A Financial Times article highlights the financial impact of failing to remove permissions to access computer systems and other company perks when staff leave.

Writing for the paper, Jane Bird warns that it’s easy to forget to cancel health insurance or credit cards or to ask for laptop computers and other equipment to be returned when staff leave an organisation, which effectively leaves ‘ghost’ employees continuing to receive these benefits long after they have left. If the employee is leaving due to redundancy, the company may find that they are still paying considerable costs for that member of staff long after they have left.

Bird also points out that there are potential serious security implications if, for example, id cards are not cancelled or computer logins are not removed, but adds that for companies dealing with large scale redundancies, there is often a desparate need to document where equipment has been loaned out and where other benefits have been allocated to staff when first set up.