Leaver’s checklist

Once an employee is getting ready to leave, there will be a number of formalities to go through. It's important that you don't miss anything out here. Our leaver’s checklist contains all the important points you (or your managers) need to cover.

Getting ready to go

As soon as you know that an employee will be leaving - perhaps due to a dismissal, redundancy or resignation - there will be a number of formalities to go through. Firstly, you need to think about certain contractual matters. For example:

• have they given you the correct notice period; or
• whether to enforce a garden leave clause to protect the company's position?

You also need to consider whether they'll need to be replaced or if you can allocate their workload amongst existing staff. All that leads on to how their resignation will be communicated to other employees and senior management.

Prior to them leaving, you need to find out certain information such as:

• how much work they have outstanding
• whether their outstanding expenses claims have all been submitted
• up-to-date personal contact details, e.g. telephone number and/or e-mail address (in case you need to communicate with them for any reason post-employment).

You also need to arrange a hand-over period plus confirm if they've accrued any outstanding holiday which you must then pay them for.

Taking it all back 

By their last day (at the very latest) you also need to deal with matters such as:

• carrying out an exit interview
• cancelling any e-mail and/or IT access
• ensuring the return of all company property
• removing any ID or security pass and/or car parking permit.

Finally, you need to authorise their final salary payment and arrange for their P45 to be issued. Our Leaver’s Checklist covers all the important points and can be adapted to suit the particular needs of your own business. Once every stage has been completed, the document should be signed by the employee's line manager and a copy kept on their personnel file.