How to automatically alert IT when a terminated employee hasn’t returned their device

What you'll learn

• How to use Rippling’s workflow automation and device management capabilities to track device returns

• How to automatically alert IT when a terminated employee fails to return their device

What you'll need

• Rippling IT, which includes device management, automation, and reporting capabilities

• Access to Device Management or Inventory Management, which handles device assignment, tracking, and retrieval

• Defined employee attributes, such as employment status, assigned devices, and termination date, are already synced in Rippling

The problem

Device recovery after offboarding is one of the most overlooked (and annoying) tasks IT teams have to deal with. When an employee leaves, devices are often untracked or returned late, creating compliance, security, and financial risks. Traditional device management tools rely on manual spreadsheets, email reminders, or separate ticketing systems to coordinate returns. This slows down offboarding, increases the chance of lost hardware, and makes audits difficult to manage.

Without automation, IT teams spend unnecessary time chasing down equipment instead of focusing on higher-impact work.

The hypothesis

If device management and offboarding workflows are connected in Rippling IT, IT teams can automatically detect when a terminated employee hasn’t returned a device and trigger alerts or follow-up actions instantly. By linking device assignment data to employee lifecycle events, Rippling eliminates the need for manual monitoring and ensures every device return is tracked from start to finish.

The solution

1. Tie alerts to the offboarding flow

When someone is terminated in Rippling, the offboarding flow already asks admins how they want to handle that person’s devices. Behind the scenes, Rippling knows:

• Whether the device is enrolled in Device Management

• Whether Inventory Management is enabled

• Which devices are currently assigned to the employee

You can use this termination event as the starting point for automation. As soon as the employee’s status changes to terminated, Rippling can automatically check:

• Does this person have any assigned devices?

• Did you choose to have Rippling retrieve the device via the warehouse or handle the return yourself?

That check becomes the trigger for your “unreturned device” workflow.

2. Let Device Management and Inventory Management track the return

Once the employee is offboarded, Rippling Device Management unassigns the device and applies your chosen data action (leave as is, lock, soft wipe, or full wipe). If you subscribe to Inventory Management, Rippling also handles the physical return:

• Sends return packaging and a prepaid shipping label to the address you choose

• Lets you track shipment status from the Devices > Orders tab

• Fully wipes, inspects, and updates the device condition once it reaches the warehouse

Because all of this is recorded in Rippling, IT can see exactly where each device is in the process, without juggling separate tools or spreadsheets.

3. Capture return status during offboarding

To make alerts more accurate, you can collect device return details as part of the offboarding flow itself.

Using custom fields and company-specific offboarding steps, you can require HR or managers to confirm things like:

• “Has the device been physically retrieved?”

• “Will this device be returned to the office instead of the warehouse?”

• “Is an extra box needed for additional devices?”

These responses sit alongside the standard Devices steps in offboarding and give your workflow the context it needs, so you only flag truly at-risk devices.

4. Use workflows to alert IT when a device is overdue

With termination data, device status, warehouse events, and custom fields all in Rippling, you can build an end-to-end workflow that catches unreturned devices automatically. For example:

1. Trigger: Employee status changes to Terminated.

2. Filter: Employee has one or more assigned devices, and the offboarding custom field shows “Not Returned” or “Return via Warehouse.”

3. Wait: Pause the workflow for a set period after termination (for example, 7 or 14 days).

4. Check: After that period, confirm whether:

   • Return packaging was delivered

   • The device was shipped

   • The warehouse has received or inspected it

If none of those events have occurred within your defined window, the workflow automatically:

• Sends an alert to IT via email, Slack, or a Rippling notification

• Optionally creates a task or ticket for follow-up

• Escalates to a manager if the device is still not returned after a second reminder

Because the workflow is powered by Rippling’s offboarding flow, Device Management, and Inventory Management, IT gets timely alerts when something is actually wrong, instead of manually polling spreadsheets or running one-off reports.

The impact

✓ IT receives automatic alerts when a terminated employee hasn’t returned their device

✓ Hardware recovery is fully trackable and auditable

✓ Device loss risk drops significantly with proactive follow-ups

✓ Offboarding becomes faster, more secure, and fully automated

Rippling IT connects the dots between HR events, device management, and automation. IT teams can recover assets faster, strengthen compliance, and reduce the workload associated with tracking hardware manually.

FAQs