When Employees Leave With Your Secrets
Management’s standard response when an employee says they’re leaving the company is to walk that worker out the door immediately. But James Pooley writes on Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP‘s website that the standard approach could put confidential information at risk.
“When you first learn of a departure, you are engaged in triage with two parallel priorities: find out what’s going on, and lock down the evidence,” he advises. “In most circumstances that may give you time for an initial meeting to get some details and perhaps try to turn the situation around. But you also have to be ready immediately to take actions that guarantee you get control over your data.”
Pooley provides a detailed exit interview checklist that covers possession of data and any restrictive agreements that will govern the departing employee’s behavior in his new job.