The Complete & Perfected Employee Offboarding Process for Creative Agencies

📌 The Call I Wasn't Expecting

A few months ago, someone I'd never met reached out through a referral.

She was an office manager looking for an IT partner, but her reason for calling caught me off guard. She wasn't calling because the network went down or because someone got hacked. She was calling because she wanted help offboarding team members properly.

She told me she'd been winging it, doing her best, but she knew there were too many things to track. She didn't want to wait until something went really wrong.

That conversation stuck with me. Because she's not alone. A lot of office managers are winging it, and the stakes are higher than most people realize.

Most people wait for the emergency. She was smart enough to ask for help before the fire started, and that's exactly the mindset that saves you from heartache, panic, and unnecessary expense.

🎯 The Problem with Winging It

Here's the reality: when someone leaves, whether it's a resignation or a termination, chaos follows.

You're juggling a million things. The last thing you need is to remember 47 steps when someone walks out the door.

But here's what happens when you wing it:

Security holes.
The ex-employee still has their key fob. They can still walk into the office six months later. They still have access to the Google Drive with all your client templates.

Wasted money.
You're paying $50 a month for an Adobe seat they're not using. Or $300 a year for a project management tool you forgot to cancel. It adds up fast.

Embarrassment.
You realize months later that their email is still active. Someone sends them a message. It bounces. Or worse, they reply because they have been forwarding messages to their personal address.

If you manage operations at an interior design studio, architecture firm, or other creative business, you know this pressure intimately. You're the one people run to when things break. And when someone leaves? You're the one expected to close every loop, fast.

Memory fails. Complexity kills. You need a system.

💡 Why You Need an Employee Offboarding Checklist

Pilots don't trust their memory to lower the landing gear.

Surgeons use checklists to save lives.

Why do we trust memory when someone leaves the company?

Offboarding isn't an admin task. It's a flight safety procedure.

You need a checklist. A crash-proof system. The thing that ensures nothing slips through the cracks.

But here's the thing: a blank checklist doesn't help if you don't know what belongs on it.

A lot of people don't know what they don't know. They might remember to collect the laptop, but forget about the Adobe seat bleeding $60 a month. Or they'll suspend the email account, but miss the fact that the person still has admin access to your entire Google Workspace.

So yes, I'm going to help you build that checklist and I'm also giving you the recipe for what needs to happen. The stuff that actually matters. The things that protect your firm, your budget, and your peace of mind.

⚠️ The Timing Rule: Why Immediacy Matters

Before we get into how to properly offboard someone, let's talk about when.

Look, most people are good. The creative industry is full of kind, mature professionals who would never dream of sabotaging a former employer.

But here's the thing: you don't always know someone's full story in the first six months. And by the time you do, it might be too late.

We've worked with enough firms to know that the occasional bad actor exists. Not malicious, necessarily. Just someone who makes poor decisions under pressure. And when you're handing someone their exit conversation, you're introducing pressure.

So here's the rule:

Until you've built deep trust, make sure you can retrieve critical hardware (especially the work computer) immediately at the time of the announcement.

Not because you assume the worst, but because you're protecting the firm. And honestly, protecting them too. Clean breaks are kinder for everyone.

If it feels awkward to ask, blame the insurance policy.
"Our insurance requires us to secure company devices immediately."

That usually does the trick.

And one final note:
Google and Microsoft change their policies often. If a specific step or suggestion doesn't align with what you're seeing, please reach out. We're here to help.

🖥️ Employee Offboarding Checklist: Hardware & Physical Assets

Let's start with the physical stuff. The things you can see and touch.

The Primary Machine

✅ Laptops and workstations

✅ Tablets (iPads that often get taken home for "weekend sketches")

✅ Company phones (or personal phones with company plans or data)

The Peripherals

✅ AC adapters (you need them for the next person)

✅ Pricey monitors, docking stations

✅ Anything with company data on it (external drives, USB sticks)

Access and Operations (The "Others")

This is where things get missed:

✅ Physical keys and fobs

✅ Company credit cards (physical cards and digital wallets)

✅ Parking transponders, garage tags

✅ Invalidate unique codes (building entry, alarm systems, etc.)

You'd be surprised how often someone forgets the parking tag. Or the spare office key. Or the company Amex sitting in their wallet.

Make a list. Check it twice.

🔐 Employee Offboarding Checklist: Software & Digital Access

This is where it gets tricky. And expensive.

The "Big Two" (Email Providers)

Most creative firms run on Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. Here's what you need to do for each.

Google Workspace

Suspend vs. Delete:
Keeping an offboarded account archived and accessible requires a license, but this reduced cost license is $2-$7 per month at the time of writing this article and totally worth it. We recommend keeping it unless the email was created and never used.

Archiving is always smart. We've seen too many cases where people were convinced there was nothing of value in someone's mailbox, then months later wished they'd kept it.

What to consider under the Google account when offboarding:

📧 Email
Set up forwarding for future emails directed to this person. Optionally, set up an auto reply to let senders know this person is no longer with the company.

📂 Drive ownership
Transfer ownership of files and folders. You don't want critical client files stuck in a suspended account.

📅 Calendar
Transfer or delegate calendar items and scheduled appointments.

📇 Contact lists
If they have value, export or transfer them.

⚙️ Admin privileges
If the person being offboarded has admin privileges, keep the account active until someone can deeply evaluate whether it's safe to deactivate.

Microsoft 365

Core actions:

🚫 Block sign in

📬 Convert to shared mailbox (This preserves history without the license cost. Smart move.)

What to consider:

📂 OneDrive
Transfer ownership of files.

📅 Calendar
Transfer items and scheduled appointments.

📧 Email
Set up forwarding so any future emails directed to this person are sent to the appropriate team member. You can also set up an auto reply to let senders know this person is no longer with the company.

⚙️ Admin privileges
If the person being offboarded has admin level access in Microsoft 365, do not deactivate the account immediately. Keep it active until someone with the right technical knowledge can deeply evaluate all the permissions, roles, and access points tied to that account. Once you're confident it's safe to deactivate, then proceed.

The "Creative Stack" (Adobe, AutoCAD, and Others)

This is where creative firms bleed money.

Adobe Creative Cloud and AutoCAD:

Reclaim the seat. Whether it's Photoshop, AutoCAD, or Revit, those licenses are expensive. Make sure you deactivate and reassign.

If you're letting people install company software on personal devices:

Make sure you can account for these and deactivate them when they leave.

Our recommendation? Only let team members use software you're licensing on computers issued to them. For security, cost management, and budgeting, this is the cleanest approach.

Line of Business Applications

Any software licensed or account created for this team member to perform their job counts here.

Examples:
📊 Project management tools (Asana, Monday)
💰 Accounting software (QuickBooks)
🎨 Rendering tools (Enscape, Lumion)
🗂️ Any other platform they used regularly

The concern is twofold:

Security:
People don't always mean harm. But they might think it's innocent to take your complete folder of client templates to their new job. That's a data leak, whether they realize it or not.

Financial:
Track renewals. Look for reassignment opportunities. Cancel subscriptions if possible. If you can't cancel, keep proper track so you're not surprised at renewal time.

✅ The Vision vs. The Consequence

Here's what happens when you have a system:

You're not winging it.

When someone leaves, you pull out the checklist. You don't panic. You don't forget.

Six months later, you're not scrambling to cancel a license or lock out an old account.

You sleep better. Your firm is safer. Your budget is tighter.

Here's what happens when you don't:

The embarrassment of the ex-employee still having access.

The wasted money. Hundreds of dollars a year on unused licenses.

The security risk. Data walking out the door, innocently or otherwise.

Now that you have your exit protocol dialed in, the next natural question is: what does a bulletproof onboarding system look like? We'll tackle that soon.

Need help setting this up for your team? Let's chat.