Job handover software: what it should do, and how to choose it

Someone is leaving in three weeks, and everyone asks the same question: how do we capture what they know? The instinct is to open a Word document and list their tasks. The result says what needed doing, rarely how they did it.

Job handover software solves this problem, as long as it does the right things. This page explains which ones, how to compare solutions, and what KnowVault offers. For the method itself, read our job handover guide and checklist.

Why a document isn't enough

A handover document is still useful for factual information: contacts, access, deadlines. It falls short on the rest:

• Know-how is hard to write down. A step in a business application or a diagnosis on a machine takes three pages to describe and two minutes to show.
• It comes too late. Written in the final week, it misses the rare situations, the ones you discover six months after the departure.
• The successor isn't always there. If they arrive after the departure, nobody can answer their questions.
• It ages immediately. As soon as the procedure changes, the document is wrong, and nobody flags it.

What job handover software should do

1. Make capture effortless

The person leaving has little time and isn't a trainer. Recording has to be simple: share your screen, explain out loud, done. If the tool requires editing, it won't get used.

2. Help people find the right moment

The successor won't watch twenty videos in a row. They'll look for a specific answer at a specific time. So search has to cover what's said in the video, not just its title.

3. Organize by team and topic

Content has to stay where people look for it, with the right permissions. Some procedures only concern one team, or shouldn't circulate across the whole company.

4. Track what's left to hand over

A handover is a list of topics with a deadline. You need to be able to request a video on a specific topic, and see what's done and what's missing before the leaving date.

5. Check that the knowledge landed

Publishing isn't enough. You need to be able to ask the successor to watch the key videos, and see that they did.

6. Outlast the departure

This is the most overlooked criterion. Six months later, the procedure has changed. Content has to be flaggable, and updatable by someone other than its author.

What to check before choosing

How KnowVault meets these needs

KnowVault is a video knowledge base: handovers are one of its uses, not the only one.

• Screen recording from the browser, with voice. Existing videos can be uploaded from your computer.
• Automatic transcription and search in the transcripts, to find the useful moment.
• Content requests with a priority and a target date, tracked like tasks: your list of topics to hand over becomes a tracking board.
• Viewing requests, to check that the successor has seen the important videos.
• Flagging and review, so content keeps living after its author leaves.
• Permissions per team, attached documents, and automatic translation between French and English.

What KnowVault doesn't do

• It's not an HR tool. It doesn't handle recruitment or employee records.
• No webcam for now. Recording covers the screen and voice. For anything off-screen, you can film from a phone.
• 15 minutes maximum per video. A long topic gets split into several short videos, which also makes them easier to find.
• No Teams integration for now.

Pricing

Starter is free for up to 3 contributors, which is often enough to try it on a first handover. Pro costs €13.90/contributor/month, and viewers are free and unlimited, so the successor costs nothing. The Enterprise plan, on quote, adds a dedicated server and SSO.

How to start on a real handover

1. List the topics with the person leaving, starting with what only they know how to do.
2. Create a content request per topic, with a date before the departure.
3. Record as you go, during real work: a five-minute video beats an hour-long presentation.
4. Ask the successor to watch the key videos, and note their questions while the person is still there.
5. Name an owner to update the videos when procedures change.

See for yourself

You can browse the public demo, with no sign-up, or book a demo if a departure is coming up and you'd like to plan your handover with us.

Further reading

• Job handover: the complete method and checklist
• How to document a process with video: a 6-step method
• SharePoint vs KnowVault: storing documents or passing on know-how?