Do you know how to hand over your shift to the next person? This Shift Guide will show you exactly how that’s done. Until now, it wasn’t very clear. Check out these tips!
Reflect
Now that you’ve figured out your audience and written down the core information you want to communicate, it’s time to reflect on some of the nuances of your handover.
We recommend that you begin this process by asking yourself a few questions:
- What does my audience already know about me?
- What do I need to establish for my audience to trust me?
- What is the biggest obstacle between me and my goal?
Hopefully, these questions will allow you to develop some empathy with your audience to predict how they’ll respond more accurately. These questions may also help clarify why communicating value is important — if you’re confident in what value means, it’ll be easier to understand why communicating it is so crucial.
Know your Audience
It’s important to know who you’re speaking with, especially if you don’t know them. Is it someone familiar with what you do? Do they have a casual or formal manner of speaking? If you aren’t sure, it’s best to err on the side of formality. For example, suppose I’m communicating with someone I’ve never met in the past, and they fall into this category. In that case, I’ll use a formal tone and vocabulary (e.g., “I look forward to meeting you”) until proven otherwise. You can always loosen up once they indicate that it’s okay (e.g., saying something informal like “see ya”).
The other thing is shift handover automation. It doesn’t have to be hard. Download the guide for a quick overview of how you can automate your handover comms and free up time for other important stuff.
Know your Goal
The life of a project manager (PM) is a juggling act of shifting priorities, multiple teams, and meetings. There are always a million things to do, and you probably feel like your head will explode if you don’t get something off your plate soon. It would be best if you prioritized the business’s goals over everything else, so you can focus on what truly matters.
The first step when creating a goal is knowing what it should be. Your goal should make sense within your company’s bigger picture and be achievable with the resources available to you as PM. The staff shift scheduling software allows you to track hours and communicate value to employees.
Keep to the Right Time and Length.
- Consider how long the handover should take. The length of your shift handovers will depend entirely on what is required by your site and should be decided by management in conjunction with teams. However, you can ensure that the handover is long enough to cover all the key points.
- Make it a habit to take notes during the handover. This way, you won’t forget any important information from your predecessor’s shift. It also gives you a good head start for the next day when you come back on shift.
- Make sure everyone knows when the handover is meant to finish. This means that both parties know roughly how long they have left and can plan accordingly when they need to leave for home or other commitments at work.
Rehearse, Revise, and Repeat
- Rehearse, revise, and repeat. It’s not just a saying—it’s a process. No matter how good you are at public speaking, your presentation will be more polished and persuasive if you practice it in advance. Whether you take it to your family or the mirror, seek feedback from those who have specific insight into what makes an effective message.
- Prepare for questions and criticism by taking the time to rehearse with loved ones or peers who are known to be critical or supportive; their feedback can help you identify areas where your message isn’t resonating with listeners and give you the tools to make it stronger, clearer, and more convincing.
Focus on the Transfer of Value
When I was growing up, my father was a minister. That meant our family moved around to different churches quite often. One of the hardest parts about moving frequently is feeling like you have to start over again: making friends and finding new favorite places in town. When we move, the first thing I always do is to find ways to make the place feel like home and get connected with people in our new community.
One of the steps along this journey that has been consistently difficult for me as I’ve grown older has been shift handover—a phrase used by call center agents to describe what they tell the incoming agent on their next shift so they can pick up where they left off without missing a beat. As a person who values connection, telling someone else what’s happened makes me think I’m getting closer with them and improving my relationship with them. Still, it’s not effective at all!
Conclusion
This employee shift handover guide will help you get your team on the same page about value. Communicating value to new clients is a vital step in creating a healthy working relationship, one that your agency can sustain long-term and grow into greater value for years to come.
