Two outcomes, one departure
In this guide, offboarding means the wider coordination of an employee’s departure: dates, responsibilities, company property and access changes. Handover is the work-continuity part: unfinished tasks, recurring processes, decisions, relationships and the material needed to carry on. A completed departure process can still leave the team unable to run next week’s report.
Give each decision an owner
The employee explains how the work is done and reviews the material to be shared. The team lead sets priorities and chooses the next owner, or an interim owner when there is no successor. HR coordinates the departure process. IT verifies access and follows the company’s account-closure procedure. One person can perform several roles, but the decisions should remain explicit.
Start with work that cannot wait
List upcoming commitments before organising every file. For each item, record the next action, due date if known, current owner, proposed recipient and supporting source. Add the recurring work that will happen after the last day. Unknown dates and owners are questions to resolve, not fields to guess. This gives the employee a smaller, concrete set of gaps to review.
Test the handover before closing the loop
Ask the recipient to open an important source and explain the next step in their own words. For a recurring task, try one representative run together. Preserve approved work in a company-managed location and confirm who controls it. A link that works only for the departing employee is not an acceptance check.
Example: a monthly customer report
A folder of previous reports supplies evidence, but not the full handover. Add how the data is collected, which changes deserve explanation, who reviews the draft and who receives it. Keep unresolved access or reviewer questions on the checklist. The team lead can then see what remains before the next reporting cycle.
What counts as done?
Use two separate records: the departure tasks have assigned owners, and the recipient has accepted the reviewed handover. Neither record should automatically close the other. Our 27-point checklist is a starting template; adapt it to your team and company policy.
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