Step 1: The outgoing manager writes the handover note from the record
The note is short because the record is long. It points into the workspace: the remit's three lists and the reasons behind the items that were moved between them; the classes promoted and why, from the review notes; the classes deliberately not promoted and why; the send-back reasons that recur and what they mean; the Brand Brain facts the manager corrected and the ones they suspect are stale; the receivers on the escalate list and which ones are reliable; the incidents and their fixes; and the targets, with the manager's view of which are right. It takes an hour, and it is written before the manager's last week.
A Digital FTE's manager leaving without this note loses the judgement; the mechanisms survive regardless.
Step 2: Name a deputy for the gap, if there is one
If the incoming manager starts after the outgoing one leaves, route the role's approvals to a deputy for the gap, briefed on the remit and the recurring send-back reasons, with instructions to approve within the existing pattern, send back with reasons, escalate anything unusual, and change nothing. The workforce view's waiting count is the check that the deputy is keeping up. The deputy does not run a monthly review; if one falls in the gap, it is deferred to the incoming manager with a note.
Proposals wait if nobody decides; the deputy keeps the function running rather than paused.
Step 3: The incoming manager reads before approving
In the first two days, before approving a single proposal: the remit's three lists in Setup, with their version history; the Brand Brain in Memory, item by item with provenance, noting what to confirm; the autonomy ladder per class with the promotion notes; the last three monthly review notes; the send-back log for the last cycle, sorted; the escalate list and its receivers; the connections and their scopes; and the outgoing manager's note. Then a week of approving alongside the deputy, reading the evidence closely, to learn what the record's approval rate means in practice.
The persona piece for the role's function describes what a manager of that role owns.
- Read: remit, memory, ladder, reviews, reasons, receivers, connections, note
- Then: a week approving alongside the deputy
- Only then: sole approver
Step 4: Re-route approvals on a named date
On a date agreed with the deputy, the role's routine approvals are routed to the incoming manager, the deputy is removed from the path or kept as the named deputy for absence, and the change is logged. The escalate list's receivers are reviewed; if the outgoing manager was a receiver, a new one is named. The manager's contact for out-of-hours triggers is updated. The workforce view shows the role under its new manager from that date, and the audit trail shows the routing change with a name.
The Escalation Grid framework describes the receiver columns that need a new name.
Step 5: Re-run the connection review
A change of manager often coincides with a change of the person who owns access to the tools, and the outgoing manager may have been the one who confirmed scopes. Re-run the connection review for the role: confirm at each tool that the account is dedicated and its permissions are the narrowest the remit needs, attempt a forbidden action, and record the confirmation with the incoming manager's or access owner's name and the date. If the outgoing manager held any personal credential the role should not have, which the design prevents but a review confirms, revoke it.
The security lead's persona piece lists the checks; the handover is a natural moment to perform them.
Step 6: Hold the first review under new management
At the incoming manager's first monthly review, read the record as the outgoing manager would have: outcomes against targets, cost per outcome, approval rate and reasons per class, incidents. Change nothing: no promotions, no step-backs unless the record demands one, no remit changes, no target changes. Write the review note as an understanding of the role rather than a plan for it. Changes come at the second review, when the manager's own cycle of send-back reasons exists to justify them. A new manager who changes the remit in week one is managing from instinct, and the record will show it.
The Promotion Standard's first condition, a full cycle at the current level, applies to the manager as much as to the class.
What does done look like?
A handover note from the outgoing manager pointing into the record; a deputy briefed and routed for any gap with the waiting count watched; an incoming manager who has read the remit, memory, ladder, reviews, reasons, receivers, and connections, and approved alongside the deputy for a week; approvals re-routed on a named, logged date with receivers updated; a connection review re-run with confirmations recorded; and a first review under new management that changed nothing and wrote down what the role is. The role worked every day through all of it.
The offboarding checklist in the library covers the different case of the role itself leaving; this playbook is the manager leaving.