Handover of duties: Challenges and Suggestions

Handover of duties in the corporate ecosystem is a less-talked yet very important aspect to ensure smooth functioning of BAU operations. The handover could be from a person who is switching verticals, or shifting to a different branch within the same organization, or scaling up the hierarchy, or going on a long vacation. Let's call this scenario 1. The second scenario could be from someone who has resigned (or has been asked to resign due to performance issues or project ramp down) and is serving notice period.

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From what I have witnessed in my corporate experience of close to two decades, in most cases this handover doesn't happen smoothly. For example, in scenario 1, it is often seen that the individual who needs to provide the download is too busy with his/her new duties, connecting with the new teams, or simply less interested in devoting adequate time to the person who is taking the handover. Scenario 2 is more troublesome (most operations and HR managers will vouch for this!), as a lot of people start acting casually during their notice period, be it a forced one or not. Apart from the usual challenges of dealing with the dip in performance by such individuals, the hurdles that project managers (PM) face is that the outgoing employees do not cooperate properly in providing knowledge transfer (KT). Even if an employee is assigned dedicatedly to take the handover, the PM ends up pushing the person on notice period to cooperate and provide the download.

I have personally seen a lot of cases where after such tumultuous handover, the execution by the person(s) on those tasks is dismal, leading to flaks by clients and even internal stakeholders. In order to ensure that the handover is effective, the PM has to play a very active role.

The PM needs to design a structured program for this entire process. He/she can check with the person taking the download after every 2-3 days and ask what are the new tasks for which KT has been done. The PM can then conduct a short assignment (verbal or written) on those tasks to understand if the person has got the download clearly or not. If the PM is not convinced, he/she must make the person connect with the outgoing employee again to understand those tasks properly. The PM needs to reexamine the understanding of that person to be sure that he/she is capable to execute the tasks of the outgoing individual.

Any red flags with client deliverables is trouble for the PM end of the day, hence he/she needs to oversee this proactively. Monitoring and ensuring a smooth transition should be as much a priority for a PM as managing daily operations is.

The onus of effective handover also lies upon the individual who is outgoing (through exit or department change or relocation or when going on a vacation), the HR managers, and the management team. The outgoing person in scenario 1 is still within the organization, hence he/she needs to consider the handover process seriously and execute it properly. Even if the person is on notice period, he/she is still within the company's payroll and is supposed to fulfill all necessary tasks and responsibilities till the last working day (LWD). However, I have seen a lot of times that a person on exit mode is taking things lightly, and even after being firmly told to cooperate by the operations manager and HR manager, nothing much changes. There remains an option to exit such a person before the actual LWD by adjusting FnF payment, but that doesn't help when it comes to getting the handover done properly.

That's where I feel that HR managers and management/leadership team need to play an important role by having a structure in place that'll ensure the handover is well-executed. Their role could be more like an umpire or a referee, who would know the rules well and ensure that all associated people abide by them.