Cybersecurity

From welcome to farewell: why secure onboarding and offboarding are essential to your IT policy

Welcoming new employees. Waving goodbye to departing colleagues. At first sight, it seems like a purely HR story, but don’t be mistaken: behind the scenes, IT plays an equally important role. And if that part isn’t right, you risk leaving sensitive data exposed.

In many SMEs, this aspect stays under the radar, with all the consequences that come with it: forgotten access rights, leftover accounts or uncontrolled access. That’s why we’re taking a clear look at what IT onboarding and offboarding mean, why they’re so important, and how to approach them structurally.

What is IT onboarding and why is it more than creating a login?

When we think of onboarding, we quickly picture a welcome pack and a first team meeting. But IT onboarding mainly means making sure that an employee gets smooth and secure access to the right digital tools.

A good IT onboarding includes:

Creating user accounts (email, collaboration tools, your CRM, …)
Setting up multi-factor authentication (MFA)
Assigning access rights based on role
Providing and securing devices (laptop, smartphone)
Basic training on IT policy and cybersecurity

Without structure, mistakes creep in. New colleagues might, for example, get too many rights by default, or there’s no visibility on which data they can actually open. That’s not only inefficient, it’s also a risk.

Offboarding: the often forgotten final step

An employee leaves. You delete their mailbox, recover the laptop and… that’s it? Not quite. Without a structured IT offboarding, digital backdoors often stay open, ready to be reopened — consciously or unconsciously.

Accounts that continue to exist and remain vulnerable to misuse.
Files in the cloud that are still shared.
External tools (such as chat apps, storage services or marketing software) that
the employee still has access to.

The result:
A former employee who, accidentally or intentionally, still has access to your systems. In the worst case, even years later.

Example from practice:
At one of our clients, we discovered during an audit that a former employee still had access to customer data months after leaving, via a forgotten SaaS tool. Luckily, there was no misuse, but it could have gone differently. The incident led to a complete revision of the access policy.

Why is this a problem for your cybersecurity?

According to IBM, human errors and insufficient access management are responsible for a large part of data leaks at SMEs. Onboarding and offboarding are the moments when you can gain control over who has access to which systems.

Without a policy, you get:

Shadow access that no one monitors
Poor password hygiene (old passwords remain valid)
Compliance risks during audits

The impact?
A forgotten account can lead to data leaks, reputational damage and fines under GDPR. Especially when growing or dealing with frequent staff changes, you don’t want to make mistakes here.

How should you approach it?

No panic: you don’t need to be an IT expert to do this properly. With a few clear guidelines and the right partner, you can go a long way.

A safe and efficient approach doesn’t need to be complicated, just structured:

Work with standardised checklists for onboarding and offboarding
Automate the process via an IT partner or tool (such as your identity management platform)
Link rights to roles, not individuals
Plan regular audits of access rights and active accounts
Don’t forget external parties (freelancers, suppliers)

What does it bring you?

More control over your digital environment
Less risk of errors or misuse
Efficiency during growth or staff turnover
Peace of mind for yourself and your team

The role of your IT partner: proactive and structured

At Tyneso, we help SMEs make their IT policy future-proof. That starts with the basics: knowing who has access to what. And managing that securely, from the first working day to long after the farewell.

With our approach, you get:

Structured onboarding and offboarding flows
Integrations with your existing tools (such as email, cloud storage or your accounting software)
Full control over access management, with audit trail
Peace of mind: knowing it’s all properly arranged

Time to make your company secure, from welcome to farewell

Access management may sound technical, but ultimately it’s about trust. Trust in your processes, in your people, and in the digital foundation of your business.

Ready to get your onboarding and offboarding in order? Plan a free consultation with us today. Together, we’ll look at where your risks lie and how to tackle them smartly.

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