(This post contains affiliate hyperlinks. Please read my full disclosure.
10 Simple Ways to Prepare for a Handover at Work (with Email Templates)
Once upon a while, I tried to plan my projects around the dates I knew I would be in the office. My colleagues joked that I planned my birth date around a major transformation project go-live date. We had to move that go-live by three months so I was on maternity leaves with a newborn when they finally went live.
Experienced project managers know that when things change on a job, all your carefully planned deadlines are affected.
This article will show you how to handover a colleague.
There are many reasons to handover your work
Handovers for vacation
1. To notify your employer of upcoming leaves, use your email signature
2. Plan to handover your job to a colleague
3. Meet your colleague for a handover
4. Remember your manager and/or project sponsor
5. Use the Holiday handover email template to notify your clients and other stakeholders
6. Set your out-of-office autoresponder messageAutoresponder template
7. Update your voicemail message
8. Tie up loose ends
9. When you return, plan for a handover
10. Go on holiday, don’t look back
There are many reasons to handover your work
You will have to give up your project at some point in your career. There are many reasons this could happen:
Maternity leave
Paternity leave
Planned Medical Leave
Vacation time, annual leave, or booked holidays
Unpaid leave of absence
You will need to transfer your knowledge to someone who can take over your project permanently if an employee leaves or leaves.
As you can see, there are two types of reasons for handing over a project: a temporary one (when someone else takes over your work for a brief period) and a permanent one (when you are leaving the job).
It’s pretty straightforward. If you are going to be leaving permanently and need to hand over your work during the notice period, you will want to be more inclusive. Temporary leave can be used to focus on completing tasks that are required during your absence.
Handovers for vacation
Most people will brief someone else about your work if they have a vacation planned. You both benefit from a vacation handover. This means that you need to plan for what might happen. It allows your colleagues to deal with things while you are away.
Holiday handovers are limited to the tasks you need someone else doing for you. This could include the following:
Notifying senior managers about the completion of a task
Sending out a Report (bonus points if you can prewrite some of it before going)
As the point of contact for an emergency
As a point of contact for suppliers in the event they have a need
Supervise the project team’s day-to-day activities and act as a point of escalation for team leaders who need it.
Assisting in the approval of key processes to ensure that changes and other issues don’t get buried in the workflow while you’re away.
Most projects can handle themselves for two weeks. It’s great to give instructions to someone, but if they can’t do it due to their own work schedule, it doesn’t mean the end of the world. Keep expectations manageable.
These 10 tips will help you create a smooth transition plan no matter how long or if you’re ever coming back.
10 Handover tips
Here are 10 easy ways to forget about your work and worry less about what’s happening back at base.
1. To notify your employer of upcoming leaves, use your email signature
I have seen more people use their email signature to alert others to out-of-office events. It’s a great idea. It looks a little like this:
Email signature, contact details, etcAdvance n