If you’re managing a remote or hybrid workforce, you’d know how hard it is to retrieve laptops from departing employees.
And even after continuous emails and trying to coordinate with the employee, there’s no guarantee you’ll get the devices back.
Based on Capterra's survey of 300 HR workers, 71% reported they’ve seen at least one exiting employee fail to return company equipment. The average value of those unreturned assets sits at around $2,000 per person, and that’s only the hardware cost.
Then there’s the productivity loss that comes from replacing the device, reconfiguring access, and delaying the next hire’s onboarding. And if that missing laptop ends up in the wrong hands and exposes sensitive data,you’d be looking at millions of dollars lost.
That’s why it’s important to have a strategic process for retrieving devices and other IT assets.
That means building a clear workflow for automated offboarding, communication, packaging, courier scheduling, tracking, data security, and post-return handling.
In this article, I’ll cover why laptops actually go missing and what poor retrieval really costs. I'll also share a playbook for building an automated laptop-return strategy for remote and hybrid teams.