Ch-ch-ch-changes: How to mindfully prepare for staff changes

Picture it.

It’s your new Development hire’s first day. Perhaps it took you a considerable amount of time to recruit and secure this hire. Your team has been going above and beyond to fill in the gaps from a previous staff departure, but now the wait is over. You have an onboarding plan ready to be implemented, and your new hire has actually shown up either in person or on video. You’re ready to go.

You want them to start getting the lay of the land, so you ask them to log into a portal.

Blocked.

Worse, the login is still connected to a former employee. Systems and processes can always be improved upon, and offboarding, onboarding’s sibling, is often overlooked. 

In short, we recommend you stay ready so you don’t have to get ready. What does that look like?

Document As You Go

Let’s back up before you even have a staff exit. 

Sometimes folks like to say we need a plan just “in case someone gets hit by a bus” (or, in a more upbeat scenario, “wins the lottery”). The most likely situation is that a colleague gets a new job or opportunity they want to explore. Hopefully, this person gives ample time to prepare their team and their organization, but we don’t always get the gift of time. 

Does your team know which processes or systems work? Has a colleague figured out a way to make a recurring process easier, or is there a long, detailed process that one person on your team knows by heart, but it just lives in their head? Get your team to write it down. There might be natural times in your organization’s calendar when the pace is a little slower and you can invest the time to document the “standard operating procedures” of your organization. What might it look like to create a time where your team gets to reflect on their work, celebrate the innovations they’ve made, and lay out a blueprint for new team members? By creating a culture of documentation, you’re ensuring that the rich institutional knowledge that lives within your current teammates can benefit future hires.

Remember Relationships

While you may not consider relationships to be a standard operating procedure, they absolutely are important to maintaining a continuous flow of work. If possible, make sure your outgoing staff members alerts key stakeholders about their departure, and connects them with someone who they can use as a point of contact moving forward. If possible, an email handshake is a nice way to help facilitate that transition, especially if your outgoing staff member has longstanding relationships. For example, if you are mid-cycle on a grant, alert your program officer that you will be transitioning so they know who to contact for reporting, payment, or other questions that may arise. It’s also a good opportunity to thank them for their ongoing support and to make sure you’re able to maintain the flow of communication.

Sort Out Your Passwords

If you’re not already using an online password manager at your organization, consider setting one up. It’s worth the investment. Companies such as 1Password offer a secure way to share usernames and login credentials with members of your team who might need access to portals and accounts in the event of staffing changes.

Ideally, your exiting colleague or employee has their login credentials and passwords organized in one easy-to-access place, but that’s not always the case. Setting up a shared vault that multiple team members have access to is one way to build institutional knowledge about the funders and partners that drive your work and ensure that your department is not contingent on one person. Additionally, consider setting up a Development @ your organization’s email domain for grant portals that are used frequently. This allows future team members to navigate applications and relationships without losing time trying to figure out logins. This step is especially important in the unfortunate case of less-than-amicable staff departures.

A staff transition is the perfect time to implement a new system that will make everyone’s work easier as the team learns to work together. By being more thoughtful about offboarding, you can help ensure your onboarding process is strong as well.