4 things to do after terminating an employee

Are you an employer?  Have you ever terminated an employee or had an employee leave?

If the answer is “yes”, consider this checklist of things to do after terminating an employee:

1⃣.  Pay the final paycheck.  Oklahoma law requires an employee to pay the final paycheck by the date that paychecks would have regularly been paid.  There are substantial penalties if the check is not paid.  No offsets or deductions are allowed from the paycheck unless the employee has agreed in writing to them.

2⃣.  Recover company-owned property.  If the employee has a car, a phone, tools or other equipment, be certain to plan for the return of it prior to the employee’s final departure.

3⃣.  Eliminate security access.  If the employee has access to password-protected websites or any confidential company information, cut-off the employee’s access to reduce the risk of the unauthorized capture of information.

4⃣.  Remove employee as the point of contact.  Often, one employee is the point of contact for goods and services used and purchased by the company.  The vendors that provide these goods and services are familiar with the employee.  Upon the employee’s departure, contact the vendors and make arrangement for a new point of contact.  Sometimes this may require something in writing from the company to the vendor.

Are there other issues you have seen that need to be addressed when an employee leaves?


Posted by Shawn Roberts

On this blog, I write about and try to answer practical Oklahoma legal questions. My focus and most experience is in estate planning and business issues including Oklahoma non-compete law. I make a living as an attorney in the law firm I founded, Shawn J. Roberts, P.C. in Oklahoma City. I live in Edmond with my wife Amy and my two children, Sam (19) and David (11). We live precisely in the path of where the "wind comes sweeping down the plains."