by Nancy Patton, J.D.; Consultant; Fios, Inc.
Recent economic circumstances have forced many companies to make difficult decisions about personnel levels – reductions in force are part of almost every organization’s reality these days. In law firms alone, it is estimated there have been upwards of 10,000 lay-offs nationwide this year. It’s neither feasible nor practical to preserve the data of every departing employee in the event it might be needed for litigation or regulatory purposes. However, if your IT department is not clued into what to do about departing employees and their data, then nothing will be preserved … an even less desirable outcome. If you haven’t already, you may want to begin thinking about some of these things:
• How do you know which employee’s ESI to preserve and which can be scrubbed immediately?
• How do assure you have the ESI of employees who may have had data in unusual locations (like home computers) has been turned over to the company?
• How do you prevent disgruntled or upset employees from intentionally destroying ESI that is subject to a legal hold?
• Is the network data of an employee who is subject to a legal hold also being preserved?
To protect itself, an organization needs to the following:
• Create a communication plan where HR informs IT and Legal of a departing employee as soon as HR knows the employee is leaving. Make sure everyone knows what to do next.
• Make sure the list of those employees who are under a legal hold is up-to-date and accessible by HR and IT.
• Review your departing employee policy as it relates to ESI and update it accordingly. Do not take for granted the policy is being followed … make sure it is.
• Remind departing employees who are subject to a legal hold that they may not delete certain categories of ESI.
• Back-up data regularly so that if the ESI does vanish when the employee departs, it can be found elsewhere.
Filed under Discerning e-Discovery, Governance, Risk & Compliance, Home Page Featured, Technology Counsel, Uncategorized.