How to get laptops back from departing employees

To get a laptop back from a departing employee, start the return as soon as HR records the leaving date, not on the last day. For office staff, collect the device in person on their last day. For remote staff, ship a return box with a prepaid label (or use a retrieval service) so it arrives before the last day, and give a clear return deadline in writing. Protect the data whatever happens: make sure the device is enrolled in MDM with organization-linked Activation Lock on Macs, lock it remotely if it is not back on time, and wipe it once it is received. Track every device from request to received, wiped and reassigned, and offer a paid buyout for older devices where it is cheaper than shipping them home.

Why laptops go missing at offboarding

Unreturned laptops are rarely theft. They are a process gap: IT hears about the departure late, nobody owns the follow-up after the last day, the employee has no box, or the asset record says the person has a device they swapped months ago. The fixes below close those gaps in order.

Step 1: Trigger the return from the HRIS

The return should start the moment a termination date exists in the HRIS. That gives you two to four weeks for a planned departure instead of a scramble after access has already been cut. The trigger should create a ticket that lists every company asset assigned to the person, who is responsible for collecting each one, and the deadline.

Check the asset record against reality first. If your records are stale, the request will ask for the wrong device. Regular attestation, where employees confirm the assets assigned to them, keeps the list accurate before you need it.

Step 2: Choose the collection method

Step 3: Protect the data before the device moves

Account revocation does not touch data stored on the laptop, and an offline device keeps whatever is on it. Set this up before anyone leaves:

• Enroll every device in MDM with zero-touch enrollment. Apple Business (formerly Apple Business Manager) and Windows Autopilot put company devices under management before they reach the employee.
• Turn on organization-linked Activation Lock for Macs. When enabled through MDM, Activation Lock is managed by the organization rather than the user, so a device that is wiped by someone else still cannot be set up without your release. It requires a Mac with Apple silicon or a T2 chip.
• Know your remote actions. Apple MDM supports Lock and Erase commands for Macs. In Microsoft Intune, Wipe restores the device to factory settings and removes all data, Retire removes company data and settings while leaving personal data, and Autopilot Reset returns a Windows device to a business-ready state. Intune's Remote Lock does not list Windows as a supported platform, so plan Windows devices around Wipe.

If a device is overdue, lock it rather than wiping it straight away, so the data stays recoverable for investigation and the device is useless to anyone else.

Step 4: Set expectations in writing

Tell the employee what to return, how, and by when, in the same message that confirms their last day, and remind them a few days before. Keep it practical: the box is on its way, here is the tracking number, here is who to contact.

Be careful about tying final pay to the return. In the US, the Department of Labor's guidance under the Fair Labor Standards Act is that deductions, including for employer property, cannot take pay below minimum wage, and states add their own limits; California, for example, only allows deductions for lost equipment caused by dishonest or willful acts or gross negligence. Involve HR and legal before using pay as leverage, and treat it as a last resort.

Step 5: Follow up, then escalate

A simple sequence works: reminder before the deadline, a second reminder after it, manager involvement after a week, then lock the device and hand it to HR or legal. Every step should be on the ticket so the history is clear if it comes to a dispute.

Step 6: Receive, wipe and reassign

When the device arrives, check the serial number, wipe it to a standard (retrieval services commonly use NIST 800-88 erasure), update the asset record and either reassign it, store it, or retire it. Release Activation Lock only when you are ready to redeploy or dispose of it.

Offering a laptop buyout

For devices near the end of their refresh cycle, letting the employee buy the laptop can be cheaper than shipping, refurbishing and storing it. It needs a policy: which devices and employees are eligible, how the price is calculated from depreciation, consent to the terms, and approvals from the manager, IT and finance. The device is wiped and released from management before it changes hands.

How Harmony handles device recovery

• Employee Offboarding starts from the departure in the HRIS and opens linked tickets for asset return and factory reset alongside account termination, VPN removal and the HR steps, and tracks them until they are complete.
• Asset Purchase Agent runs the buyout: it checks eligibility against your policy (asset age, tenure, employment type, country), calculates the price by depreciation, captures consent through a Slack or Teams form and routes manager, IT and finance approvals in order.
• Asset Ownership Confirmation asks employees, quarterly by default, to confirm the devices assigned to them, so the return request lists the right hardware.
• Asset Activity Detection flags company devices that have stopped checking in, which is how a laptop left behind after an exit gets noticed.
• Inactive Employees cross-references dormant accounts with the assets still assigned to them.

All of it runs on Harmony's asset management module. For choosing an asset tool, see the best IT asset management software for 2026, and for the access side of a departure, how to revoke access when an employee leaves.

This guide is written and maintained by Harmony. Details about other products and services come from their public pages, listed under Sources, and were last checked in October 2026. It is not legal advice. If something is out of date, email us and we will fix it.