Hey everyone! I'm looking for advice on how to manage the return of company property, especially laptops, from remote employees who have been terminated. My boss has put me in charge of this task, but I'm not sure how best to approach it. I know there are services out there to help with this process, like Retriever and ReadyCloud ITAR, but we might be dealing with 50-100 employees, so a self-service route seems unrealistic for us. I'm also interested in options that can escalate to legal action if equipment isn't returned. Any tips or experiences would be greatly appreciated!
5 Answers
At my last job, we used a FedEx service where we could send out a box and return label once HR had the employee's address. It simplified things a lot! If the employee didn't return the equipment, it became HR's issue. I’d recommend exploring options like that or looking into shipping services tailored for businesses. It might make the return process smoother.
Just be sure to have a procedure for tracking if items don't come back—much easier to do if you can show these services that they’re worth the investment.
Honestly, anything older than a year should just be wiped and classified as a loss at this point—especially if they are non-compliant with returning it. But if you're struggling with HR processes, you might point out the financial impact of not retrieving assets to someone higher up to get action on it.
That’s a good strategy! I definitely want to make sure that my management sees the cost of lost equipment, just to highlight how important this is.
Yeah, sometimes it’s all about making that financial argument to get the ball rolling.
In our company, the direct supervisor is responsible for collecting any needed equipment from a departing employee. We keep an updated list of what each employee has, so when someone leaves, HR checks in with IT to find out what needs to be returned. They usually seek our advice on logistics too, especially for shipping items back once they're ready.
When I worked at a large firm, everyone had to return their gear by a certain date or face getting a prepaid box sent to them. If you're not going the self-service route, consider partnering with local logistics firms that can handle the returns for you. Also, I suggest checking with HR on how they handle this because their processes might be more established than what you're seeing from an IT perspective.
Most people keep saying this is an HR issue, and to some extent, they're right. If you have an asset management system, just give HR a rundown of what assets each employee has. They'll handle the collection since they're managing the termination process. If the employee cooperates, great! If not, that’s when you might need to involve legal. Just make sure you have everything documented.
Yeah, I'm stuck managing logistics here even though I think this should fall more on HR. I'm just trying to figure out what tools I can use.
Definitely push for some kind of tracking system if you don't have one! It makes the whole process easier.
That sounds like a useful service! I’ll have to look into it more.