Get Company Equipment Back From Remote Employees: The Playbook

Start before the last day, not after

The biggest predictor of whether a laptop comes back is when the return process starts. Once an employee's last day passes, your practical leverage drops sharply: they no longer check company email, they have no manager to answer to, and returning hardware becomes an errand for someone who has already moved on. The moment a departure is confirmed, pull the employee's assigned assets from your inventory, confirm their current shipping address, and put the return in motion so packaging arrives while they are still an employee.

This is also the moment your equipment return policy earns its keep. If the employee signed a policy at onboarding that names the return timeline and method, the conversation starts from a shared agreement instead of a request.

The five-step playbook

1. Confirm what is out there

List every item assigned to the person — laptop, monitor, dock, phone, headset, security keys — with serial numbers where you have them. If your records are thin, ask the employee directly while they are still on payroll; people are far more cooperative before their exit than after. For a broader look at keeping those records current, see our guide to tracking devices across a distributed team.

2. Send one clear message

A single email that states exactly what to return, how, and by when outperforms a chain of vague reminders. Name the items, tell them a prepaid box is on the way, give a specific deadline (ten business days after the last working day is common), and explain the drop-off step. Ambiguity is the enemy: "please return your equipment" invites delay, while "pack the laptop and charger in the box arriving Thursday and drop it at any Canada Post location" gets done.

3. Remove every ounce of friction

Do not ask a departing employee to find a box, print a label, or expense shipping costs. Send a prepaid return shipping kit — padded packaging, a prepaid label, and simple instructions. In Canada, labels that work at Canada Post or Purolator locations mean almost everyone has a drop-off point within a short drive, and QR-code labels remove the "I don't have a printer" excuse entirely.

4. Track until it is in hand

A shipped label is not a returned laptop. Track each device from kit dispatched, to delivered to the employee, to scanned back into the carrier network, to received and inspected. Anything that sits in one state too long should trigger a reminder automatically — day three, day seven, day fourteen is a reasonable cadence.

5. Escalate calmly and in writing

If the deadline passes, escalate in steps: a firmer written notice referencing the signed policy, then a letter from HR, then — for high-value hardware — a demand letter. Keep everything in writing. In most Canadian provinces you cannot simply deduct the value from a final paycheque without specific written authorization, so treat unreturned equipment as a debt to be recovered through proper channels, and get employment counsel involved before threatening anything.

Protect the data whatever happens to the hardware

Access revocation and device recovery run on separate clocks. Cut SSO, email, VPN, and SaaS access on the last day regardless of where the laptop is, and use MDM to lock or wipe any device that goes overdue. Under PIPEDA, personal information on company devices still needs to be safeguarded while the hardware sits in a former employee's home, so a documented lock-and-wipe capability is part of your privacy posture, not just your security posture. Our laptop return process for terminated employees covers the higher-stakes version of this in detail.

When to stop doing this by hand

One or two departures a month is manageable with a spreadsheet and goodwill. Beyond that, the coordination — boxes, labels, addresses, reminders, carrier exceptions — becomes real work. BoomerangDepot turns the whole playbook into a single request: enter the employee and the device, and a padded box with a prepaid label ships to them, automated email reminders keep the return moving, and you watch every shipment on a real-time tracking dashboard until the hardware arrives at the warehouse.

Frequently asked questions