As a Google Workspace Administrator, one of the most common questions you may have is how to best handle offboarding an employee.
Things to Consider:
Removing Account Access to Company Data
Retaining the User Data (ie – Email and Files)
Minimize Google Workspace Subscription Fees
Below is a step-by-step process Cave Consulting has developed which covers these concerns and assumes you have already set up a dedicated archive account (we recommend naming it something like catchall@ or archive@). Note that Email must be “migrated” BEFORE it can be deleted:
From the Admin Portal, Click “Users”
Click the User to be offboarded
Change the password and put it somewhere as it will be needed later. (Ensure you do not require the user to change the password upon next log in)
Click “Security”
Click “Sign in Cookies” and click “Reset” (this will log the user out of all active Workspace sessions across all devices).
Make sure 2-step verification is disabled
Make sure personal email/cell phone is removed
Disable Login Challenge (this will prevent Google from challenging you when you during the email migration setup).
From the Admin Portal, go to “Data Migration:
Click “Set Data Migration Up”
Select “Gmail” from the “Select Migration Source” dropdown
Click “Start”
Select a Migration Start Date (tip – Select “Custom Date” and change the year to 10 years back or older)
Check any boxes of interest under “Migration Options”
Click “Select Users” – this will take you to the Data Migration Screen
From the Admin Portal, Data Migration Screen
Click “Add User”
Enter the email address to be offboarded in “Source Email”
Click Authorize” – This will take you to the Google Login Screen
Click “Next”
Enter the user’s Password and click “Next” – this will take you to a Terms and Conditions Screen
Click “Continue” – This will take you back to the Data Migration Screen
Enter the email address of the dedicated “archive” account in the bottom field called “Google Workspace Email”
Click “Start”
Depending on the size of the user’s email, the migration could take a few hours or a few days or weeks. A progress bar will appear shortly after initiating the migration. Tip – if you are dealing with a large mailbox, the progress bar may get stuck on 99% for several days. This is normal behavior for the progress bar.
Once the migration has been completed, you can now delete the user. Here is the recommended process:
From the Admin Portal, Click “Users”
Click the User to be offboarded
Click “Delete User”
Under Data in Other Apps, leave the default “Transfer” selected and enter the email address of the dedicated “archive” account in the field below this button.
NOTE: By default, ownership to all of the account files, calendar events, brand accounts and Looker Studio Assets will be changed. Any shares will be kept intact, so end users will not be affected.
NOTE: By default, any files in the user’s account that have not been shared will be deleted. Checking the box under Select Data Transfer next to Drive and Docs “Include files that are not shared with anyone” will change the ownership of these files as well. The same thing applies to Looker Studio files.
NOTE: If your organization utilizes “Resources” such as “rooms” in the Google Calendar, you will want to consider the option of checking the box under Calendar, releasing any calendar resources reserved by the user.
Click Delete User
By following this process, you can help ensure that leaving employees are unable to access Google data and apps associated with their User Account and optimize your expenditures on Google Workspace Licenses.
Things to be aware of:
Once you delete a user, you have 20 days to recover the user. However, if file ownership was changed during the account deletion, the files will not be recoverable since they already exist in the account in which ownership was given during the account deletion process.
There have been reports that file ownership changes may affect “bookmarked” files in other user’s MyDrive. This is one of the reasons “MyDrive” should not be used as a collaborative platform for company or organizational files. SharedDrives should be set up for this.
It should be noted that Google offers an “archive” license that can be used in lieu of the data migration/ownership change steps above. The cost for these licenses is typically 50% of a normal license under whatever plan you may be on.
For more Best Management tips on how to manage your Google Workspace account or for support and management of your Google Workspace account, please reach out to Cave Consulting for a free consultation.
