Handover template
A handover note passes responsibility for live work from one person to another: what's in progress, what's gone wrong, what could go wrong next, who to call, and which access, keys or equipment change hands. This free Word template works for a shift handover, for cover while someone is on holiday, and for handing over a job when someone moves role or leaves, with sign-off by both people.
Running a company of 30 to 200 people? Documents like this are now worth money.
The note is half of a handover; the other half is talking it through, so questions get asked while the person handing over is still there to answer them.
What's in the template
Handover note
| Handed over by | Name and role |
|---|---|
| Taken over by | Name and role |
| Type of handover | Shift, holiday or absence cover, or leaving or changing role |
| Date and time | |
| Covers | e.g. the night shift, two weeks from 3 November, or permanent |
| Manager |
1. Read this first
The three things the person taking over must know before anything else.
| # | What | Why it matters | By when |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | |||
| 2 | |||
| 3 |
2. Work in progress
| Task, job or order | Where it's up to | Next step | Deadline | Files or location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
3. Open issues
| Issue | Since | What's been tried | If it gets worse |
|---|---|---|---|
4. Risks and safety
Equipment out of use or locked off, temporary workarounds, permits in force, customers likely to complain, deadlines at risk.
| Risk or warning | Precautions in place | Who to tell |
|---|---|---|
5. Regular duties and dates
For holiday cover and job handovers: the routines that fall due while the new person is responsible.
| Duty | How often | Next due | How to do it (SOP or notes) |
|---|---|---|---|
6. Contacts
| Name | Organisation or team | Helps with | How to reach them |
|---|---|---|---|
7. Access, keys and equipment
Never write passwords here. List what changes hands and how; system access moves through IT.
| Item (system, key, card, equipment) | Held by now | Transferred to | Done (date) |
|---|---|---|---|
8. Leaving or changing role: extra checks
- Shared files moved out of personal drives and inboxes
- Customers, suppliers and colleagues told who their new contact is
- Shadowing sessions held before the last day
- Email auto-reply and forwarding agreed with the manager
- IT told which access ends on the last day
9. Questions raised at the handover
| Question | Answer or follow-up | Who |
|---|---|---|
10. Sign-off
| Role | Name | Signature | Date and time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Handed over by | |||
| Taken over by | |||
| Manager (job handovers) |
How to hand over well
- Prepare the note before the handover, not during it. For a shift that means the last half hour; for a job, start in the first week of notice.
- Lead with the three things that matter most (section 1). Someone taking over a busy shift may read nothing else for an hour.
- Hand over face to face where you can, and walk the area at a shift change: looking at the machine that's playing up beats reading about it.
- Ask the person taking over to say back what they've understood and to question anything unclear. HSE's guidance describes good shift handover as two-way, with both people sharing responsibility for it, and backed by written as well as spoken communication.
- Sign it off together, with the time, so it's clear when responsibility changed hands.
- For a job handover, overlap and follow up. Book shadowing before the last day, introduce the successor to key contacts in person, and have the manager ask a week later what the note missed.
Shift handover or job handover?
| Shift handover | Holiday or absence cover | Leaving or changing role | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to prepare | Minutes | A day or two | Weeks |
| Focus | Live status: faults, safety, what's running | Deadlines and decisions that can't wait | Relationships, routines, knowledge and access |
| Sections to stress | 1, 3 and 4 | 1, 2 and 5 | 2, 5, 6, 7 and 8 |
| Afterwards | The next handover picks up the thread | A short handback on return | A check-in with the manager a week or two later |
If a role's handover keeps running to pages of how-to, those steps belong in SOPs that outlast any one person. For roles nobody could step into at short notice, start a succession plan.
Example: a night-to-day shift handover
Sections 1 and 4 of a handover at a fictional 130-person plastics moulding factory, written by the night shift leader at 05:45:
| Item | Detail | Action for the day shift |
|---|---|---|
| Machine 7 mould change | New tool clamped in; cooling water not yet connected | Finish the change and pass a first-off check before running |
| Chiller 2 | High-temperature alarm at 03:10 and 04:40; machines 5 and 6 moved to chiller 1 | Refrigeration engineer due at 09:00; meet them at the plant room |
| Machine 12 | Locked off by the maintenance fitter for a hydraulic leak | Leave the lock on; only maintenance removes it |
| Order for the 10:00 collection | 1,400 of 2,000 caps packed; the rest running on machine 3 | Finish and label by 09:30 |
The day shift leader read it back, asked where the chiller alarm log was kept, and both signed at 06:05. When the factory's buyer left a month later, her handover leaned instead on sections 5 to 7: routine supplier calls, account contacts and ordering system access.
Common mistakes
- A note left on the desk with no conversation, so nobody can ask what "keep an eye on M12" means.
- Only good news. Faults and near misses are what the next person most needs to hear.
- Vague status, such as "nearly done". Say what's finished and what the next step is.
- Passwords written in the note. Move access through IT or your password manager instead.
- A job handover squeezed into the last afternoon. Start early in the notice period, while the leaver still has time to answer questions.
Frequently asked questions
What should a handover document include?
Work in progress and its next steps, open issues, risks and safety warnings, regular duties coming up, key contacts, and the access or equipment changing hands, followed by sign-off from both people with the date and time.
How long should a shift handover take?
As long as it needs, which varies from shift to shift. HSE's guidance says handover should be given as much time and resource as necessary, so build an overlap into the rota rather than expecting it to happen at the door.
What happens to a leaver's access?
It should be removed, or passed to the right person, as part of your leavers process. The NCSC recommends a joiners, movers and leavers policy, so access can be revoked when it's no longer needed and changed when someone moves role. Section 7 records what changes hands.