A resignation and a month's notice
Your senior surveyor on a large refurbishment has handed in their notice. They have run the job from feasibility. They know which variations the client agreed in a corridor conversation, which contractor quotations are still being negotiated, which items in the cost report are soft and which are firm.
Most of that is in their head, their own workbook versions and their inbox. They will write a handover note, and they will mean well, but a note written in the last week of notice is never complete. The replacement starts cold, the contractor spots the gap, and the client notices the change in grip.
Why knowledge sticks to people
- Each surveyor keeps working files in their own folders and naming conventions.
- Key agreements are made by email or on site and never recorded against the item.
- The status of open items, such as a variation awaiting a quote, is known rather than written down.
- Correspondence is in personal inboxes rather than a project mailbox.
- Handover notes are written under time pressure at the end.
It is not a character flaw. Surveyors work this way because the practice's systems do not give them anywhere better to put things.
What a messy handover costs
Months of reduced grip on the job. Items conceded in negotiation because the new surveyor cannot evidence what was agreed. Time spent re-learning the job from scratch. Clients who question whether your practice has the job in hand. And, sometimes, the departing surveyor being called after they leave to answer questions.
| What the replacement needs | Where it usually is | Where the record puts it |
|---|---|---|
| Current cost position | Latest workbook version, somewhere | Project record, always current |
| Variations status | Surveyor's own log | Register with status and history |
| What was agreed | Emails and memory | Recorded against each item |
| Open actions | The surveyor's to-do list | Listed with owner and date |
| Key contacts and relationships | Memory | Contacts and notes on the project |
How we build it
- Each project gets a structured record: cost plan versions, valuations, variations, final account items, correspondence and actions, stored in one place rather than personal folders.
- A project mailbox, or filing from Outlook with a single click, keeps correspondence with the project, and a language model suggests which item an email concerns.
- Agreements are recorded against items as they happen, with a quick form that takes seconds.
- Open actions are listed with owners and dates, visible to the team lead.
- For a planned departure, a handover pack is generated: current position, open items with their history, upcoming dates and recent correspondence, which the departing surveyor reviews and annotates.
- The replacement gets the pack and the record, and a list of the items that most need a conversation.
This works best when it is part of how the practice runs every job, not something done in the notice period. We design it around the tools your surveyors already use so it does not become extra admin.
After someone leaves
The replacement opens the project and reads where things stand. Open items have histories. Agreements are recorded. The handover conversation focuses on judgement and relationships, not on finding files. Clients see continuity, and the contractor does not find a gap to push into.
The same record helps with holiday cover, sickness and peer review, which happen much more often than resignations.
Is your practice exposed?
- Surveyors keep working files in personal folders.
- Agreements with contractors are rarely recorded against items.
- A departure has previously left a job in difficulty.
- Holiday cover means calling the surveyor on leave.
- Handover notes are written in the final days of notice.