Create a useful handover when an employee is leaving

Build a role handover around live work, upcoming commitments and the decisions a replacement will need to make. Link to the business records instead of copying everything into a long document. Give each open item a next action and owner, then ask the receiving person to find and explain a few important items.

This guide deals with transferring role knowledge when someone leaves. Employment exit requirements and technical access changes need their own checks. The onboarding checklist helps organise the incoming person’s setup.

Start with the work that cannot wait

Ask what will cause a missed commitment in the next few days if nobody picks it up. Put those items first. Deal with tomorrow’s customer commitment before documenting an annual task.

For each live item, record where the current evidence is stored. “See my inbox” is not a usable business location. Arrange appropriate access through the person responsible for your systems; never paste passwords, recovery codes or private account credentials into the handover.

Use a board that shows the next decision

Area	Record to locate	Next action and owner	Receiving person’s check
Live job	Order A104 in the shared job system	Alex confirms the revised delivery date by Tuesday.	Found the last agreed date and the customer’s question.
Recurring deadline	Weekly supplier review instructions	Morgan prepares the next review on Thursday.	Located the list and knows who approves changes.
Important contact	Supplier support details in approved directory	Alex contacts the account team about the open query.	Knows what information to include.
Open decision	Quote comparison in the project folder	Owner decides after missing delivery terms arrive.	Can explain why the decision is still open.

Original ASBG example. Names and situations are fictional; the table is also the accessible text version.

The acceptance column is about whether information can be used. It is not a declaration that every risk or employment obligation has been resolved.

Capture the reason behind the current position

Add a short note where the record alone is misleading. A quote might be lower because installation is excluded. A customer might have agreed to wait only if a particular deadline is met. Record the evidence and current uncertainty, without adding gossip or guesses about people’s motives.

Keep personal information limited to what the work requires and use authorised business records. The OAIC explains that the employee-records exemption has a defined scope; it is not a blanket rule for every piece of information a business holds. OAIC: employee records exemption. Get advice on sensitive records or unclear disclosure questions.

When there is little overlap, rehearse the next task

Choose one live job and one recurring commitment. Ask the receiving person to find the record, identify the next action and say who can approve an exception. Let the outgoing person correct missing context while they are still available.

If no replacement has started, the owner or interim cover person performs that check. Record what remains unknown. Do not build the plan around the former employee being available after their employment ends.

Job shadowing is one learning option described by Business.gov.au. Business.gov.au: staff development and training. Use it for the difficult parts of the role, rather than spending the entire overlap reading a document aloud.

Connect the handover to the new person’s learning

Put the tasks requiring practice into the 30-day learning plan. Add open questions to the first-month check-in, with an owner who can resolve them.

Return to the hiring and onboarding hub for the rest of the transition. Keep one authoritative handover board and update it until each item has a confirmed owner.

Key takeaways

• Prioritise live commitments, then recurring work and background context.
• Store credentials separately and link only to authorised records.
• Test whether the recipient can locate the evidence and act on it.

Where to get help

• Business.gov.au: staff development and training
• OAIC: employee records exemption