How to Automate Employee Offboarding

 This article explains how to build a HappyFox Workflow that, when HR creates an offboarding ticket, notifies IT and department stakeholders, applies an offboarding checklist, revokes the departing employee's system access, and sends the Exit Interview Form — coordinating offboarding tasks without manual follow-up.

Note: This article walks through one common way to structure an offboarding workflow. The actual design — which systems require access revocation, what identifies an offboarding ticket, and how tasks are organized — depends on your organization's process. If you need help adapting this pattern to your own setup, reach out to the HappyFox Support team for guidance.

Applicable Plans: Available on all plans.

Prerequisites

• HappyFox Help Desk must be integrated with HappyFox Workflows. See Integrating HappyFox Help Desk with HappyFox Workflows.
• A task template for the offboarding checklist must already exist in HappyFox Help Desk. See how to create and use task templates.
• The identity management app used to revoke the employee's access, such as Okta or Microsoft Entra ID, must be integrated with HappyFox Workflows. See Configuring Okta Integration with HappyFox Workflows.
• You must have permission to create and edit workflows in HappyFox Workflows.

Step 1: Set up the trigger

1. Log in to HappyFox Workflows.
2. Click Create Workflow.
3. Choose HappyFox Help Desk as the trigger app and select the Ticket Created trigger.
4. Select a sample offboarding ticket to use as the test trigger.
5. Add a trigger filter so the workflow runs only for offboarding tickets — for example, Category equals Employee Offboarding.
6. Click Save and Test.

Note: A trigger filter narrows down which tickets start the workflow. Without one, this workflow would run on every new ticket created in HappyFox Help Desk, not only offboarding requests. See how to set up and combine trigger conditions for more on filter logic.

Step 2: Notify stakeholders

1. Click Add Action and select Add Subscribers, applied to the original offboarding ticket.
2. Add the IT, payroll, and facilities team leads, or their distribution lists, as subscribers.
3. Click Add Action and select Add Reply, applied to the original ticket.
4. Compose a message confirming that offboarding has started, using merge fields to reference the employee's name and last working day.

Note: Adding someone as a subscriber does not require them to log in to HappyFox Help Desk. They receive an email automatically for every update on the ticket.

Step 3: Apply the offboarding checklist

1. Click Add Action and select Create Task With Task Template.
2. Choose your offboarding checklist template — for example, Employee Offboarding Checklist. (Template names are illustrative; use the names configured in your own account.)

Note: If the same checklist always applies, select it directly, as shown above. If the correct checklist depends on a ticket property instead — for example, department or role — add a condition that checks that property first, then select the matching template for each path.

To require a manager or IT sign-off before access is removed, insert an approval step between this action and Step 4. See how to set up an approval workflow.

Step 4: Revoke the employee's system access

1. Click Add Action and select the identity management app connected to this workflow, such as Okta.
2. Select Get user by login name and enter the employee's email address, using a merge field from the trigger ticket.
3. Click Add Action and select Deactivate user, targeting the account fetched in the previous action.

Note: In Okta, Deactivate user removes the account's access to any groups it was previously added to. If your organization uses Microsoft Entra ID instead, use Get User Info followed by Disable User in the same pattern.

Warning: Revoking access takes effect immediately and cannot be undone from within the workflow. Confirm the employee's last working day before enabling this step for live tickets.

Step 5: Send the exit interview form and confirm completion

1. Click Add Action and select Add Reply, applied to the original ticket.
2. Compose a message that includes a link to the Exit Interview Form and confirms that the offboarding checklist has been applied and access has been revoked, using merge fields to reference the employee's name.

Note: The Exit Interview Form is a built-in HappyFox Workflows form. Workflows can include its link in the email sent through the Add Reply action.

Step 6: Save, test, and enable the workflow

1. Click Save and Test to confirm each action runs correctly against your sample ticket.
2. Log in to the identity management app and confirm the test account was deactivated as expected.
3. Enable the workflow.

Warning: Enabling this workflow revokes real access for every ticket that matches your trigger filter. Test thoroughly against a sample ticket and confirm the outcome in the identity management app before enabling it for live traffic.

Your offboarding workflow now notifies IT and department stakeholders, applies the offboarding checklist, and revokes the employee's system access as soon as HR creates an offboarding ticket.