Build a Marketing Handover That Survives Staff Leave or Turnover

Executive summary

When the person who “knows all the marketing” is away, routine work can stop: scheduled posts go unchecked, enquiries sit unanswered, and nobody knows whether an offer is still active. A useful handover is not a long biography of the departing employee. It is a concise map of current commitments, next actions, decision rights and the way to regain access safely.

Allow 60–90 minutes for a first handover and 15 minutes to refresh it each week. Keep the document in a business-controlled location, not solely in a personal account or chat thread.

Document the work that is live now

Start with a list of commitments due in the next 30 days. Include campaign publication dates, offer end dates, scheduled content, outstanding approvals, supplier deadlines, reporting dates and unresolved customer-facing corrections. Record what happens if each item is missed.

Use one row per commitment:

item | status | next action | deadline | primary owner | backup | approval needed | source file | public URL | risk if delayed

“Festival campaign” is not a sufficient handover item. “Confirm final Gujarati price card with owner by 28 October; publish only after the offer terms are approved” gives the next person a usable action.

Separate status from next action

Status tells the reader where the task stands. Next action tells them how to move it forward. “In progress” is weak if nobody knows what remains. Prefer specific notes such as “copy approved; image awaiting branch manager; do not schedule until price is confirmed.”

Record blockers honestly. If a vendor has not replied, note the last contact date and the next follow-up date. Do not make the replacement employee reconstruct the entire history from scattered messages.

Transfer access without sharing personal passwords

List the business systems involved: social accounts, website CMS, analytics, shared inbox, design workspace, advertising account and business profile tools. For each, record the business owner, authorised users, recovery contact, billing responsibility and the process for requesting access.

Use each platform’s supported access roles where available. Google Business Profile supports owners and managers with different capabilities; use role-based access instead of passing around a personal login. Remove or adjust access when the role changes, following the organisation’s access policy.

Do not store passwords, one-time codes, recovery answers or private customer data inside the handover document. The handover should identify the authorised route to access, not expose secrets to everyone who can read the file.

Include decision boundaries

A backup needs to know which actions they can take without asking and which require approval. For example:

• May publish previously approved evergreen content.
• May correct a broken link after testing it.
• Must obtain owner approval before changing prices or offer terms.
• Must escalate serious complaints, legal threats or safety-related messages.
• Must not promise a delivery date or refund without operational confirmation.

Make the rules specific to the business. A backup who has access to a tool does not automatically have authority to approve every change.

Preserve the evidence needed to continue

Link to the latest approved assets, the campaign register, current source-of-truth information and the last report. Add the date each reference was checked. If a file has multiple versions, identify the approved master and the version that was published. Google Docs version history can help editors inspect prior changes, but the handover should still point directly to the current working file.

For public-facing content, include the live destination and its current status. A post that is scheduled is different from one that is live, pending or rejected. Check the actual platform status rather than assuming that the task was completed because the calendar says “published.”

Build a handover around a real absence

The best test is a short simulation. Ask the backup to locate the next scheduled task, identify the approved asset, verify the public destination, and explain when they need owner approval. Observe where they get stuck.

If the backup cannot answer a basic question without messaging the absent person, update the documentation. Avoid trying to document every possible scenario; focus on the recurring decisions and the high-cost failures.

End-of-role checklist

When a person permanently leaves, assign a new owner to every live item, update platform permissions, transfer business-owned files, review scheduled content, and confirm who receives enquiries and alerts. Revoke access only after confirming the business retains a working owner or recovery route. Keep necessary business records according to the organisation’s retention policy.

For planned leave, set an explicit start and end date for temporary coverage. For unexpected absence, use the same register to identify the highest-risk commitments first: active offers, customer messages, scheduled paid campaigns and public information that may be incorrect.

Conclusion and next steps

Keep the handover operational and current. A short, well-maintained register with named backups is more useful than a large document nobody updates. Test it by having someone else carry out one real task, then fix the missing instructions before the next absence.