transition business plan template

Free Transition Templates

By Kate Eby | September 25, 2018

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Download professionally designed, free templates for business and project transition planning. Choose from a range of the most popular customizable templates for business, including transition plans for specific jobs, organizational changes, business planning, and ongoing projects.

Role Transition Plan Template

Use this template as a leadership transition plan template or to transition staff into and out of any role. The template provides an outline for adding your own details related to role responsibilities, knowledge transfer, and implementation schedule. The layout includes a checklist to help you create and track your transition timeline.

Download Role Transition Plan Template

Excel | Word | PDF | Smartsheet

Transition Planning Template with Calculator

Calculate the time needed for each aspect of a transition with this employee transition plan template. Enter your estimates for the amount of time required for training, transferring assignments, and other activities, and the calculator will automatically show the breakdown along with the overall timeline. This template can also be used by incumbents to track the amount of time spent on various tasks so that successors can get an idea of the responsibilities and time commitments required for a given job.

Download Transition Planning Template with Calculator

Excel | Smartsheet

Project Transition Plan Template

Fill out this simple spreadsheet to create an organized project transition plan. Sections are provided for listing goals, risks, transition team roles, tasks, and training requirements. Add starting and ending dates next to each item for a clear timeline. If you need more comprehensive plan, insert additional rows for a customized transition template.

Download Project Transition Plan Template

Knowledge Transfer Template

This template is intended for consolidating knowledge into a single spreadsheet that you can easily share with colleagues. Incumbents can enter information about current projects, important contacts, deadlines, issues, and documents that successors will need to access. There is also space to add comments, and you can modify the template to include additional columns.

‌ Download Knowledge Transfer Template — Excel

Business Transition Plan Template

This business transition planning template provides a detailed outline to guide your strategy and planning efforts. Add your own copy to describe the situation and changes taking place, the impact of the transition on different business elements, the timeline for implementing the plan, communication issues and strategies, and other details. You can also use this template for organizational changes that may have a widespread impact on a business.

‌ Download Business Transition Plan Template — Word

Contractor Transition Plan Template

Use this job transition plan template to manage a role shift from an outgoing contractor to an internal team member. Describe the purpose of the transition plan and its objectives, contract details, risks, knowledge transfer, and a schedule of related activities. This is similar to other work transition plan templates, but it is specifically designed for contract employees.

Download Contractor Transition Plan Template

What Is a Transition Plan for a Company?

A transition plan is a document that helps companies navigate changes such as retirement or resignation from leadership roles, structural changes within an organization, mergers with other companies, or transitions between stages of business planning. While the types of changes and level of risk may vary among organizations, transition planning is important for all companies in order to anticipate and facilitate successful change.

Additionally, transition plans can help an individual navigate career changes and ensure that leaving a job is done well. Planning also helps to pass knowledge down to successors so that expertise is retained.

What Is a Management Transition?

A management transition can refer to employees moving into management roles, whether high-level executive positions or lower-level jobs. This transition may occur due to a business owner retiring or selling a company, business growth leading to a need for new managers, or career changes due to promotion or other factors.

What Is a Transition Strategy?

Transition strategies vary depending on the business context and type of change. There are numerous scenarios that could lead to major transitions — a CEO’s retirement, company performance issues, or the growth of a new startup — and each requires a different strategy in order to manage the change effectively. There is no one-size-fits-all transition strategy; rather, you should tailor your plan to your specific business needs.

Part of transition planning is to think strategically about business objectives, management needs, and potential risks so that transitions can be handled in a way that works for the business — rather than against it.

What Is Included in a Transition Plan?

Whether you’re making a transition plan for leaving a job, starting a new job, shifting employee roles, or other work transitions, using a template provides an outline to follow. The transition plan document may also include signature lines to show agreement among the incumbent, supervisors, and other parties involved. Business transition plans may also provide information about organizational readiness, business value, or detailed change control procedures, depending on the nature of the transition.

Here are examples of items to include in a plan for dealing with staff transitions:

• Duties and Responsibilities: These can be ongoing, such as meetings that are regularly attended, as well as non-recurring activities, and can be organized into daily, weekly, monthly, and annual tasks. Note responsibilities so that work can continue uninterrupted during a role transition.
• Assignments: This includes descriptions of current projects in progress and the status of each, coworkers and other important contacts involved, upcoming deadlines, and expected deliverables.   
• Key Contacts: Internal or external relationships may be vital to the job. Passing these contacts to a successor helps to maintain these relationships and keep business running smoothly.
• Knowledge Transfer: This section starts with a list of key knowledge and skills required for the position, which may include the use technology and specific processes. Also document how you’ll transfer that knowledge, a timeline for transitioning knowledge, and training plans. You may present this list as a checklist to break down knowledge transfer steps and provide an action plan.
• Issues and Risks: This area may include current issues that the position is dealing with or potential risks that need to be considered.

Use a project transition plan when shifting from one project phase to another, when changing to a new manager, or for other changes, such as implementing new technology into a current project. Here is a sample of some of the elements commonly included in a project transition plan:

• Project Scope: A transition plan may include an overview with a description of the project, the expected impact of the transition, and supporting documentation.
• Logistics: This section describes required resources such as software, staffing needs, or facilities to be used. It may also cover maintenance and support requirements related to computer systems, technical equipment, security, and related contracts. A maintenance plan may also include associated costs and budget details.
• Communication Plan: Some plans include communication plans for both staff and stakeholders. You can also use this section to define procedures for reporting and other communications during the transition.
• Risks: Once you identify risk factors, list them based on priority along with mitigation plans. Be sure to update the transition plan as issues arise and to track the progress of mitigation plans.
• Key Staff: Transition team members are often listed along with contact information and descriptions of their roles. You may also document changes in responsibilities.
• Transfer of Knowledge: New skills and associated training may be needed to help staff adjust to project updates, new equipment, or role changes.
• Product Delivery: If relevant, the plan may provide details on the release process for deliverables, such as data migration, testing, and problem resolution for software products.
• Implementation: A schedule for implementation outlines the steps involved along with a timeline for each activity.
• Transition Acceptance: This may be a section to get approval from the project manager and other stakeholders, or specific to a customer that needs to accept the transition plan before implementation can proceed.

Depending on the scope of a project or the type of transition, planning can be a complex and time-consuming process, but the importance of using a strategic approach and creating thorough documentation can’t be overstated.

Improve and Monitor Transition Plans with Real-Time Work Management in Smartsheet

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The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

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10 Free Transition Plan Templates & Examples

Praburam Srinivasan

Growth Marketing Manager

February 13, 2024

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Transitional phases are part of any business. Whether preparing for project transitions, employee succession, or organizational change, you’ll need a plan for everything to go smoothly.

Instead of spending countless frustrating hours trying to create a plan yourself—or worse, playing things by ear—it’s best to work smarter with transition plan templates. You’ll save time and get to the things that matter even faster.

Plus, you can’t beat the wonderful feeling of having peace of mind when you look at an organized, reliable plan. 🧘

We’ve made it easy by gathering 10 free transition plan templates and examples to simplify your transition without costing you a dime. Get ready to make successful transitions easier across the board.

What’s a Transition Plan Template?

What makes a good transition plan template, 1. clickup change management transition plan template, 2. clickup project handover template, 3. clickup change management plan gantt template, 4. clickup change management plan document template, 5. clickup change management checklist template, 6. clickup change management action plan template, 7. clickup rebranding project template, 8. clickup return to work action plan template, 9. clickup contingency plan template, 10. clickup corrective action plan template.

A transition plan template is like a roadmap that guides you through any transition your business faces. These templates can serve as a secret weapon outlining all the steps to change things within your business successfully. And since every shift is different, we’ve emphasized fully customizable templates to ensure you can change them to fit your unique needs.

These templates also serve as example transition plans that show what usually goes into preparing for the change your business is experiencing.

When you’ve filled in (and customized) your template, you’ll have a comprehensive list of tasks to complete, a projected timeline for the entire transition, a resource overview, plus anything else you need to handle. 🙌

Whether your company is undergoing a significant change or something smaller, a transition plan template will help you prepare for it on all fronts.

Your new template will help you identify potential challenges and create solutions ahead of time so you can have that blissful peace of mind that comes from knowing you’re ready for anything.

A good transition plan template will help you create a roadmap to ensure a beautiful transition from start to finish. You want one that covers all your bases and is (ideally) intended for the type of transition you’re facing. 🌻

We’ve done the hard part by listing 10 free transition plan templates for almost any situation. All you need to do is pick one that fits and start planning! (OK, we admit planning is probably the most challenging part, but we’ve identified the tools you’ll need.) ⚒️

If you already know what you’re looking for, feel free to jump ahead to the good stuff. But if you’re curious about how we picked our top 10 templates, here are some factors we considered:

• Customizable fields: Every business transition is different, and you’ll want a template that you can customize for new or outstanding projects
• Collaboration features: Most business changes benefit from collaboration features that allow all team members and stakeholders to access the transition plan documents
• Automation : A template and project management solution should let you automate the little things to streamline your workflow
• Compatibility: A collaborative program is most useful when it features compatible apps for everyone’s devices
• Integrations : A program that integrates with the tools your business already uses ensures you keep everything in one place

10 Transition Plan Templates to Use in 2024

Transition planning is rarely what you’d call quick and easy—anything involving change usually has some road bumps. But these templates will make it less of a headache.

They’re free, so anyone can use them without worrying about the budget. Plus, they’re customizable enough to fit almost any change in your business.

Whether you’re switching business owners, rebranding, executing a major project handover , or bringing your employees back to the office, there’s a template that fits the bill. Check out these 10 options to handle the transition like a pro. 🎉

The ClickUp Change Management Plan Template outlines a multi-phase approach to assist you in managing and implementing any change within your business. It features a predefined structure and suggested fields to help you get started immediately on new or outstanding projects.

This transition plan template also fills the gaps and expands your List view with more details as you build your change management plan . Most ClickUp templates include multiple statuses, custom fields, and view types to help you build the perfect transition plan for your upcoming change.

This one’s no different.

You can sort your tasks according to the assignee, check the status of each assignment at a glance, and keep a bird’s eye view of how the transition period is going. This template can change to fit almost any situation to ensure a smooth transition.

From onboarding employees into a new role with a job transition plan or executing a knowledge transfer of business processes, this template gives the project team the key details to adjust. And if you need to take it a step further, ClickUp has several org chart templates that make it simple to create a visual representation of job titles, core responsibilities, and cross-functional partners.

The ClickUp Project Handover Template ensures a project is properly completed and closed before changing hands. This may include providing new stakeholders and team members with all information relevant to the project. Think of outstanding project deliverables , milestones , current due dates, important contacts, key knowledge, and planned next steps.

ClickUp’s workflow software also features useful functions like comment reactions and AI-assisted automation to make life easier. And like most of our templates, this one includes custom statuses, fields, views, and project planning tools. 🛠️

The transition plan template has everything you need to organize project data for a seamless transition. It simplifies the process of updating key contacts on team progress and creating comprehensive checklists for a simple project transition.

The ClickUp Change Management Plan Gantt Template makes planning, managing, and implementing changes easier for project transition from one state to another. This might mean changing the team management structure, business processes on outstanding projects, or your overall business plan —it can do it all! 🤩

This transition plan template uses a Gantt chart format to guide you and your project teams through times of change. The custom fields, statuses, and views make it easy for you and your team members to keep track of progress toward your goals.

Create a smooth transfer to teams and stakeholders to develop clear goals and objectives you can collaborate on with every team member simultaneously. Your transition plan will keep track of important deadlines and create contingency plans for potential unplanned events—or even for ongoing projects.

The ClickUp Change Management Plan Document Template makes knowledge transfer and transition plans easier to hand off. It’ll help clarify desired outcomes, inform stakeholders, improve communication, organize contact information, execute an effective communication plan, and provide real-time feedback to every team member. ✍️

In addition to customizable features, this template has pages for things like milestone lists, change log details, risk and mitigation details, and overall change management plans.

The Change Management Plan Document Template is helpful for any successful transition, and it’s perfect for team leads who prefer customizable Docs instead of (or in addition to) more extensive visual charts.

The ClickUp Change Management Plan Checklist Template helps create plans for transition periods within businesses of all sizes. Organize your checklist based on assignees, due dates, statuses, and more—and see your team members’ progress toward each goal in seconds.

It’s perfect for creating a comprehensive, collaboration-friendly overview of everything your change management plan requires. And, like most ClickUp templates, this one features custom statuses, fields, and view types, so you can create a checklist with everything you need and nothing you don’t. ✅

The transition plan template will help keep everyone on the same page, from new employees to seasoned team leads. Since you can create multiple checklists, tracking and managing everything from annual goals to company-wide succession planning is way easier.

The ClickUp Change Management Action Plan Template breaks down the details of any change into manageable, trackable tasks. It’ll simplify organizing all the elements of your transition into one place, providing a platform for effortless collaboration with your teams, departments, and stakeholders.

This flexible, easy-to-use template outlines the foundational elements of a straightforward action plan. There are several statuses, custom fields, and views to help guide your team through a successful change.

Our Change Management Action Plan Template works with the ClickUp dashboard to help organize relevant files and manage projects of any size. And with the 1,000+ integrations on ClickUp, you can pull information in from all the tools you use on a daily basis. 📚

The ClickUp Rebranding Project Template provides an example transition plan for rebranding a company, organization, or product. It’ll help you coordinate every step of the project to manage the transition process from start to finish. ✨

Use this template to develop new visual identities, assign responsibilities, track progress toward each step, create a timeless for success, and more. It’s all made possible thanks to the custom fields, statuses, and view types.

In addition to our Rebranding Project Template, ClickUp project management tools will improve your project tracking with features like comments, comment reactions, dependency warnings, and time tracking.

The ClickUp Return to Work Action Plan Template is designed for businesses that are returning employees or customers to on-site locations. It’ll help you identify and take necessary precautions to ensure safety during and after the transition.

Custom fields, statuses, and views make it easier to keep track of the tasks associated with a seamless return to work, providing a balance of flexibility and structure for a comprehensive plan.

The Return to Work Action Plan Template can cover everything from training requirements to work management. Since it works well with an employee transition plan template and employee engagement software within the ClickUp platform, it can be part of your HR department solution. 🌻

The ClickUp Contingency Plan Template outlines a strategy for your team, business, or organization as a backup plan for unexpected events. It can help you plan for everything from hosting provider outages on your website to what to do if you lose your top employee.

In addition to the custom statuses, fields, and views you can find across ClickUp, use automations to set custom fields when specific tasks are created and eliminate some of the busy work. 

The Contingency Plan Template also allows you to create multiple plans for several events and scenarios in one place, giving you an overview of how you’ll handle each occurrence. On top of the practical uses for this, looking over your well-made contingency plans is a bit like a 10-second therapy session in times of change. Trust us. 🌻

The ClickUp Corrective Action Plan Template features everything you need to resolve undesirable outcomes for projects and situations. It can help you prevent recurring issues, strengthen your business processes, reduce the risk of employee errors, and learn from past mistakes.

The Whiteboard format makes real-time collaboration quick and easy. Move from planning to getting things done faster with ClickUp as your HR software . And since it’s fully customizable, it’s flexible enough for almost any situation.

Thanks to ClickUp’s HR functionality, the Corrective Action Plan Template is handy when creating solutions for your teams and situations involving employees. Iron out issues with your onboarding process, track new employee progress, and more. 

Smooth Transitions Ahead With These Helpful Templates

With the help of a transition plan template, you’re ready to conquer any transition with (relative) ease.

No more scrambling, stress, and confusion—just comprehensive plans, well-defined goals, and a clear path forward. Here’s to smooth transitions and successful projects all around! 🏆

Still looking for the perfect template? Check out our list of change management templates for more options.

If you haven’t already, sign up for ClickUp to start using these templates and improving how your business handles change. They’re all available on the Free Forever plan, which means you don’t have to pay a dime to get organized ASAP.

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How to Create a Clear Transition Plan? (Free Template Included)

To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly. – Henri Bergson

Certain changes in business are based on both- external factors like the emerging competition, varying customer needs, and internal factors like organizational shifts or team operation that can affect the dynamics of a business.

As a result, transitioning in roles, directions, and projects , are common occurrences. Therefore, creating a transition plan during times of change can help you ensure smooth functioning in the organization.

Whether your company is going through a major or a minor transformation, building a transition plan will inform incumbent employees on what they have to do to make sure that the changes take place effectively without hampering the daily output of the business. However, drafting a clean transition plan can be demanding sometimes!

This is why we created a transition plan template (provided at the bottom) for you to make the process easy and smooth. But before we dig into the template, it is important to understand what is a transition plan, why do we need one, and what are the things we need to include in this document.

Let’s begin!

What is a Transition Plan? (Definition)

A transition plan is a document that outlines all the changeover activities and processes that need to follow or implement for a smooth transition depending on the kind of shift being made between the incumbent and the successor.

The transition can be an employee shifting to another position, a project transition, or a business owner changing into a buyer, each transition is equally important across any role and role-based information that passes hands.

Why is the Transition Plan Important?

A business transition plan puts together all the goals, priorities, and strategies in one place for a successful shift. Also, a transition plan helps make sure that all tasks and duties are documented and passed on. Without a well-defined plan, current employees might leave their financial and personal future to chance.

These plans are crucial for any role that is being taken over by another person. It’s a smart way to ensure that nothing slips through the cracks. Having a process in place to hand over the role and responsibilities helps to ensure a smooth transition.

Along with this, the financial security of employees and their families depends on the execution of an effective transition plan.

Read more:   Contingency Plan to Tackle Unfavourable Conditions for your Business!

How to Create a Transition Plan? Follow these Steps!

The structure of a typical Transition plan contains the following elements:

Step 1: Add the title of the transition plan

The title of a transition plan describes the purpose and movie of the whole process.

Step 2: Mention transition details

• New Role Start Date

Step 3: Role accountabilities & expectations for the transition

This represents the roles and responsibilities of the employee for the transition.

Step 4: Incumbent knowledge transfer requirements for plan

This includes the measurable transfer of on-the-job knowledge of both explicit skills as well as implicit or tacit knowledge during the transition.

Step 5: Add role transition checklists

Transition Checklist offers a guideline for key  transition  activities that must be completed by certain dates to facilitate the transition.

Step 6: Transition plan agreement 

• Incumbent Signature
• Successor Signature
• Manager Signature

These components may differ according to the type of transition being made!

Read more:   Growth Plan: What is it & How to Create One? (Steps Included)

3 Points to keep in mind before you start creating a transition plan

After assessing the above-mentioned components, these 3 steps are set forth below to help you get started on your transition plan.

1. The incumbent should obtain an evaluation of role and responsibilities: Understanding the value of the current role and duties is the very first step in making a transition plan. Hence, it is important to have an understanding if the successor is ready to acquire the responsibilities given the current circumstances.

2. The incumbent should begin making a plan regarding his or her future following the transition: This step is about ensuring that an incumbent is personally ready to exit from any company, project, or responsibility. This makes the transition less painful.

3 . Bringing the plan into action with formal groundwork- The final step is to bring the transition plan into action and should be executed with effective communication and formal planning, this will result in an effortless hand-off process.

Create a well-defined Transition plan the Right Way with  Bit

All set to create a clear transition plan document to make a dynamic shift in your business? Well, we have got the perfect tool for you!

Bit.ai is a new age online document collaboration tool that helps anyone create awesome transition plan documents, employment contracts, employee handbooks, and other company documents in minutes. Bit is the dream tool for both successors and employees as it helps revolutionize the transition process and makes it more smooth, and interactive.

Bit has an amazing UI that’s easy to understand by a new user, making onboarding easier. The user experience is phenomenal too as everything is easily organized in workspaces, folders, and content libraries.

No matter if you want to create a transition plan or a job description for your business, Bit’s amazing organizational capabilities help arrange your information easily.

Still not sure how Bit can help you create an effective transition plan to help you execute the transitioning process? Let’s see some more of Bit’s awesome capabilities! :

Collaborate in real-time – Multiple people can simultaneously collaborate on a Bit smart document in real-time. Suggest edits, work collectively and ask questions with real-time mentions, and comments.

Minimalistic Editor  – Bit’s editor allows you to focus on writing and the work you’re implementing, without any distractions. The platform interface is easy to understand, making it easy for new visitors to get onboard quickly.

Distraction-free and quick documentation-  The best part is Bit’s support for Markdown which allows developers to quickly create and format text without any distractions. Once you are done creating your document, you can easily export it as PDFs, Word files, Markdown, and much more. Markdown is supported by GitHub and other software development tools, making it easy to share the work you do inside of Bit with other platforms.

Automated table of contents –  Bit also has an automated table of contents based on the headers you add to your document. This makes sure you can scroll to different sections of your document quickly as a successor, employee, and for your HR viewing the final published document!

Multiple ways to share- Bit documents can be shared in a live state meaning that all changes that you make to the document will update in real-time. Moreover, features like document tracking, password protection, file access restrictions, etc. help keep your documents safe.

Here are some of the man benefits of using Bit:

• Smart search, which allows anyone to search and find any files, images, documents, etc. quickly.
• Interlink your transition plan and other documents.
• Create fully responsive documents.
• Create private transition plans only visible to yourself or your team.
• Track engagement on shared transition plans with colleagues, clients, partners, etc.
• 100+ rich media integrations.

Now, that you have learned everything about a transition plan and how to create a document on it, feel free to check out Bit’s amazing transition plan template to make the transitioning process a success!

Read more:  Change Management Plan: What is it and How to Create it?

Transition Plan Template by Bit

To make the process of crafting a Transition Plan easier and fun, we have created a ready-made template for you! Check it out below: 

How to use a Transition Plan Template with Bit

The process of creating a transition plan on Bit is insanely easy! Just follow these four simple steps to create a thesis report document quickly:

Step 1: Create a Bit Account

Go the home page of  Bit.ai  and click on Get Started for Free or Sign Up to get started. Enter your  email address  to sign up. Once in, you can create your personal profile.

Step 2: Create a Workspace

Workspaces are where the work gets done. Click on the  ‘Create Workspace’  button on the right. A popup will show up prompting you to add a name for your new workspace.   You can create a workspace around a team, department, large project, client, partner, etc.

Inside each workspace, you can create an unlimited amount of Bit documents and access your content library (storage area for all of your digital assets – web links, files, cloud files, rich embeds, etc.).

Step 3: Add Team Members

Bit allows your team members to collaborate in real-time and get work done. Collaboration starts at the workspace level.

You create private workspaces by default. However, you can invite others to join you inside of a workspace and collaborate together with the knowledge, projects, documents, and content inside of the workspace.

Step 4: Create Your Desired Document

Once you are in the workspace, click on the ‘ Create New’  button. Select  ‘From Template’  in the dropdown.

A pop-up will display allowing you to select a template from the gallery. In the search box on the top left corner, you can search for a “transition plan template”. Once your desired template pops up, click on it and click on the  “Use Template ” button on the bottom right corner.

That’s it! Your transition plan document is ready for use!

Few more templates you might be interested in:

• SWOT Analysis Template
• Scope of Work Template
• Business Plan Template
• Status Report Template
• Competitor Research Template
• Training Manual Template
• Project Proposal Template
• Company Fact Sheet
• Executive Summary Template
• Operational Plan Template
• Pitch Deck Template

🎥Watch this video to learn more👇

Finally, keep in mind that, transitioning out of roles or responsibilities is not an isolated event. It is a comprehensive and coordinated process. The business transition plan is not supposed to be filed away and occasionally reviewed.

It is created with the purpose of immediate implementation. If you need any help with our transition plan template or want to know how Bit can help your team, let us know by tweeting us @bit_docs. Cheers!

Further reads: 

• Risk Management Plan: What, Why, and How to Write?
• Succession Planning: What is it & How to do it?
• Action Plan: What is it & How to Write it? (Steps and Format)
• Employee Development Plan: What is it & How to Create it? (Steps Included)
• What is an Implementation Plan & How to Create One?
• How to Create a Strategic Process Improvement Plan?
• How To Make A Full Proof Business Plan for Your Company?

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About Bit.ai

Bit.ai is the essential next-gen workplace and document collaboration platform. that helps teams share knowledge by connecting any type of digital content. With this intuitive, cloud-based solution, anyone can work visually and collaborate in real-time while creating internal notes, team projects, knowledge bases, client-facing content, and more.

The smartest online Google Docs and Word alternative, Bit.ai is used in over 100 countries by professionals everywhere, from IT teams creating internal documentation and knowledge bases, to sales and marketing teams sharing client materials and client portals.

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Free Transition Plan Template

• What is a transition plan?
• Transition plan template
• Example of a transition plan
• 8 tips for facilitating a successful transition in the workplace

Transitions are a natural part of any organization, whether it's shifting roles, projects, or directions. However, they can often be bumpy, causing disruptions and productivity loss.

Luckily, with a well-crafted transition plan , your organization can glide through these changes smoothly and efficiently. And the best part? A transition plan template can make the process easy whenever you want to introduce new changes!

Whether undergoing a major overhaul or minor tweaks, a solid transition plan will inform and guide your employees, ensuring a seamless transition without disrupting business processes .

Want something even faster than a template? Scribe is an AI-powered tool that can write your transition documentation for you — and capture your unique processes in a visual step-by-step guide!

TL;DR: Transition plan template

• A transition plan is a crucial tool for navigating organizational changes smoothly.
• Without a transition plan, disruptions and productivity loss can occur during transitions.
• A transition plan template provides a structure and framework for creating a customized plan.
• Steps to take when designing a transition plan include creating an organizer, collaborating with the transitioning employee, and identifying a successor.
• Scribe is an AI-powered tool that can automate the process of creating transition documentation.

Wh‎at is a transition plan?

A transition plan outlines the steps and resources needed to move from one state or phase of a project or organization to another. 

It's often used in business or government to describe transitioning from one leadership team or strategy to another. But it can also be used in other contexts, such as transitioning employees from one department to another or transitioning a project from its planning to its implementation. 

The plan typically includes a timeline, milestones and clear roles and responsibilities for those involved in the transition. The main objective is to ensure a smooth and successful transition with minimal disruption to operations.

Why you need a transition plan

Let's say your company has a marketing director, Brian, who has decided to leave the organization to pursue other opportunities. 

Now, Brian is no ordinary employee. He had been with the company for over ten years, developed marketing strategy and marketing management processes from scratch, built the marketing team, carefully selected the marketing tools , and established relationships with vendors and partners.

Without a transition plan in place, you could face numerous challenges. Without their leader, the marketing team may feel uncertain about their roles and responsibilities. Even the vendors and partners may not know who to contact or how to proceed with ongoing projects, as Brian was their only point of contact.

You and your team may also struggle to fill Brian's shoes, leading to a gap in leadership that could impact the effectiveness of the marketing strategy. Additionally, the transition may take longer than expected, leading to a disruption in business operational efficiency and potential loss of revenue.

Now, imagine an alternative scenario — one where your company has a transition plan in place.

After Brian's departure, your company is better positioned to anticipate and mitigate the challenges we discussed above. The transition plan will outline clear expectations for the marketing team, including interim leadership and any changes in roles or responsibilities. It may also provide a roadmap for establishing relationships with new vendors and partners to ensure continuity in ongoing projects and include a timeline for filling the director's position, ensuring a smoother handover of responsibilities and leadership. 

Do you see how a transition plan helps minimize disruptions to business operations, ultimately preserving your business's reputation and bottom line?

Steps to take 

When designing a transition plan for an employee, you must take a few foundational steps to make it successful:

• Create an organizer: This helps you coordinate the employees' duties efficiently and keeps all the details of an employee's transition in an accessible document. 
• Collaborate with the transitioning employee: The transitioning employee is likely the process owner for many business processes or procedures. They can help you prepare the documents, infrastructure, or any additional work required to smooth the shift. Scribe's process checklist generator or procedural text generator can help your team auto-generate documentation in minutes.
• Determine who should be notified of the transition : An employee's transition might directly impact some personnel. Be sure to communicate with them and decide what information others should know to protect the employee's privacy. Depending on the level of the transitioning employee, you may also want to develop an external communication strategy .
• Identify a successor : Determine who will take over the transitioning employee's role and include information on the search and interview process in the transition plan.
• Create time for analysis and feedback: Feedback data can give you insights into how to improve your company processes and the overall employee experience. And also how to help the replacement transition into the new role.
• Help the employee leave on a positive note: Remaining positive and professional during employee transitions can help the transitioning employee feel much appreciated.

Tr‎ansition plan template

A transition plan template is a preformatted document that provides a structure and framework for creating a transition plan. It also helps you align the necessary changeover activities that make a smooth shift possible. You can use it to create a customized plan specific to your organization or project.

A transition plan template generally contains a few essential elements. This includes information about:

• The incumbent.
• The successor.
• When the change is taking place.
• Who oversees the transition.
• Outline of the job and expectations.
• An explanation of skills the successor should have.

With the transition plan template, you get a guideline for designing a transition plan that ensures a smooth transfer of roles and responsibilities at the employee, management, or ownership levels.

Check out our free transition plan template ➜

Inside a transition plan template

A good transition plan template has a list-grid style view to see all the information effortlessly at once. It also has custom fields to indicate and track the status of tasks, along with subtasks that distribute and split work into separate components.

You'll find the following sections in any effective transition plan template:

1. Introduction

This section gives a brief overview of the transition plan and its purpose. For an employee transition plan, this introduction may be in the form of a letter written by the transitioning employee to the supervisor detailing what's inside the transition plan.

2. Regular Duties and Responsibilities

This section focuses on the primary responsibilities of the transitioning employee. It also includes routine duties, for example, managing check-ins with a consultant or updating the board of directors' dashboard every quarter.

3. Outstanding Projects

This section describes any projects yet to be completed by the transitioning employee, the progress status, the next steps and instructions for accessing relevant files. It also notes projects the employee is willing to complete before offboarding and how long the project will take. 

Additionally, suppose the employee is in charge of a significant project or a big event coming up after they leave. In that case, it's best to make a different plan so someone else can follow through to ensure the project goes off without a hitch.

📌 Related resource: Employee Offboarding Checklist: Key Steps for Graceful Exits

4. Major Upcoming Deadlines

The transitioning employee may have stand-alone deadlines not associated with outstanding projects in the previous section. For example, a quarterly deadline to file forms with the government or an upcoming deadline to email a specific person.

Such deadlines go into this section, along with the due dates and manner of the deadline. You can also include any other key milestones here.

5. Key Contacts

This section focuses on the most important contacts, like the people you need to be in touch with to execute the duties and take over the projects described in the transition plan. The critical contacts section also lists people in the organization and external people the successor can contact for more information when they take over the role.

6. Resources

Any relevant information required for the transition, including budget, personnel and equipment, can be listed here. You can also add relevant links to all project files and upcoming milestones or deadlines. 

7. Communication Plan

This section outlines the transition's communication strategy, including the key messages, audience and communication channels.

🎓 ‎Learn more about communication plans: How to Create a Communications Plan Template [+ Examples]

Ex‎ample of a transition template

Here's a ready-to-use transition plan template from Scribe to achieve your desired goals.

Why Scribe?

‎ Scribe makes it easy to streamline and simplify workplace transitions, whether implementing new tools and technologies, training new customers and hires or automating business process documentation and SOPs .

Scribe is a screenshot Chrome extension and desktop documentation app that builds how-to guides while you work.

Just click the button, go through your process and voila! Scribe will automatically create editable guides with screenshots, instructions and clicks.

With the option to edit screenshots, image blur and redact sensitive information, and generate branded content , your guides are guaranteed to look professional and personalized.

You can then share your transition documents with anyone, anywhere, with a URL link or PDF document. 

Here's how our customer Lance E. sums up his Scribe experience:

"Fantastic solution for many problems." We are thrilled that we found this solution. Scribe will enable us to quickly create new (and rework old) instructions for our many products. Additionally, we can improve how we onboard internal staff with step-by-step guides for our processes. Scribe's tools can be learned in minutes."

8 ‎tips for facilitating a successful transition in the workplace

For employees to succeed in new roles, your organization must adopt some fundamental principles to ensure a successful handover from a transitioning employee. Here's how to support your employees through an internal transition:

1. Put the right systems in place 

A well-structured onboarding packet and plan provide much-needed support for an employee transitioning smoothly into a new role. From job descriptions to training material development and even down to passwords, process documentation can help to maintain your knowledge base so that new employees can jump in quickly and effectively.

In addition, setting up an automated onboarding process can help employees grab the needed information comprehensively and begin learning roles crucial to their position.

📌 ‎Related resource: The 7 Steps of Process Automation

2. Implement position-specific processes

Document all tasks and responsibilities of each position and review or revise them quarterly. This is another way to transition an employee's responsibility effectively. This strategy is known to be effective when cross-training or adding new team members, as it helps them integrate into the group faster.

3. Cross-train your employees

Cross-training your employees means teaching them how to do more than one specific job to become well-rounded professionally. Employees can learn to execute tasks by working with another employee for a set time.

Not only does this ensure you have coverage with little disruption during transition periods, but it also provides opportunities for employee growth, leading to a higher employee retention rate.

4. Maintain close communications

Communicate the purpose and expectations of the transition to the employee, including:

• The role and responsibilities of the new position.
• The timeline for the transition; and
• Any relevant policies and procedures.

You can also support the transitioning employee by taking practical action and sharing regular information that helps create efficiency when there's uncertainty. Also, use surveys, focus group discussions and other feedback tools to get the team members' and stakeholders' input on how to proceed with the transition or change.

5. Have existing employees lead the transition process

If an employee is upfront about their plans to leave the company or transition out of a role, you can ensure a smooth transition. Allow them to drive the process of finding their replacement and give them adequate resources and support. This enables you to minimize disruption during transition periods and provides external help for any questions that may arise from the new employee.

6. Provide adequate training and development

Quality training is necessary for new employees to adjust to their new roles and carry out their job functions effectively. Hence, providing employees with adequate training and development opportunities is critical to ensure they have the required skills and knowledge.

In addition to hard-skill and soft-skill training, the new employee also needs self-assurance, direction and proficiency, which are crucial in boosting job performance and ensuring the employee contributes to the organization's success.

7. Delegate tasks to various team members

Another strategy to help your employees navigate the transition and settle well into their new position is to delegate different parts of the training to various team members. This eases the pressure on the new hire since it may take some time for them to come up to speed in their new role.

Create a schedule for task transitions and get each team member to work with the new employee over a set time so the new hire can transition well into that responsibility before moving on to the next one.

8. Recognize and reward success

Recognize and reward the employee for their successes during the transition period, as this will help to motivate and encourage the employee. Also, reward the new hire for any small accomplishments in their new role to give them the confidence to keep developing in their roles.

Wrapping up

The transition plan template is not a document that's supposed to be filed away and only reviewed occasionally. It should be created with the aim of immediate implementation, following a comprehensive and coordinated transition planning process.

It's also worth noting that the specific steps and activities you need to include in your employee transition plan template will depend on the context and requirements of your particular organization.

Furthermore, each employee's needs and concerns may vary during the transition. So it's essential to be flexible and adaptable and communicate effectively with the employee throughout the transition process.

Build more powerful transition plans with Scribe — and create transition documentation in half the time!

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Excel Templates

Free Templates and Examples

37+ Free Transition Plan Templates [Excel, Word, PDF]

Table of Contents

• 1.1 Intended date of transition
• 1.2 How the transition will be affected
• 1.3 Who takes over
• 1.4 Costs Implications
• 2 Transition plan in a project:
• 3 Transition plan in business:
• 4.1 Transition team:
• 4.2 Tools-of-trade
• 4.3 Contingency Plan
• 4.4 Impact Assessment
• 5 Conclusion:

A transition plan template is a detailed proposal that provides instructions on how you intend to tackle an upcoming transition. It contains appropriate guidelines and clear steps that should be taken to affect the transition.

What to include in a transition plan?

Intended date of transition.

Intended date of transition refers the date when you intend to start the transition process. However, it also includes the date when the transition is to come to completion. It provides you a rough picture of the duration of time.

How the transition will be affected

From undertaking to undertaking, the transitions vary. For example, a job transition differs markedly from a project transition. The information of this portion provides finer details of a certain kind of transition. It contains the steps you plan to take in pursuance of that transition.

Who takes over

After transitioning, a void is surely left behind. On the basis of the exact type of transition you are looking at, it may be a job vacancy, tenant vacancy, or skill gap. This information provides you suggestions on how the void will likely be filled.

Costs Implications

Definitely, any undertaking comes up with some cost implications. To this rule, the transition is not an exception. In handling the transition, the cost implication will indicate the amount of money that is most likely to be spent.

Transition plan in a project:

For project matters, throughout the lifetime of a project, a transition plan outlines activities and specific tasks to be undertaken. This begins from the conception to the implementation. Then, finally the maintenance phase. In each phase, it goes deeper to distribute costs and activities along with the timelines.

Transition plan in business:

A business transition plan is a framework against which companies handle the following;

• Resignations
• Retirements
• Leadership Roles
• Other Structural Changes

When the actual issues arise then it is generalized and mostly employed.

The components of a transition plan:

Transition plans come in several shapes and forms. They all exhibit some core characteristics. Let us discuss those characteristics below;

Transition team:

This is the body of the individuals that are charged with the obligation of overseeing the transition. From one transition to another, the size and composition of the team vary greatly. Similarly, with the scope of the transition, the responsibilities of the members also vary.

Tools-of-trade

The plan also spells out the tools-of-charge that is to be needed to manage the transition. This is the methodology that is employed to actualize the transition. With the kind of transition in question, this tools-of-trade also vary significantly.

Contingency Plan

All transitions might not go on as planned. Things may go smooth in some situations. The main purpose of this plan is to anticipate these issues and create provisions for them appropriately. Also, the part of this plan is the risk mitigation. This lays bare the steps taken to protect the risks from occurring in the first place.

Impact Assessment

Every transition will affect an organization somehow. The impact assessment expects these likely adverse affects. For any such issues, this assessment prepares the organization psychologically in readiness.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, a transition plan template is a document that provides guidelines on how to handle the upcoming transition. The transition plans has various forms and shapes that exhibit some core characteristics.

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