How to do a holiday handover
If you’ve got a lovely summer holiday coming up, you know it’s your chance to switch off completely and restore yourself after months of hard work. But for you to get the most out of your holiday, you’ll need to know your business is in safe hands while you’re away. In this blog, we look at how to do a holiday handover to reduce stress before and after your break.
What should you hand over?
Of course, there will be some things that only you can do, like nurturing a client relationship built on a personal touch, or financial responsibilities where you’re a named signatory.
However, there are plenty of other responsibilities that others can pick up on your behalf. True, the other person won’t do it in exactly the way that you do, but they will keep things ticking over so you don’t have a double workload to come back to. These tasks include:
- Admin and diary management
- Email management
- Telephone answering
- Social media
- Marketing
- Finance
- Payroll
How to do a holiday handover – what should I consider?
See it as an investment in your business
Handing over your work before your holiday creates a great opportunity for someone else in your organisation to take on more responsibility and gain more skills. Keep your handover positive – remember, it’s an investment in both your wellbeing and the growth of your business.
Don’t rush it
Making time for your handover should make your pre-holiday work week less stressful. It should also mean you don’t have to send last-minute instructions from the airport.
Delegate to the right person
Pick someone whom you trust – this can be more important than their experience. Choose someone with good judgement who will know when to take the initiative and know when to ask for advice.
Keep it simple!
You are probably only going away for one or two weeks, so the person you hand over to doesn’t need overly detailed instructions. In fact, if you make the handover too detailed, you risk overwhelming the other person so they can’t do their best work.
Make it a two-way process
Find out what the other person’s knowledge gaps are and focus on filling them. If there’s a process they don’t understand, this is the time to explain it to them. Let them ask questions. Try not to be critical if they ask you something you thought they already knew!
Can I outsource my work while I’m on holiday?
Yes! You might be surprised at just what you can outsource. For example, you probably know you can outsource back-office tasks like admin, payroll, marketing and diary management. But did you know you can also outsource your core work?
For example, if you run a creative agency, you can outsource design, branding and marketing to Get Ahead. Or if you offer HR or recruitment, you can outsource some of your processes to our team of experts. Your clients will receive a seamless service and you get the full benefit of your holiday into the bargain.
You can also outsource to a team of experts. We can assemble a team to cover whatever you need, whether you need email management and graphic design, or social media and business development.
Explore our site to find out more, follow us on social media, or get in touch for an informal chat.
