information and 	to delete any personal or transitory information.  The policy could also state that if this 	process does not take place the dormant e-mail accounts will only be kept for (example) 60 	or 90 days and will then be deleted.
	
·	When an employee separates from the organization whether it is due to resignation, 	retirement, or termination, a knowledgeable administrator(s) could review the employee's 	email account to determine which e-mails should be retained and what the appropriate 	retention periods should be.
	
·	An Employee Exit Form could be created that employee must sign and submit that indicates 	all corporate information in their possession, including e-mail have been transferred into 	an approved records repository.  The employee's manager, Records Manager and the Corporate 	E-mail Group will also sign off this form.
	
·	Manager meets with employee before departure from the organization to ensure all 	"corporate" paper and electronic information, such as e-mails, have been deposited into the 	an approved records repository.  Any personal information should be removed from 	hardware/software.
	
·	Instead of just cancelling the employee's e-mail account, redirect it to the employee's 	manager or Records Manager for a short period of time, so that the manager can go through 	the account to retrieve any corporate information as well as to delete information of a 	personal or non-corporate nature.

·	Keep, in some form, the directory/metadata entries for staff that have left.  They often 	provide important information, such as the individual's position within the organization, 	login name, etc.  In other words they provide context and a relationship to the 	information.  If these aren't retained somewhere, it can be harder to make sense of many 	electronic records later (e.g. an email message sent to an alias or login name that you are 	no longer able to associate with any person or 	group).

These are my personal thoughts which came to mind as I know every organization is having to deal with this issue.  We live in a baby-Boomer age with a large majority of our workforce will be retiring in the next 5 - 10 years.  This is a global issue which needs to be addressed.

Great thread!

John Gervais
613-946-0245
mailto:[log in to unmask]

The opinions expressed in this post are personal and do not represent that of my employers.

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