In fact, one thing that is becoming an increasingly common problem for companies everywhere is stolen data from resigning employees. If you’re wondering how to prevent employee data theft, here are a few things to consider.

Protecting your company data is a practice that should be present in every stage of the employee lifecycle. However, all necessary practices to protect the company should always be rooted in consent.

Before beginning work with your company, employees should already understand what the expectations when it comes to data are. They must also understand the amount of surveillance they agree to in order to protect it.

With their consent, companies can take both preventative and proactive measures to identify data breaches.

Companies should also incentivize teams to report questionable behavior and be given the avenue to do so safely and anonymously, especially when it comes to teams whose data can affect the whole company.

2. Establish Institutional Knowledge Management

When it comes to roles like sales, many companies struggle with losing their relationships once a salesperson leaves. Many salespeople will attempt to bring their accounts with them to their new companies, which will make the value that your company invested in the relationship go to waste.

Additionally, stealing strategies from planning meetings has multiple effects on companies.

Not only can this create a loss in revenue, but it can also lead to decreased team morale. Within a campaign, cross-functional teams often work together to contact customers, build pitches, manage relationships, and close sales. So when a company loses customers to competitors due to data breaches, it is disappointing for a lot of people.

To protect your company from losing your valuable network of clients, there are two parts of the equation—creating a system of storing institutional knowledge data, and decentralizing a client relationship through automation.

If you find that your teams are too overwhelmed to add another step in their workflow, you can outsource parts of the data management to sales enabling software or specialists. Various tools are already available that track relationships and automate parts of the sales pipeline.

3. Heighten Intrusion Detection Systems

Before an employee is due to resign, there are a few telltale signs that may appear.

First, it could be that employees are on LinkedIn more often or browsing career portals of other companies. Secondly, they may be using company Wi-Fi to send job applications through email.

Should you suspect that specific companies are trying to pirate your talent with the intent of stealing your data, set up a notification for any correspondence with these companies. While there doesn’t need to be any immediate actions following these speculative attempts, security teams should heighten surveillance for at-risk employees.

Whether it is downloading a questionable file size, sending PDFs through encrypted messaging platforms, or sending unusually large emails to personal accounts, there are plenty of ways to spot data theft and corporate espionage preemptively.

4. Carry Out Exit Interviews

Exit interviews are a great way to check for any red flags for departing employees and even those who will be left behind. Keeping tabs on where an employee will be going next will help map the possible intent in the event of any stolen data.

For example, employees leaving to work for a competitor in a similar role will more likely be at risk than those who will work in an unrelated industry in a different capacity. If an employee is believed to be high risk, they should be monitored for their remaining few weeks at work and even the weeks afterwards.

Also, for those long-term employees, many do not remember the terms of their contracts upon resignation. These relevant contracts include confidentiality agreements, competition clauses, and other data-related conditions.

During an exit interview, remind employees about the specific terms that they are still legally bound by, even if they are no longer working with you.

This should include the willful distribution of company-owned information, as well as failing to disclose, delete, or return data that belongs to the company. This is a great way to discourage those with possible intent to steal data, and acts as a reminder for anyone who has simply forgotten about their terms of employment.

5. Off-Boarding Procedures

After exit interviews, securing data during off-boarding is the next step. Aside from the obvious request to return company devices and revoking any administrative access, security teams should also do a routine interview on data storage practices.

Post-resignation interviews should include questions about their personal data safety practices. For example, working on public Wi-Fi while working on company files, asking if they have any remaining hard copies of data at home, or have lent their devices to friends or family members.

While it is not good to assume that every departing employee will intend to steal your data, it is safe to assume that many will be lax about it. While unintentional, these acts can still be attributed to the departing employee and put your company data unnecessarily at risk.

Prevent Data Breaches with Exiting Employees

Teaching good security practices is an investment worth making for every company. Even if an employee only stays with you for a few months, data management policies and procedures can prevent many possible issues within that time.

While it’s impossible to know from the beginning which employees are trustworthy, it is much better to avoid gambling. Despite not being tempted by competitors or planning to steal company data, there are still ways for things to go wrong. Some exiting employees can simply be lazy and cause a data breach.

Whether it’s through malicious intent or pure ignorance, protecting company data is an endeavor worth pursuing. Employees have every right to move on to new companies and better-suited roles. However, your company data does not have to go with them.