FAS Employee Exit Checklist

Working at FAS

  • Notify your Manager and Department Administrator and provide official notice in writing. Notify your Manager and Department Administrator that you are planning to leave or transfer. Provide your manager with notice in writing that you are leaving. The letter should include your departure date (last date worked). It is customary to give your manager at least two weeks’ notice. Note: if you are leaving the University, your last day must be a day worked, it cannot be taken as Paid Time Off.
     
  • Your Department Administrator completes the proper forms in Aurora. Your Department Administrator should then submit the termination action in Aurora, which must be completed for every departing employee.
     
  • Contact the Harvard Benefits Services Group. If you are leaving the University, contact the Benefits Services Group with any questions related to your benefits and to obtain COBRA information. Contact information for the Benefits Office at benefits@harvard.edu or  617-496-4001.
     
  • Report all time and absences in PeopleSoft Absence Management. If you are a time reporter, be sure to report all time and absences. If you are an exempt employee, be sure to report all absences.

    You may be able to defer some or all of your unused vacation pay into your Tax-Deferred Annuity (TDA) Plan account. If you elect to defer, you will not pay Federal or State taxes on that amount until you withdraw it from your TDA Plan account at a later date. The Salary Reduction Agreement/TaxDeferred Annuity Plan form must be completed and returned to your HR Coordinator prior to your separation date. Otherwise, any remaining vacation or longer service vacation time will be paid out to you in your last paycheck.

    If your last day worked at the University is before the 15th of the month, you do not accrue vacation for that month. However, if your last day worked at the University is on or after the 15th of the month, your accrual is awarded.
     
  • Return all Harvard University property. You must turn in all Harvard property including your Harvard ID card, keys, cell phone, laptop computer, PCard, iPad, or Corporate Card, and any other Harvard property prior to leaving, to your manager or Department Administrator. This includes any property, such as monitors, chairs, and laptop stands, you might have taken home for remote work.
     
  • Preserve Harvard documents and data. Before your departure, discuss with your manager how to copy or transfer ownership of relevant, workrelated documents or data that you have on your computer, OneDrive, Google Drive, personal folders on the FAS shared drive, or consumer services that you may be using such as Dropbox or Evernote.
     

  • Reassign ownership of Harvard Websites. Departing employees will lose access to the administrator privileges for any Harvard website you own once you leave your role. Before your departure, follow the instructions on HUIT’s Your website after leaving Harvard knowledge base article to assign a new website owner. Transfer knowledge, source content, and other files to the new website owner, and ensure your manager is aware of this transition.

  • Prepare for loss of access to email and online resources. If you are leaving the University, access to your email, calendar, and FAS online resources will be disabled upon your designated departure date. 

    If you are transferring within FAS or to another HUIT-supported school or unit, you will continue to have Office365 email and calendar access. However, FAS HR must be notified in advance to ensure that there is no gap in your employment status.

    If you are transferring to another Harvard school or unit that HUIT does not support, you will lose access to FAS online resources, including your email and calendar. (HUIT does not currently support email and calendar for HKS, HLS, HBS, HUPD, or HUHS.)

    This policy does NOT apply to faculty appointments.
     
  • Contact Harvard Parking and Transportation if necessary. If you park in an FAS designated garage and you are transferring outside of FAS to another School within Harvard, you’ll need to contact the Parking Office at 2-1111. If you do not, you could continue to be charged for this parking.
     
  • Ensure forwarding US Postal address and personal email address upon departure are up to date. Update your US Postal forwarding address in PeopleSoft through “Employee Self Service,” and ensure your Department Administrator has your mailing address and a personal email address as well. This will ensure that all future correspondence, such as W-2 mailings and retirement information, will be received.
     
  • Participate in an FAS exit interview. As part of our process for departing staff employees, we ask that you give us your valuable feedback. You will be notified to participate, either by phone or in person, to gather your departing thoughts in an
    exit interview conversation with FAS HR. We strongly encourage you to schedule time to talk with FAS HR prior to your last working day at FAS. 
     
  •  Remove any special online access. Before your departure, discuss with your manager any access you have to the following:
    • Shared departmental accounts or proxy access to others’ calendars
    • Online applications or databases that are local to the department
    • Administrator accounts or privileges on network drives, devices, or servers
    • Special VPN access (e.g., specific VPN tunnels)