Leaving the University for staff members

There may be a time when you wish to leave the University. It is important you follow the leaver’s process to ensure we accurately record this and gain valuable feedback from you. 

Giving notice

It is important that the correct notice period is given when you wish to leave your position. The notice period can be found in your contract. It is important you check before submitting your notice as it can be affected by such things as length of service and grade. 

See the general terms and conditions for both academic and professional services contracts.

Notice must be given in writing to your Line Manager; this can either be by letter or email. It is important that the date notice is given is recorded as well as the last working day and reason for leaving. 

Annual leave

If you wish to find out how much annual leave you have left you can work this out using the annual leave calculator.

When calculating the leave remaining please ensure that any holiday that has already been taken is deducted from the amount to ensure an accurate figure. All leavers are required to take their accrued annual leave before their last day of employment and should work with their line manager to ensure this is managed in a planned way. Exceptional request for the payment of annual leave at the end of employment must be approved in advance by the Director of People and Culture.

If the member of staff owes holiday as they have overtaken their entitlement then this will be deducted from any final payment made. 

Resignation acknowledgement

You will receive an acknowledgement letter from People and Culture confirming your leave date. This letter will also confirm your annual leave entitlement. We will send this letter via email to your University of Essex email address. Please ensure that you read this letter and if you have any questions contact your Line Manager in the first instance.

Leavers survey and exit interview

The letter will also include the University’s Employee Experience questionnaire and the option to arrange a leavers’ interview to provide feedback. We would be very grateful if you could tell us openly and honestly about your experience working at the University. We wish above all to make the University a great place to work and the data we collect through completion of the questionnaire can help us continue to make this happen. To arrange a leaver’s interview or if you have any questions about the questionnaire please contact hrer@essex.ac.uk

On the last day

Please ensure that any University property is returned, this includes any staff cards as well as keys. 

Please ensure that any University property is returned, this includes any staff cards as well as keys. Please also complete the Digital Information & Technology Services IT Equipment Leavers form whether you are, or are not, returning any IT equipment. This can be submitted by the member of staff leaving, or their Line Manager.

P45 and final pay

Your P45 and final payslip will be emailed to you via HR Organiser and using your e-form preferences.  Please ensure that you log into HR Organiser and update your e-form, preferences to a personal email address, this will ensure your P45 and final payslip are sent directly to your personal email account with no delay. To do this go to the e-form preferences page accessed via the face icon in the top right of the screen. Select e-form preferences from the drop down.  It is important that you keep your P45 as your new employer (if applicable) will require the P45.. Your final pay will be made on the normal University pay day that incorporates your leave date. Payment will be made directly into your bank account as per the normal arrangements. 

Payslips and P60s

After the last working day, system access will cease, and employees will not be able to log in to your HR Organiser page. Therefore, we would strongly advise any employees leaving the University should download any previous payslips and P60s prior to your leave date to ensure this information is not inaccessible. 

IT access

Your Essex IT Account will close the day after you officially leave the University.

When this happens, you’ll lose access to IT services that use your account, such as email, Box and eduroam wifi.

Before this happens, we recommend the following:

1. If you are the sole owner of any delegated groups, add a new owner before you leave.
2. Forward any important emails to your colleagues, or save them in a shared folder in Box.
3. If you have files stored in your MyBox or OneDrive that your colleagues may need to access, please move them to a suitable shared folder in Box, outside of your MyBox folder.
4. If you use your University email address for personal use, for example social media accounts, subscriptions, shopping etc, make sure you update these accounts to use your personal email address.
5. Any emails or files that are personal can be taken with you, either by emailing attachments to your personal email, or by saving them to an external device or personal cloud storage.
6. If you use your free University subscription to Microsoft Office 365 software, this will end. When this happens, you can continue using your expired version to open and read documents but you won’t be able to edit them. If you want to continue using Office 365, you'll need to purchase a personal subscription from Microsoft.
7. Automatic replies (out of office messages) or email forwarding cannot be set up on closed accounts, and any existing automatic replies or email forwarding will stop working when your account is closed.

The IT Helpdesk can assist you with file transfers and backups before your account is closed. 

If you believe your account has been closed by mistake, please speak to your department.

References for future employment

Should your new employer require a reference from us please ask them to send their request to our general queries email staffing@essex.ac.uk.