Termination

A resignation is a voluntary termination and is initiated when an employee submits a resignation letter to their manager. Whether the appointment is regular or temporary, if the resignation is at the employee’s discretion it is voluntary and a Job Termination Request form should be submitted as part of the termination process.

For appointments with a predetermined end date, a Job Termination Request form is not required when the appointment is ending on that expected end date.

Casual or Student Hourly jobs will automatically terminate after 6 months of timesheet inactivity. However if a department wishes to terminate a casual job record before the six month auto term process is run, they can submit a Job Termination Request form to terminate the casual job record. A Job Termination request form is not required, unless a department is terminating a job prior to six months of timesheet activity.

When planning for a departure, the last day an employee works should not be artificially extended through the use of vacation or CTO time. The last day an employee actually works is the most appropriate end date for employment.

Managers are accountable to ensure employees are terminated in a timely manner. To minimize any financial or reputational risks, the termination form must be submitted at least four business days prior to the last day worked. 

In addition to the online termination request form, managers and employees should complete their applicable offboarding checklists, even when the employee is transferring somewhere else in the university.

When a contract approaches its expected end-date and will not be extended beyond that date the termination is automatically processed effective that date. No online termination form is required for this type of termination, but an offboarding checklist should still be completed by both the manager and the employee.

When a regular appointment is being terminated at the discretion of the department or when a temporary appointment is being terminated prior to its expected end-date and at the discretion of the department it is considered involuntary and must be processed via a manual termination process. Departments are expected to contact their HR Partner for support with involuntary terminations.

As soon as you are aware of a staff member's resignation / retirement, send the departing staff member a link to their Offboarding Checklist and ensure they work to complete the tasks on their checklist.

Staff members should provide a written resignation/retirement/transfer letter to their Reports to Manager which includes their last anticipated day of work. A copy of this letter should be forwarded to Human Resources or scanned and emailed to [email protected].

There are important distinctions between the types of resignations listed above:

• Resignation - employee is leaving the university
• Transfer - employee transferring to another role within the university
• Retirement - employee is leaving the university and is eligible to draw a pension benefit; letter should be provided to manager approx. 4 months prior to chosen retirement date

A letter is not required for temporary employees (including Fixed Term) whose appointments are ending on their expected end date.

The Job Termination Request should be submitted except in the following situations:

• Staff member is transferring within the university
• Temporary/Term employees (including Fixed Term) whose appointments are ending on their expected end date

For more information on the termination process, including how to access the Job Termination Request form, see the appropriate links below:

• Support Staff (AUPE) Terminations
• MaPS Terminations
• Postdoctoral Scholar Terminations
• General Associate Terminations (prior to scheduled end date)
• Grad Student Terminations - Contact UService

Arrange a time to meet with the staff member to discuss the status of their work/projects/etc. and plans for knowledge transfer as required. In addition to any knowledge transfer that must take place, ensure any university information/data is also transferred to an accessible secure shared drive and is not saved on the staff member's computer drive.

If the staff member has asked you to provide a written or verbal reference, ensure you have them complete the Reference Consent Form and keep it on file for one year.

Ensure the staff member has submitted all outstanding expenses before the end of their last day and they have been approved for processing. Also, if the staff member has any outstanding expense advances, ensure they have been paid back.

If relocation reimbursement was provided for the staff member and they are leaving the university prior to the return-in-service commitment being met, they will be required to refund the remaining portion. See the Relocation Expenses - Operating Standards and Practices (section 4.7 – 4.9) for additional details.

Human Resources will be in contact with the individual to indicate the amount owing and discuss repayment options.

Support Staff and MaPS employees transferring within the university who have one (or less) year's worth of vacation entitlement will carry over their vacation bank to their new role.

Ensure all equipment and/or software (e.g. cell phone, computer and peripherals, tools, uniforms, research equipment, etc.) have been returned and given back to the appropriate stakeholder.

Collect any University Credit Cards (P-Card or T & E Card) in the employee's name and destroy the card(s). Visa Purchasing Cardholder Maintenance and/or Travel & Expense Cardholder Maintenance forms will need to be completed to cancel the card(s).

Ensure the employee has submitted their final timesheet, review and submit your approval so their final pay can be processed.

On the staff member’s last day, ensure they return all keys/swipe access cards (including office, filing cabinet, building access cards, electronic access cards, etc.). Also, collect and destroy all remaining business cards.

If the staff member is leaving the university (resignation or retirement), you should also collect and destroy their employee ID Card (Unicard).

If the staff member has swipe access to any buildings/offices/labs, etc., contact your access administrator to remove access as appropriate. This is recommended for all exits, but is especially important for transfers.

If the staff member had a SecurID device, collect it and return it IT (7th floor, Math Sciences).

Send an email to the individuals in your faculty/unit to let them know the staff member will be leaving. A sample email is included below:

It is with mixed feelings that I announce [employee's name] will be leaving our team and her/his last day will be [Date]. Please join me in thanking [employee's name] for all he/she has done over the last [x months/years] to [provide some specific details about the employee's contributions, projects, etc.].

Please join me in wishing [employee's name] all the best in his/her future endeavors.

Best regards,

[Manager]

You are no longer required to complete an IT access removal form as part of the off-boarding process when an employee is leaving the University of Calgary. The process for IT is triggered automatically based on PeopleSoft HR data when an employee no longer has an active job record.  Access removal includes, but is not limited to: shared drives, shared email accounts, SecurID, and individual file shares.

In the event of a transfer and access removal is required, please select the appropriate IT service from the IT website that the access removal is associated with on the services page.

If the employee has access to any stand-alone applications or systems (those that are not authenticated through their IT account), ensure you contact the appropriate administrator to remove their access.

Request a change or termination of the telephone using an Information Technology Voice and Network Services request form.

Ensure the faculty/unit phone and email lists as well as website contact lists/information including their faculty profile, have been updated by contacting the appropriate administrator(s) in your area.

If this employee was a key administrative contact (e.g. onboarding coordinator, IT security role approver, Teleweb Coordinator, etc.) in your faculty or unit, contact UService for any required support in transitioning these activities.

If this employee was a department budget owner in your faculty or unit, contact the Finance Partners in your area to identify impacts their departure might have on administration of budgets in your faculty or unit. It is important that their departure does not leave a gap in the approval processes required to maintain consistent faculty or unit operations.

If the staff member was a delegate on one or more projects, you must remove the staff member as a project delegate on-line through the Portal at My work > Access & delegation > Finance/project delegation or by submitting a Team Authorization Form (TAF).

Prior to their last day, remove any temporary delegation for Finance or Human Resource transactions effective their last day.

If the retiring employee has a minimum of two (2) years of service, there are university funds available to support a retirement party/gift.

For information on accessing these funds, email [email protected].