What services do people use to retrieve hardware from former employees?

It really depends on the company and the employee. We’ve used robust ULINE boxes that can withstand quite a bit, ensuring laptops and monitors arrive safely. Plus, we generally require the former employee to bring back their gear, and it's been smooth sailing with even distant employees managing to return items.

Both DHL and UPS can help with this. You’d just need to provide a pre-addressed paid shipping label, and they manage the rest! Easy and efficient.

Consider the overall costs first. Sometimes it’s cheaper to have the employee send their gear to a secure disposal site rather than trying to recover and reuse everything. In many cases, new staff might just need new equipment for efficiency, especially with items like keyboards or mice that may not be worth returning. I typically suggest only asking for back laptops for compliance.

In my experience, I've sent out shipping boxes with all the packaging materials for hardware we want back. We usually let the former employees keep everything except for the CPU since it's often cheaper to replace monitors and peripherals than to ship them back. Depending on the situation, sometimes we cover the shipping costs.

You could set up a company account with FedEx or UPS. Then you can send an individual a slip they can print out. They’ll take it to the nearest shipping location, get a box and label, and it’ll be shipped back with tracking. I've used this in previous jobs, and it worked great.