Employee departure. What must the HR manager not forget?

Document documenting the termination of employment

The basic document evidencing the termination of the employment relationship is either a termination agreement, a notice of termination of employment or an immediate termination of employment by the employee or the employer. The most common form of termination of employment is a notice of termination by the employee. Termination of employment must be in writing and the HR department must pay particular attention to the following:

• Check that the document has all the legal requirements
• Ensure that the document is properly delivered, preferably signed by both the employee and the employer, with the date of delivery added.

Confirmation of employment

Another important duty entrusted to the HR department when an employee leaves is the issuance and delivery of the employment certificate. This certificate must be issued and handed over by the employer to the employee on departure. This is a legal obligation and the details of the employment certificate are precisely defined. If the employer fails to hand over the certificate properly, he runs the risk of being fined by the State Labour Inspection Authority, but he may also be sued for damages incurred by the employee as a result of the failure to issue the certificate. Typically, this is the inability to start a new job.

Cancellation of access to the internal network, internal system and e-mail

The HR department must ensure that the departing employee does not have access to internal systems. This is usually done by deleting the employee's personal account on the company network. According to the legal rules, the employee's email account should be deleted in the same way. Persons other than the departing employee should not gain access to the email account. The easiest way to do this is to inform all business partners of the change in their contact email address and redirect the newly arrived emails to the inbox of the employee who is taking over the job.

Return of all transferred property

Work equipment and documents are always the property of the employer. The employee is obliged to return all of them at the end of the employment relationship, unless he or she agrees with the employer to buy the computer, for example. Again, the return of any property handed over is a task for the HR department, which must know which tools have been entrusted to the employee. It is advisable to prepare a handover report in which the employee confirms in writing that he or she has returned all work equipment and the HR department confirms everything with its signature.

The administration of the return of handed over assets is very time consuming, but the HR department can easily handle it in a few minutes if they have a good record of the handed over assets.

Sort out pay, holiday pay, wage replacement

When an employee leaves, the HR department is responsible for resolving the payroll issue. They must ensure that the last salary is sent to the employee's account, check that all statutory leave has been taken. If the leave has not been taken, the employer must reimburse the employee. For this reason, the HR department will usually check the status of the leave before the employee leaves and, if necessary, instruct the employee to make up the leave during his or her notice period. In the last payroll, the HR department must not forget any additional or replacement pay.

Controlling the use of leave is greatly simplified by software that can record and administer everything without the need for intervention by the HR department.

Management of the employee's work file

The right to keep the employee's personnel file shall cease upon termination of employment. However, this does not mean that the employer must immediately destroy the file. The employer has the right to keep selected information about the employee. This is information that is needed for any litigation or final termination of legal proceedings or statute of limitations. This period is 3 years after the termination of employment. After that, the employment file must be destroyed. However, payroll and other specific documents are not subject to this obligation; instead, their required archival period is 30 years.

Managing the work file and its proper cancellation is a challenging administrative part of every HR specialist's job. A significant simplification of this part of the work of HR specialists will be provided by keeping all documents and information about the employee in one place, preferably in data form.

Notification of termination of employment to the authorities

Very short time limits are set by law for the employer's notification of termination of employment to the state authorities concerned. Remember that within 10 days from the date of termination of employment, you are obliged to report the vacancy to the employment office, fulfil the reporting obligation to the employment office for the former employee, notify the court or the insolvency administrator that the debtor has stopped working for you. You must also inform the employee's health insurance company and the relevant Social Security Office of the departure.

Additional obligations

Work testimonial

The employer does not have to issue an employment report to the employee automatically upon termination of employment, but only if the employee requests it. In this case, the employer has 15 days to issue the report, but not earlier than 2 months before the end of the employment relationship.

Checking the competition clause

It is advisable to check whether a competition clause has been agreed with the employee. If one has been negotiated, please note the limitation of the negotiation period to 1 year and the necessary payment for the former employee to comply with the obligations set out in the clause, otherwise the clause is void.

Duty of confidentiality

If the employee does not have a confidentiality obligation in his/her employment contract even after the termination of the employment relationship, it is advisable to set this obligation in the termination agreement upon his/her departure, for example, and, if necessary, to ensure compliance with it by means of a contractual penalty.