Shift Handover Log Template

Start from fixed headings, not a blank page. Occupational psychologist Ronald Lardner reports that when a large UK oil refinery reviewed its handovers in the mid-1990s, most shift log books were unstructured desk diaries¹. Content varied from person to person, with no specific reference to safety.

The refinery switched to structured logs with the same mandatory headings in every book: safety, maintenance and technical problems, work outstanding, comments, and the authors' signatures. About three months later, 71% of the 38 staff interviewed said the change had improved how log books were completed.

If you run franchised sites, put these headings in your franchise operations manual.

In the toolkit its inspectors use, the UK's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) lists failing to carry forward information over successive shifts² among the causes of unreliable communication. On a log that only shows what is open today, a fixed issue and a forgotten one look identical: both just stop appearing. Comparing the last open list with yours is how you tell them apart.

1. 1

   Pull the last open list

   Start from what the previous shift recorded as open at close, not from memory.

2. 2

   Close or carry each item

   Mark it resolved with what fixed it, or carry it with a fresh status and its carry count.

3. 3

   Chase anything missing

   An item that is neither resolved nor carried is a drop. Find out what happened before you sign.

4. 4

   Then log what is new

   Only now add this shift's new issues, each with a location, a category and an owner.

Watch for old issues returning as new. A scanner fault matching one logged a few shifts back is the same issue resurfacing: reopen the original entry and note how many shifts it was missing.

Every carried issue needs four things: what has been tried, what is blocking a fix, who owns the next step, and its carry count. "Same as yesterday" reads exactly like an issue nobody has touched since it was logged.

Write forward as well as back. The refinery's old logs were largely historical¹, with little about what should happen next.

Name a daytime and an after-hours contact for each category, from safety to equipment, so the night lead never hunts for a number. An incident escalation matrix does the same across a whole operation. An issue escalated by phone still goes in the log, with who was called and when.

Keep injuries and near misses in their own record, linked to any open issue they relate to. In the US, an employer that keeps OSHA injury records must enter each recordable case on the OSHA 300 Log within seven calendar days³ of learning about it.

A case meets OSHA's general recording criteria⁴ if it results in death, days away from work, restricted work or transfer, medical treatment beyond first aid, or loss of consciousness. So does a significant injury or illness diagnosed by a licensed health care professional. First aid alone does not.

HSE describes a good handover in three parts⁵: the outgoing person prepares, both people exchange what matters, and the incoming person cross-checks as they take over. It should be face to face, spoken as well as written, with both people sharing responsibility. Give it as much time as it needs.

Writing alone is not enough. The night before Continental Express Flight 2574⁶ broke up over Texas in 1991, a second-shift inspector removed the 47 screws along the top of the tail's left leading edge. The FAA's account says the incoming inspector read the written turnover sheet before that entry was made, and the next shift's supervisor and mechanics were not told verbally. All 14 people aboard died.

Give extra time to the handovers HSE's inspectors treat as higher risk²:

• Maintenance work continuing across the shift change
• A safety system that has been overridden
• Anything outside normal working
• Someone back from a long absence
• A handover between experienced and newer staff

Once a week, count how every issue ended: resolved the shift it opened, carried and then resolved, or dropped. Split the drops into those that resurfaced and those still missing, each with its gap in shifts. A single "issues closed" number hides all of that.

Then compare the share of drops on short-staffed shifts with the share of all shifts that ran short. If six of 21 shifts ran short but four of five drops landed on them, that is a scheduling question with a number behind it.

When the same issue keeps coming back, check whether the task behind it has a written method. If it has none, record your best operator doing it and turn the transcript into a procedure with the SOP from a walkthrough tool. Then boil it down to a one-page work instruction for the floor.

The template on this page has the procedure, contacts list and four sheets, with a sample week to study and clear. Or open it in River with your last week or two of logs, and let it check each shift's open list against the one before.