An employee left and had work records saved only on their personal phone or laptop — how do we recover them?

When an employee departs and their work records exist only on a personal phone or laptop, the organization still owns those records. A record is defined by its content and business function, not by where it happens to be stored. The fact that it sits on a personal device does not make it personal property, and the duty to capture and retain it does not disappear when the person does. Move quickly, document every step, and treat the matter as both a recovery problem and a prevention problem.

Act quickly to preserve

• Stop any deletion. Contact the former employee in writing as soon as possible and ask them not to delete, wipe, or factory-reset the device until records are recovered. If litigation, an audit, or a public-records request is reasonably anticipated, a formal legal hold may apply.
• Notify the right people. Loop in IT, the records officer, legal counsel, and HR early. The exit checklist should already flag device return; if it did not, that is a gap to fix.
• Preserve in place. Where possible, have the data copied off the device under supervision rather than letting the individual sort and forward selectively.

Recover the records

• Cooperative return. Most cases resolve when the person voluntarily transfers files, emails, texts, or app data to an official system. Capture metadata (dates, authorship) where you can.
• Account-level recovery. If the work was synced to cloud accounts, email servers, or collaboration tools the organization controls, much of it may be retrievable from those systems rather than the device itself.
• Formal channels. When cooperation fails, counsel may pursue a written demand, the offboarding agreement, or other legal means. Avoid accessing personal devices without authorization.

Validate and prevent

Once recovered, file the records in the official recordkeeping system, classify them, and apply the correct retention schedule. Then close the loophole: clear policy prohibiting work records on personal devices, sanctioned tools that capture content automatically, and an offboarding process that verifies records transfer before access is revoked. Sound recordkeeping systems are designed so records are captured reliably regardless of device.

For more foundational guidance, see the fundamentals topic hub.