University employees have a variety of data storage options at their disposal, making it vital to choose the appropriate system and ensure the right people have access to the necessary data. Equally important is the seamless transfer of data when an employee departs to keep business, academic, and research activities running smoothly. Here are some best practices for effective data management and offboarding.

Data Management Best Practices

Are your employees storing their data in the right place? Every day, U-M employees log into Google, Canvas, Dropbox, ARC services, OneDrive, and other services across the university. They access data that informs their research, teaching and learning, patient care, and university administration. But who owns those documents, images, files, and other types of data? Information and Technology Services (ITS) has tips for learning who owns what data and ensuring that data lives on in the right place with the right person or group.

Offboarding Best Practices to Safely Transfer Data

As a manager/supervisor, it is your responsibility to work with your departing employees to transfer ownership of university business, academic, and research files before that individual leaves. This ensures members of the community who rely on the data retain access over time, even as individuals leave U-M. Transfer of data after access has been removed is not always guaranteed, is a difficult process, and can result in delays or lost data. Information on downloading or transitioning data from departing employees can be found on the ITS Leaving U-M page.

Information and Technology Services (ITS) has developed resources and tools to help you and your departing employees transfer ownership of files before their last day and to help you find files they may have forgotten to transfer:

• Review guidance for supervisors and managers on managing digital files and information when individuals leave U-M. (This includes U-M Dropbox, Google, and Microsoft 365.)

• Learn more about Google Data Reclamation and visit the ITS Google Data Reclamation Tool, which provides you with:

  • A list of files you own and have shared with others in My Drive.

  • A list of non-affiliated accounts who own files on which you are an Editor. (This will help you find files that departed individuals may have forgotten to transfer.) 

• Review additional guidance for everyone regarding what happens to an individual’s computing services when they leave U-M.