When a key person leaves in the middle of a project
Your superintendent gives two weeks' notice in week 7 of a 16-week office fit-out. He knows which ceiling the owner's representative wants redone, what he promised the mechanical foreman about a duct and where the spare electrical-room key is. Almost none of it is written down.
Name who covers the role before the day is out, and spend the notice period on a handover that is written down, walked and confirmed with the people involved. A superintendent carries the job's promises in their head and phone: who agreed to what, which trade needs chasing, where the shut-offs are. That knowledge leaves with them unless someone draws it out on purpose. Finding such dependencies early is covered in single points of failure, and the successor's first weeks in taking over a project.
- Name the cover on day one — one person, with help if needed — and tell the owner's representative and the trade foremen yourself.
- Get the lists by day three: open items, RFIs, commitments to the owner and each trade, the next month's inspections and deliveries, and every contact.
- List every verbal agreement — who, what, when — and confirm each in writing with the other party while the person who made it can still explain it.
- Walk the site twice, led first by the departing person, then by the successor, photographing shut-offs and work about to be closed in, and meeting each foreman.
- Move the roles and the access: appointments the law or contract requires, the alarm company's call list, keys, codes and accounts. Change the codes after the last day.
- Let the successor run the last two days while the departing person answers questions.
Common mistakes
- Leaving the handover to the last afternoon.
- Accepting "it's all in the files". The promises rarely are.
- Sharing the role among three people with nobody named.
Checklist
What the handover file holds
- Open items and RFIs, with status and owner
- Commitments to the owner and each trade
- Verbal agreements, each confirmed in writing
- Contacts, and who knows whom
- Keys, codes and shut-offs, with photos
- Legal and contract appointments, reassigned
Check your understanding
Three days before she leaves, your departing foreman is still working through her own deficiency list, and the handover has not started. What do you change?
