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Staff access to IT services is automatically removed in two phases after their last day of work (their end date recorded in the HR Payroll system). Access is also automatically removed for honorary positions with an end date in that system.

Immediately after their last day, access to general IT services is removed – including library services, building access (door swipe cards) and ITS Corporate Applications.

Five weeks after their last day, access to the Staff Web Kiosk and email is removed – this delay is to help ensure a smooth transition – then the email account is disabled and any Rules removed. If you wish to forward email to another current University staff email address, please contact AskOtago to have this set up.

Access removals are an automatic process driven by the information in the HR Payroll system. They cannot be manually overridden.

For staff who assist with processing staff departures, a Business Objects report provides information about termination dates, including for external and role-based usernames. Please contact AskOtago to request access to this report, titled University Usernames with Termination Dates.

Why is access removed?

Former staff usernames are a significant security risk because hackers target them, which can go unnoticed until they start using the usernames maliciously, including to:

  • send "spam" and viruses via email internally and around the world from the associated email account, which prompts some places to blacklist all email sent from the University
  • obtain sensitive or confidential University and personal information from the email account.
  • copy information from University IT systems (e.g. Blackboard, eVision, Performance-Based Research Fund information, etc.). A hacker could also change or delete information, depending on the level of access granted to the username.

What to do when staff are leaving

The HR Exit checklist provides a list of actions to be taken when a person leaves the University

For email accounts, departing staff need to:

  • create an Out of Office message (automatic reply) in consultation with their manager. This message will automatically be sent in reply to incoming emails and should say that the address is no longer in use. It can also say where to send both University and personal messages. AskOtago can also create an Out of Office message for the staff member. Suggestions for automatic replies are on the AskOtago knowledgebase.
  • meet legal requirements by ensuring the University retains emails that come under the Information and Records Management Policy and associated procedures.
  • contact AskOtago if they want their emails to forward internally after they leave (e.g. to a manager or colleague). The Out of Office (automatic reply) should let people know if their email has been forwarded. For information security reasons, emails cannot be forwarded to student email accounts or non-University email accounts.
  • ounsubscribe from email lists and distribution groups etc.

What if departing staff will have an ongoing relationship with the University?

All people working for the University should have an employment agreement, not only to have access to IT services. This includes honorary staff.

Future Employment or Honorary Position

Working as early as possible with HR Services or the Human Resources Division is important if a departing staff member will have future paid work at the University or is being awarded an honorary staff position – such as Emeritus Professor – via a letter of offer from HR Services/the Human Resources Division (which area is involved depends on the honorary position).

Early contact will help ensure the staff member has seamless access to IT services via their username:

  • access to library electronic resources will be available when a returning staff member's details are entered/reactivated in the HR Payroll system.
  • people appointed to an honorary staff position via a letter of offer from HR Services/the Human Resources Division will have a (or continue to use their) University staff username which automatically allows access to library electronic resources.

If someone's ongoing relationship with the University is not recorded in the HR Payroll system, access to University IT services is removed from their staff username. If that person needs to keep using IT services, a request can be made for an 'external' username.

Note: If a departing staff member is also a current student, access to IT services via their student username may be sufficient, but for information security reasons, their staff email cannot be forwarded to their student email address.

External Username

Approval for an external username and email account – for people not recorded in the HR Payroll system – is only recommended when ongoing access has a direct benefit to the University, because having a University email address implies that person has a current association with the University and/or represents it in some capacity.

To request an external username, the applicant needs to complete the online form:

External Account Request/Renewal form

That will automatically trigger an email to the person who the applicant named on the request form as their sponsor. It should be a Head of Department/Manager/Director or delegated authority. That person must endorse the request and forwards it to AskOtago.

Note: While access to University IT services can be transferred to an external username – including the person's existing staff email address and email messages – the Library has to approve off-campus access to its electronic resources. The person must complete the Off-Campus Access to E-Resources form, and all access must meet the conditions of the Library resources' licences. See below for more information.

For more information about external usernames, please see:
University Username and ID Card Guidelines and Information document

Access to Library electronic resources

Access to Library electronic resources stops immediately after a person's employment end date.

For returning (and new) staff, access to Library electronic resources (including from off-campus) will be available as soon as their details are entered/reactivated within the HR Payroll system. Previously that access was only enabled a day or so before their start date.

People appointed to an honorary position via a letter of offer issued from HR will have a University staff username. This includes those who haven't previously worked for the University. This username is used to access all University IT services. Access to Library electronic resources is automatically enabled for University staff usernames.

Staff in the HR Payroll system whose contract is expired (employment end date has passed) and a new contract has not yet been processed by HR, are not eligible to have access to electronic resources using an external username. As they are not current staff members, the use of an external username as an interim means of gaining access to electronic resources prior to or between contracts would be a breach of the agreements that the University has with the vendors.

Access to the Library's electronic resources for staff not on the University's payroll system is only permitted upon submission of a signed and authorised agreement by the relevant Head of Department, Dean or Pro Vice-Chancellor that individual is engaged to provide teaching, clinical supervision or research services to the University. Access is made available solely for these purposes of the individual applicant. Use for commercial purposes, paid or unpaid, including commercial research is not permitted.

Please direct any questions about access to Library eResources to the Library:

What if the staff member...?

Has more than one position at the University and only one is ending?

If one position is continuing, your access to University IT services will also continue.

Is finishing a position at the University but will be starting another one soon?

If the new position's details and all necessary information have been entered into the HR Payroll system, access to IT services will continue across your previous and new positions.

Is being offered a further fixed-term position?

The staff member must have been formally offered a further fixed-term position by HR Services and have accepted the role to have access to IT services – departments are responsible for informing HR Services.

Needs to see their payslip information after their last day?

Staff have access to Staff Web Kiosk for five weeks after their last day – their end date recorded in the HR Payroll system – to help ensure a smooth transition. Please contact HR Payroll if the staff member cannot access the Staff Web Kiosk

Is retired and wants to book travel insurance?

Please ask the staff member to contact the client services team to ask for a link to the Chubb portal:

Email travel.insurance@otago.ac.nz

Wants to tell people how to contact them after they leave?

Staff can include their contact details in their email Out of Office message (automatic reply). If departing staff do not create an automatic message, a standard one will be used - advising that their email account is no longer in use.  If the message needs to be changed, please contact AskOtago.

Research staff with an Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier (ORCID) can include their new contact information in their ORCID profile. The University is a member of ORCID, which provides each researcher with a unique 16-digit ID that stays the same regardless of where they are working. For information about obtaining an ORCID, current staff can contact their subject librarian. If staff have already left the University, they can create an account for themselves at ORCID.

Internet searches are also likely to find the person (e.g. via Google, Bing, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.).

Note: If the staff member is also a current student, their staff email address cannot be forwarded to their student email address for information security reasons.

Is a current University staff member, but has been told that their access to IT services will be removed?

It may be that the staff member has been re-employed by the University very recently. Access to IT services will not be removed. You are welcome to contact AskOtago to check and confirm this.

Wants to keep their University email address after leaving?

Having a University of Otago email address implies the person has a current association with the University and/or represents it in some capacity, so staff's access to their University email only extends five weeks from their last day – those weeks are to help ensure a smooth transition.

If a staff member is going to have an ongoing relationship with the University - see above "What if departing staff will have an ongoing relationship with the University?"

Wants to know what will happen to their email account and messages?

Staff's access to their University email extends five weeks from their last day (their end date in the HR Payroll system), to help ensure a smooth transition. Then the email account will be disabled and any Rules removed. The email account and contents are retained indefinitely at this stage.

Please contact AskOtago if you have any more questions about staff email accounts or this process.

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