A transition plan is a document describing all the regular activities that an incumbent does for an organization that will be transferred to successors. This document explains the transition goals and outlines sharing all the knowledge with the new employee.  

A transition plan is something that takes work. This document is fundamental to collecting information and summarizing goals, strategies, and priorities in a single document. A transition plan is mandatory to maintain the continuous workflow in outstanding projects. 

A transition plan is also crucial for employees who must ensure that tasks are completed; this is their main transition goal. 

No matter the role or the performance of current employees, a transition plan gives relevant data regardless of the person who takes the responsibility.

In this section,  you will find some aspects to keep in mind when writing your transition plan.

The incumbent should be prepared to change their career regardless of how many years they have been on the job. This way, they know they are ready to leave their current role and the organization.

If you prepare to leave your actual position, you will make the transition less painful. At the same time, with a plan focused on future interests and new career expectations, you hope the best of the days to come.

At first instance, it's essential to know if the successor has the knowledge and competencies to fulfill their role and responsibilities. Both stakeholders should receive an evaluation of their responsibilities to understand the value of their roles.  

This is also great for successors when creating a new database for their new current role. Your replacement will thank you for focusing on the most relevant aspects of your past responsibilities.

You must implement a well-performed and smooth transition and communicate ideas one by one. The best is to plan early, weeks in advance, and respond to all the questions the successor may have.

Naming your transition plan should be the first step when creating this document, regardless of whether you use it for education or transition to a new job.

The name of your transition plan will quickly identify and describe what your document is about. A short name is always recommended for better collaboration.

Your supervisor will be very grateful to receive a note from you attached to your transition plan. The letter can be brief. This way, you can successfully communicate your reasons and plan to the supervisor and even thank them for their advice.

You and all the stakeholders will be interested in knowing all the details of your transitions for success. Decide which details must be included and which ones are redundant. Details should address the following stakeholders and aspects:

• Incumbent. You can describe yourself as the incumbent and provide details of your responsibilities. If you want, you can define your training, education, and ability. 
• Successor. You can describe the expectations about your full-time successor. Your supervisor may select them. Otherwise, you may have an essential role in their instructions. 
• New Role Start Date. Your colleagues may take care of your past responsibilities when you leave. For this reason, you must know exactly when you will leave the company or start a new role. Before this, you can also assist your successors or colleagues in fulfilling your ongoing projects. 
• Supervisor. To create a good transition plan, you need to consider your former supervisor, your job, and relationship with them. You can describe how you report to your supervisor, how you define the tasks status, which tools you use, etcetera. 

Successfully elaborating a transition plan involves describing all your standard duties, including annual, monthly, weekly, and daily responsibilities. 

The idea is to mention the specific responsibility and describe it as thoroughly as possible.

You are likely developing some projects when you're in the middle of a transition process. So, you must include their descriptions and mention the percentage of progress you've made. 

It would be best if you did this for all your projects. Besides, you must mention unfinished tasks, important dates, and deadlines.

In the step before the transition planning, we said it's essential to mention unfinished tasks. Still, it's also important to clarify which tasks you're planning to finish for a smooth transition. This way, you will deliver only some of the responsibilities to your replacement or colleague. 

Writing a job transition plan at least one month in advance is best. Assure you'll finish your current projects' recurring duties for you and the next employee. 

Remember that this is a coordinated process, so show your list to your supervisor to plan the next steps regarding your transition.

You likely built a great web of relationships while completing your regular duties in your past department. In this regard, including your key contacts is beneficial to help your successor adjust to their new responsibilities.

Try to include all the internal and external contacts you have collected in your years of experience–during middle school, adult life, etcetera–and are helpful for the position. 

Contacts are great resources for your projects while transitioning to another employment. This way, your successor can get important information when they need to learn or perform some activities.

Transition plans generally include a guideline of all tasks that need to be completed for your successor as soon as they take your place. The new person responsible must be clear about the deadlines, priorities, components, and documents they should use to achieve goals.  

We're sharing a couple of templates that can make your transition plan schema exciting. Study them and choose which is better for your transition.

Transition plans are not only to transition from one job to another. Many students use these documents to describe their annual IEP goals and objectives for later grades. This way, they can communicate their objectives to schools, universities, parents, and families. 

Anyway, if you want to complete your transition plan and communicate your duties to any partner, a transition plan is the document you need. 

Finally, seek other templates on our website. Access our blog and check all the templates we put at your disposal. They are great tools to achieve your business goals!