There is a moment that almost no one registers. Someone on the team resigns or is fired. And amidst everything that needs to be resolved - what happens to the computer that collaborator used?
In many companies, that equipment disappears. It is not theft, it is not bad intention. It is just that there was no process. No one coordinated the retrieval. And the former collaborator, already in their new job, never knew how to return the equipment.
The result: a USD 1,500 computer abandoned in an apartment in Medellín, or in a house in Mexico City. No one in the company knows what happened to it.
This happens more often than it seems. And it has a concrete cost that many companies never calculate.
In this article, we will see how much the hardware that leaves your company at each offboarding is worth. Why so many companies end up giving away equipment without realizing it. What fails in the offboarding processes in LATAM. And how to recover that investment, even on equipment that has already completed its cycle.
The hardware you hand out is not an expense: it is an investment that must return
When a company equips a remote worker, it is making a real investment. A mid-range laptop (Dell, Lenovo, HP) ranges between USD 800 and USD 1,200.
If the team uses MacBooks, the number goes up. Air models are between USD 800 and USD 1,300. MacBook Pros for professional use start at USD 1,600.
To that, you have to add accessories: mouse, keyboard, headset, monitor, adapters. A complete workstation easily reaches USD 2,000 or more.
Now multiply that number by every employee departure your company had in the last year. How many devices came back? How many do you know the location of?
Price reference
Equipment type | Estimated range |
|---|---|
Corporate PC (Dell, Lenovo, HP) | USD 800 – USD 1,200 |
MacBook Air | USD 1,000 – USD 1,300 |
MacBook Pro | USD 1,600 – USD 2,500 |
Accessories per collaborator | USD 200 – USD 500 |
Complete workstation | USD 1,000 – USD 3,000 |
The indirect cost of unreturned equipment
The most visible loss is the hardware. But it's not the only one. When a device is not returned, three more things happen.
Ghost assets that bloat the inventory. A laptop that is neither in use nor recovered remains on the records. It distorts the actual stock and complicates purchasing planning. The company doesn't know whether it needs to buy new devices or if it has free units.
Exposed data. An unrecovered device is an active endpoint outside of IT's control. Emails, access, files, saved credentials: all of that could be on a machine that no longer operates for the company.
Budget spent without tracking. Without asset traceability, purchases are reactive. A new device is bought because "none are available," without knowing that there are three unrecovered units from departures in the previous quarter.
How companies handle offboarding today (and why it is not enough)
Hardware offboarding for remote teams usually falls into one of these three ways. None of them work well.
The generic email. Someone from HR or IT sends an email asking for the equipment to be returned. No packaging instructions, no logistics, no follow-up. The employee receives it among account closure emails, document signing, and final payment.
The informal agreement. "Send it when you can." No date, no box, no prepaid label. It depends on the former employee's goodwill and someone in IT having the time to follow up.
The involuntary gift. The company stops chasing the equipment. Logistics in LATAM are complex, no one is clear on who is responsible, and the cost of coordinating seems higher than the value of the asset. The equipment stays with the employee. The loss is absorbed without being recorded.
For a 100-person company with a 20% annual turnover (20 departures per year) and equipment averaging USD 1,500, that can be between USD 15,000 and USD 30,000 in assets lost per year. Not counting the security risk.
The underlying problem: recovery logistics in LATAM are not simple
Recovering equipment from someone in Buenos Aires, Lima, or Bogota is not as straightforward as it seems. There is no standard return system like in the United States or Europe.
Border crossings have tariffs. Courier companies have restrictions for used equipment. And coordinating all of that from IT or HR, which already have other priorities, is unfeasible in practice.
That is why many companies choose the path of least resistance: they do not recover. And that is how a USD 1,500 laptop ends up being an unplanned gift to the former employee.
How First Plug Solves It
At First Plug, hardware offboarding is just as important as onboarding. That is why we have a process to recover equipment when someone leaves the company, without you having to coordinate anything.
You let us know when an employee is leaving. We coordinate the collection directly with that person. We manage local logistics without crossing borders. And we return the equipment to you ready to be reassigned or stored.
No chasing ex-employees. No improvising packaging. No IT time wasted on logistics.
When the equipment is returned, it has two possible destinations:
Temporary storage, ready for the next employee. Onboarding already has hardware available without a new purchase.
BuyBack Program, for equipment that has already completed its cycle. Instead of the asset remaining with someone who no longer works at the company, we recover it and manage its resale.
Comparison: without process vs. with First Plug
Without process | With First Plug | |
|---|---|---|
Collection coordination | Managed by IT or HR among other priorities | First Plug coordinates directly with the departing employee |
Logistics in LATAM | No process, depends on the country | In-house operations throughout the region |
Tracking | Scattered emails, no traceability | Process logged at every step |
Equipment destination | Uncertain: drawer, gift, or does not return | Storage or immediate reassignment |
Unrecovered equipment | Loss is absorbed without being recorded | Minimised with an active process |
End-of-life equipment | Remains unused or given away | BuyBack: part of the investment is recovered |
IT and HR time | High: coordination and tracking | Minimal: First Plug takes care of the entire process |
Inventory | Ghost assets that distort stock levels | Up-to-date inventory with every departure |
Security risk | Outbound devices without certified erasure | Collection with data management included |
BuyBack: recovering investment instead of losing it
BuyBack is one of the most underused tools in hardware management.
A piece of equipment that is two or three years old still has market value. Instead of leaving it unused or losing it in an offboarding without a process, the BuyBack program turns it into real return. You recover part of what you invested. And that money can be used to renew the equipment fleet with criteria.
It is the difference between hardware as an expense and hardware as a managed asset.
An offboarding process is necessary to grow without friction
When a company grows and has people in several countries, every departure without a recovery process is a hole in the budget and in security.
The good news is that you don't need to build that process internally. First Plug has it built, tested, and running throughout LATAM.
If you want to know how it would apply to your operation, talk to us.
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