This policy establishes standardized procedures to manage the full lifecycle of all user types—from onboarding and internal transfers to termination. It embeds security controls into HR and IT workflows to ensure access is provisioned and deprovisioned in a timely, secure, and auditable manner.
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Mitigate Insider Risk: Reduce the risk of data leakage and unauthorized access by ensuring access is granted based on least privilege and revoked immediately upon termination.
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Automate User Lifecycle: Integrate with HR and IAM systems to create automated, repeatable workflows for joiners, movers, and leavers, reducing manual error.
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Ensure Audit-Readiness: Create a complete, documented audit trail for all onboarding, transfer, and termination events, satisfying auditors and legal requirements.
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Secure Asset Recovery: Enforce a structured process for recovering all company property, including devices, badges, and credentials, upon user departure.
Read Full Overview
The Onboarding and Termination Policy is designed to provide a structured framework for managing the lifecycle of personnel access to organizational systems. This policy is crucial for ensuring that employees, contractors, and third parties are granted access only after meeting security, training, and contractual prerequisites. It applies to all individuals with access to the organization’s data, systems, or facilities, and covers the full scope of onboarding, internal transfers, and offboarding processes.
What's Inside
- Purpose and Scope
- Roles and Responsibilities (HR, IT, Managers)
- Governance Requirements (Onboarding, Offboarding)
- Policy Implementation Requirements
- Asset Recovery and Data Handling
- Risk Treatment and Exceptions
- Enforcement and Compliance
Built for Leaders, By Leaders
This policy was authored by a security leader with 25+ years of experience deploying and auditing ISMS frameworks for global enterprises. It's designed not just to be a document, but a defensible framework that stands up to auditor scrutiny.
Authored by an expert holding:
Framework Compliance
🛡️ Supported Standards & Frameworks
This product is aligned with the following compliance frameworks, with detailed clause and control mappings.
| Framework | Covered Clauses / Controls |
|---|---|
| ISO/IEC 27001:2022 | Clause 7.2, Clause 6.2 |
| ISO/IEC 27002:2022 | Controls 6.2, 6.5, 5.9 |
| NIST SP 800-53 Rev.5 | PS-4, PS-5 |
| EU GDPR | Articles 5(1)(f), 25, 32; Recital 39 |
| EU NIS2 | Article 21(2)(b, c, d) |
| EU DORA | Articles 5, 8, 9 |
| COBIT 2019 | APO07, BAI08, DSS05, MEA03 |
Part of a Complete ISMS Toolkit
This policy is one of 37 documents in our complete toolkit. When implemented as a set, our framework helps you achieve comprehensive compliance across major standards.
100%
ISO 27001
95%
NIST
88%
NIS2
75%
DORA
70%
GDPR
Related Policies
This policy forms an integrated control system for managing human lifecycle events securely and accountably.
Information Security Policy (P1)
Establishes the organization's security objectives, including personnel access governance.
Access Control Policy (P4)
Provides operational requirements for assigning and revoking access.
Acceptable Use Policy (P3)
Requires acknowledgment during onboarding and supports enforcement after termination.
Risk Management Policy (P6)
Ensures user access and transition risks are evaluated and mitigated.
User Account & Privilege Management Policy (P11)
Governs the technical controls for provisioning and deprovisioning.
About This Policy
The Clarysec Onboarding and Termination Policy provides a crucial framework for managing the entire user access lifecycle, from hiring to departure. It mitigates significant insider threat risks by ensuring that access is granted based on the principle of least privilege and, most importantly, is revoked in a timely and complete manner upon termination or role change. This policy is essential for HR, IT, and security teams working together to protect sensitive data.
By standardizing procedures for onboarding, internal transfers, and offboarding, this policy helps create a fully auditable trail for compliance with ISO 27001, GDPR, and other regulations. It formalizes critical processes like background verification, policy acknowledgment, access reviews, and asset recovery, ensuring no steps are missed during personnel transitions. This structured approach provides assurance that your organization is protected against unauthorized access and data leakage at every stage of the user lifecycle.
