What is Handover?
- According to Cambridge dictionary, it is the giving of control of or responsibility for something to someone else.
- It is the process of transferring responsibility for the duty station from the outgoing shift owner to the incoming shift owner
- As part of the process, it is a written document by an employee who is leaving their role (either permanent or temporary).
Who prepares a Handover?
Anyone who is leaving a role permanently or temporarily is usually encouraged to prepare a handover, which will then be given or handed over to the employee who will be his/her replacement. They could be:
- Shifting schedule employees (especially in operations and maintenance)
- Taking an extended leave
- Leaving the company (permanent)
What should a handover include?
The content and duration of the handover will be determined by the essence of your role and responsibilities. Generally, a handover should include:
- Employee’s day-to-day tasks and responsibilities
- Access to important documents and instructions on where to find such
- Useful contact numbers and emails (includes the customers’, clients’, colleagues’ and managers’ if needed)
- Details of any ongoing projects (includes status, updates, deadline and any issues)
- General housekeeping
Your guidance will not only help the organization function smoothly, but it will also ensure that all of the work you have done is not forgotten about once you have left the workplace or your shift is done.
Why is handover important?
The purpose of handover is to ensure that task-relevant information is communicated accurately during shift changes or between teams, ensuring that safe and effective work is maintained. To have an effective handover, take note of these three elements:
- Period of preparation by out-going personnel
- Handover where both personnel communicate to exchange task-relevant information
- Cross-checking of information by incoming personnel
Key principles in Handover
To ensure safe handover, organizations should:
- Identify higher risk handovers
- Develop communication skills of staff
- Emphasize the importance of shift handover
- Provide procedures for handover
- Plan for maintenance work
Shift handover should be:
- Conducted face-to-face
- Two-way, with both involved personnel taking joint responsibility
- Done by verbal and written communication
Barriers of Handover
From the word itself barrier, such as any variable that makes it difficult to be achieved or somehow block the progress of such process is something to look out for in the handover process. Some of these include:
Physical setting – may it be according to time, place, space that affects the handover process.
Language barriers – a barrier to communication between people who are unable to speak a common language that includes colleagues having the same language but speaking in different dialects. Thus, it is better to acknowledge and agree on everyone’s preferences to have better understanding and communication between teams.
Medium of communication – it is an outlet that a sender uses to relay message to their recipient and in such a way as verbal, nonverbal, written and visual. It is encouraged to agree on what is preferred by people involved. An inappropriate medium for relaying a message will act a barrier in communicating the handover process.
What can go wrong?
One major aspect in handover process is communicating. Having different understanding of contexts, miscommunications and misunderstandings are most likely to occur. Unreliable communications can result from a variety of problems that include:
- Missing information
- Unnecessary information
- Inaccurate information
- Misunderstandings
- Failing to carry forward information over successive shifts
Some communication situations are known to be liable to problems which makes it a high-risk communication situations include but not limited to:
- During maintenance if the work continues over a shift of change
- Following an individual’s lengthy absence from work
- Between experienced and inexperienced staff
Finding solutions
Effective communication is important in all organizations when tasks and related responsibilities are hand over to another person or work team. The reason why it is better to have a room for improvement in communication should an organization wanted to do handover more effectively. There are some od the recommendations:
- Carefully specify what key information needs to be communicated
- Use aids (such as logs, computer displays) based on the key information
- Allows sufficient time for communication
- Encourage two-way communication
- Encourage the asking of confirmation, clarification and repetition
- Encourage face-to-face communication
- Try to develop communication skills of all employees
- Aim to set standards for effective and safe communication