Effective communication is an important feature and the foundation of every workplace, because it decides what the outcome of the work done is going to look like. When a team hands over a work to the next team, there is always a probability of details getting overlooked or missed out, as a result of which the final result can get messed up, leading to questioning of miscommunications and misunderstandings, which can further delay the whole team’s work. The process of shift handover depends on communication and comprehension, which adds up to ensure continuity of work. The result of miscommunication will be a serious mistake that is likely to take up a lot of time trying to fix it, which is why sitting down, having a proper conversation with the team members or the employee who just handed over the work to you, and noting down the things that are likely to be missed, is considered as important to ensuring continuity to the workflow. Safety, looking at the possible things that can go wrong, communication and comprehension, responsibility to take up work, and sincerity at taking care of things are some points that need to be kept in mind while you deal with a shift handover. Shift handovers reduce the pressure of getting a chunk of work completely done by yourself, as it gets distributed, taking workload off you. But it can get even worse if the person who took over from you missed a very significant point that you mentioned, or if you yourself forgot to mention it at all.
A standard procedure needs to be established in order to ensure that work is shifted easily between individuals and teams. In several countries, each company will have a defined procedure on how shift handovers should be executed in accordance with their operational requirements and policies. While this is done with a rigid plan of operation, with well-defined rules and details in some companies, the others just dismiss it without giving much priority, placing the responsibility of shift handovers to certain employees, without following a structural layout for it.
Since shifts take place countless times a year at a single workplace itself, there is a very high probability of miscommunications to occur and delay the whole work due to the ignorance and lack of responsibility of some individuals. Making sure that the shift handover automation procedure is well managed is a feature of priority that needs to be taken care of extremely well.
Since we have come to a conclusion that mistakes and miscommunications in employee shift handover can lead to a break in the continuity of workflow, and can negatively affect the result of a work, let us see how this can be fixed. Does fixing shift handovers need 70 steps? The answer is -absolutely no. It is a very easy process to smoothen out the ways in which work is handed out and to fill the holes that are lying around in the way of getting work passed on to another individual.
Shift handovers can be less stressful and even more fun if you develop a healthy bond with the people at your work. So trying to maintain healthy relationships is also a fantastic way to keep the workflow going.