When a colleague leaves, two things can be lost. The first is what they know and never wrote. The second is their articles, which nobody will check after them. This guide covers both. It also applies when someone changes team or is away for a long time.

Before the person leaves

Start as soon as you know the date. The work below needs the person, and their last days are often busy.

1. List what they own

On the search page, use the "Content owner" filter to see all the articles of the person. Sort them by "Updated" to see which ones they still maintain. See Advanced search.

2. Ask them to sort their own articles

The owner knows best which articles are still correct. Ask them to read the list and, for each article, to do one of three things:

Check it and click "Mark as up to date".
Update it.
Archive it if it is no longer useful.

Also ask them to look at their drafts and at their "Personal Content". Only they can see what is in "Personal Content". Other contributors can open their drafts in a space, but nobody will finish them. What is useful must be published or moved to a space before they leave.

3. Capture what is not written

List the subjects that only this person knows: a customer, a tool, a procedure that they always do themselves. For each subject, choose a way to capture it in Capture knowledge from experts. An interview by the successor works well, because the successor asks the questions that matter for their future work.

The Knowledge transfer plan template helps you list the subjects, the people and the dates. For a project, use Project handover.

4. Choose the successors

Choose a successor for each space where the person owns articles. The successor must have access to the space. It can be a different person in each space.

Transfer the articles

Content transfer moves the ownership of all the articles of a person, space by space.

Click your profile picture in the top right corner, then click "Settings".
In the menu on the left, open "Content management" and click "Content Transfer".
Choose the person, then click "Transfer content".
For each space, click "Assign a successor" and choose a person.
Decide whether to tick "Force transfer", then click "Save".

Option	What happens	When to use it
Without "Force transfer"	The successor sees the articles in "Tasks" and decides for each one.	The usual case. The successor reads what they receive.
With "Force transfer"	The successor becomes the owner of all the articles immediately.	The person has already sorted their articles, or the successor knows them well.

After the transfer, a platform administrator can disable the account. The contributions of the person stay on the platform.

What the successor does

The articles to process are in "Tasks", in the "Content Transfer" tab. For each article, the successor takes ownership or archives the article. They can select several articles at once.

An article that changes owner is a good candidate for a check. After the successor takes an article, they read it and set a new verification date.

What else the person was responsible for

Check three more things:

Approvals. If the person was a coordinator or an administrator of a space with mandatory approval, check that the space still has approvers. "Settings" > "Content management" > "Approval" lists the approvers of each space.
Article requests. Assign their open requests to someone else.
Space administration. If they were the only administrator of a space, name another one.

When someone changes team

The account stays, so a content transfer is not always needed. If the person no longer works on the subject, a space coordinator gives their articles to a colleague: tick the articles in the space and use "Change owner" in the bulk actions.

Check for forgotten articles

Departures are sometimes announced late. The "Content Transfer" page is the safety check: it lists the disabled users who still own articles, and the successors who still have articles to process. Look at it once a month.

Next step

Add the transfer to your Offboarding checklist, so that it is planned for every departure.
Keep the transferred articles correct: Set up a review routine.