Knowledge Transfer Template: Employee Offboarding and Succession Planning Tool

A structured knowledge capture guide and template for managers and HR practitioners who need to capture what someone knows before they leave, move, or change roles.

Every organisation loses knowledge when people leave. The loss is rarely visible immediately — for weeks or months, colleagues manage by memory. Then the new person starts and discovers the gaps: the client relationship that seemed straightforward, the process with workarounds nobody wrote down, the decision that looks arbitrary without the history behind it.

This guide covers how to capture what people know before it walks out the door. It covers four types of knowledge worth capturing, four capture strategies with honest assessments of each, and a realistic guide to what is possible depending on how much time you have. Includes guidance on how to build knowledge sharing as an ongoing habit so the organisation is never caught flat-footed by a departure.

The template has eight sections covering role overview, processes and workarounds, systems, context and decision history, relationships, current active work, and what the departing person wishes they had known. Followed by a fully worked example: Marcus, an operations manager with 11 years in the role and six weeks notice.

For: Managers, HR practitioners, and anyone who wants to do a good job of leaving.

31 pages